Green IT at WIPRO - Case Study Example

Green IT at WIPRO Name Course Lecturer Date Words: 1500 Various green initiatives undertaken by Wipro Wipro as a global corporation is strongly founded on values that incorporate humane views (Wipro's Good Citizenship Initiatives, 2011). It focuses on good citizenship that includes aspects of business with integrity, ecological sustainability, social and community initiatives. Its governance council called EcoEye determines the functional roles of its managers. Their initiatives cover education, ecology and sustainability. They connect the public, move forward initiatives and thus partnerships enhance the growth of communities. Wipro technologies as a division have driven initiatives for solutions toward integrated business, technology and process. As a world trusted brands, Wipro has a history of moving to new ventures in brands and products. They have a series of services, products, and solutions covering diverse businesses. Their adaptation to changing global dynamics has enabled them to come up with significant initiatives. Wipro efficiency improvement initiatives have been implemented simultaneously. Some of them are: Six Sigma introduced in 1997 whose aim was to drive down error rates. This was done through continuous improvement of processes; Lean initiative, launched in 2004 was to basically alter their operating model; and Agile initiative, which started in 2005 to accelerate delivery cycles. To scale down its energy consumption, Wipro worked on their server to cut on energy costs. They consolidated the servers for different application to open space and optimize the cooling needs. Their business grew from US$1 billion in 2001–2002 to almost US$5 billion in 2007–2008 and its net energy consumption per person came down from 360 kWhs per year to 309 kWhs during a six-year period (Kurowski, 2010). According to Zhong, (2010), Wipro has diversified itself to manufacture and market computer hardware called Greenware. It initiated the production of a range of eco-friendly desktops from June 2007. One of their products is Energy Efficient Wipro Desktop. It is bundled with distinctive security features including an Interface Security Lock. This adds a layer of security to and around the desktop and this provides more value to the customer. These desktops are fully RoHS compliant. They also undergo rigorous quality processes that ensure best products and customers’ peace of mind. They also produce eco-friendly laptops that reduce the amount of e-waste in environment. Wipro began an initiative in 2005 on E-waste waste commonly known as green-computing. It aimed on Wipro products lifecycle, design, manufacturing and final disposal. Wipro has been authorized by PPCC to collect, store and recycle the E-Waste. They do this by networking with approved vendor for disposal. Wipro Green IT initiative is aimed at optimal use of ICT (information and communication technology). The goal is for companies to manage environmental sustainability of their operations, the supply chain, their products, resources, and services throughout their life cycles. The concept acquired a global recognition after the December 2007 report release by Gartner Inc, IT research firm (Brenner, et al, 2010). The report revealed that IT contributed to 2% of carbon dioxide worldwide. Co2 emissions, nitrous oxide and methane were depicted as resulting from IT industry. Wipro Green IT has impacted on IT industry and non-IT industries helping them discover better ways to do business. Green IT also promoted reduction of overall carbon footprint and created opportunities for IT companies in generation of Green revenue through new streams. Its simplest Green IT strategies helped IT companies to reduce their carbon footprint and the IT for Green has enabled them in reducing the carbon footprint of their clients (Bose, 2011). Wipro Challenges and benefits Wipro experienced challenges as each of the above initiatives took time before gaining acceptance in the organization. Any initiative like green IT had to withstand resistance to change which is typical a with large organization. Together with enormous financial strains associated with Green-computing, Wipro faced some challenges in its move to unleash the full potential of its initiatives (James Lawnin, 2012). There were common obstacles that slowed down or killed initiatives. First, too many initiatives and large sale deployment required a good alignment of process, people and technology. All the three areas require changes. Resources for initiatives were rerouted, there were unforeseen challenges which required more time and people resistance to that change slowed down initiatives. Aspects of organizational culture slowed down implementation. There was also lack of business participation in governing project. Since a project lifecycle is determined by efficient and effective internal project governance, lack of support and structured engagement from multiple levels of impacted business has been a challenge. Project teams keep business updated on the status of the project activities, budget and timeline. Lack of a good communication on projects in line with business focus brought a challenge. However, most of the times there lack communication about the relations of in-flight initiatives and therefore lack of linkages. Limited case preparation on business has been another challenge. The tactic where project teams create and apply a single business case across enterprises has been insufficient. The variation in business unit, culture, geography, recovery and mechanisms has to be considered. Another challenge was an approach the teams took; focusing on business case or a single audience. For instance focus on top level decision makers in a business, neglect the development of other business cases such as the end users. Wipro has benefited as it has been listed on the NY Stock Exchange. It had a turnover of US$6.54 billion (Rs 254.56 billion) the year ending March 2009. The company has established four business segments: IT services with clients in Europe, US and Japan and was a US$4.93 billion business; IT products hardware, software service, infrastructural management and consulting which was a US$918 million business; infrastructure engineering constituting of a $212 million from water treatment solutions and hydraulic cylinders; and lighting and consumer care, a US$480 million business from compact fluorescent lights, soaps and shampoos. In addition, the company had secondary geographical segments and several lines of business. Each is a strategic unit for both costs and profits. By March 2009, Wipro had a total of 863 active customers and 97,810 employees. Wipro as a global corporation derive nearly 70% revenues from US and EU customers. Learning from Wipro From Wipro experience, other companies may learn the dynamism approach based on desired world products. Continuous improvement through strong management and control is desirable for such success in other sectors. They also have to establish a research based educative and participative strategies for efficient and effective application of their innovation and ideas. They must partner with other organizations to identify and work with internal and external change agents. Driving the green computing by corporate customers Green computing should be driven by corporate customers. For environmental management, awareness and action to be successful in the industrial sector, the role of large companies is of significance. Several factors that help to support such a corporate action may confirm this. Currently there have been rising standards for green environments and clean air in all companies. Secondly, the concern for a desired corporate image can efficiently be established by managers. This is through policy and a response to an increasing negative coverage by media on polluters. Lastly, corporate customers are experiencing rising tariff rates on electric power. Due to lack of green computing, this has substantially increased and still rates are likely to increase more. These factors can be a significant motivator for such companies, than enforcements. Corporate customers’ participation in decision making promotes efficient implementation of strategies for control and prevention. Such a mechanism will build knowledge; diversify strategies and specificity of doing better, adaptive and successful businesses. Innovation in each sphere will complete the transformation circle as ideas and innovation will lead to predictable, reliable and sustainable outcomes. Corporate customers will also mean a process of bringing diversified industries to one agenda with different approaches and choices. Continuity is ensured as reporting and improvement feedback can help the manufacturers as well as users to implement policies that advocate for green computing. Desirable improvements are only possible through participatory approach and educational strategies to enable sustainable social change. Specific business and stakeholders can create impacts to its technology in regard to their capability, capacity, operation cost and production. References Bose, I. (2011). Green IT Matters at Wipro Ltd. Asia Case Research Centre: University of Hong Kong , 1-13. Brenner, P., Jansen, R., Go, D., & Thain, D. (2010). Environmentally opportunistic computing transforming the data center for economic and environmental sustainability. 2010 International Green Computing Conference, 383-388. IEEE. James Lawnin, M. A. (2012). Unleashing the Full Potential of Technology Initiatives:Effective Execution in a Global Enterprise. WCIR /Wipro Council for Industrial Research , 1-14. Kurowski, K., Oleksiak, A., Witkowski, M., & Nabrzyski, J. (2010). Distributed power management and control system for sustainable computing environments. Green Computing Conference 2010 International. Wipro's Good Citizenship Initiatives. (2011). Retrieved September 26, 2012, from Wipro: http://www.wipro.org Zhong, B., Feng, M. F. M., & Lung, C.-H. L. C.-H. (2010). A Green Computing Based Architecture Comparison and Analysis. 2010 IEEEACM Intl Conference on Green Computing and Communications Intl Conference on Cyber Physical and Social Computing. IEEE. Read More