Last week we announced the results of our first ever global carbon accounting survey. The goal of the survey was to gain insight into the ability and willingness of companies to identify their greenhouse gas emissions; to find out how they technically capture emissions; and to clarify the extent to which companies have to meet legal requirements for sustainability, as well as partner and customer demands in this arena.

The results – compiled from nearly 1000 companies surveyed across the globe – were pretty astounding. Fifty-eight percent of companies surveyed had not even heard of the term “carbon accounting”; less than a third could accurately describe what the term means, and a full 80% of companies surveyed don’t monitor their company’s carbon footprint.

So why are companies lagging in their comprehension of carbon accounting as a whole, and in the execution of said carbon accounting initiatives?

One reason is many companies see carbon accounting or energy management efforts as a distraction rather than something they can quickly and easily quantify. I also think there is some cynicism out there colored by individuals’ own personal opinions. Many people feel the whole carbon issue equates to acceptance of science behind global warming. Irrespective of your views on the science, if you choose not to believe it and bury your head in the sand, you do so at the risk of putting your organisation at a competitive disadvantage.  Legislation is here and if you are not mandated by it now, it will be coming your way.

Done right, carbon accounting can be a part of your normal course of business – not an extra task – and like other GRC initiatives; it has the potential to create process efficiencies for operational cost savings.

Another hurdle for carbon accounting is many companies don’t realize the significance of monetizing these efforts. What’s more, the trading of carbon credits is often way outside of their core business role. It’s a new skill set/competency that most people flat out don’t have – but expect to see the job market heat up over the next few years in The New Carbon Economy. Major financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Berkeley's and Citi Bank, already have carbon trading desks in London, the commodity market for carbon offsets, is the fastest growing commodity market in the world with companies buying and selling carbon credits like pork bellies or silver.

At the point when the economies of the world were in a more robust state, green initiatives and carbon were a lot higher up on both media and corporate agendas. But as the downturn took hold, organizations started looking inwards at themselves and less at their green credentials. However operational cost savings and a green corporate agenda are not mutually exclusive. By managing your operations in an energy efficient manner, there’s tremendous financial upside in the form of operational cost savings, and also possible increased revenues – not to mention compliance, as there’s going to be a “train” of increasing compliance requirements in this arena. We say – get ahead of the curve – start following it now. Compliance is actually a byproduct – you’ll actually save your company money and open up a whole new revenue stream.

Posted by Chris Purcell, Product Marketing Manager, Epicor

This week Epicor put its best and most fashionable foot forward at NRF – the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention & EXPO in New York City, where more than 24,000 in the retail industry convened to peruse the industry’s most innovative technologies to serve, engage, and inspire consumers. Conference attendees were greeted with mild weather -- no snow! – and a chance to see former president Bill Clinton deliver the opening day keynote address. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend because I was having too much fun showing off my iPad, which had several Epicor Retail solutions on it to showcase our expertise in mobility across our product set.

One of my favorites was our Clienteling solution which puts customer data, direct from the Epicor Retail CRM database, into the hands of the sales associate allowing them to better engage with and upsell customers and more importantly build that more personalized relationship – inspiring them to buy more. I love being able to easily view items in the customer’s closet and everything they have purchased from a retailer regardless of what channel they purchased it in. Sales associates now have the tools to better suggest complimentary items to what they already own or new arrivals of their favorite brands making the customers shopping experience a pleasant one. And how about being able to check me out anywhere– like while I’m putting my shoes back on in the fitting room? Using my same iPad, I can switch right over to Epicor Retail Mobile Store solution and complete a full checkout which means the customer can avoid going to the cash wrap station.

Taking mobility to the business user (the field and/or corp. exec) – I was proudly showing off the Epicor Retail Business Intelligence - Information Center solution also on my iPad. Business users can create their own personal dashboard and data views relative to what they want to know and more importantly need to take some action on or make a decision. You can also get notifications – so just like when you get a meeting reminder 15 minutes before a meeting, you can get a similar notification on something like a store or product that is over or under performing and in real time since its pulling data from Epicor Retail Business Intelligence.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention what my colleague and “twin”, Diane Neaven, was also showing in her Mobility talk which was the Epicor Retail WebIM Merchandising module. This allows stores to use their mobile device - in Diane’s case her iPad - to enter inventory transactions accessing Epicor Retail Merchandising in real time. These real-time updates help retailers to better monitor trends and relationships among product sales and store locations, resulting in optimized, timely inventory management.

Those of you who know me, even a little, know I can’t do a blog without talking somewhat about Cross, Multi, Omni-Channel Selling/Retailing. Of course this was something else retailers, industry analysts, publications, and partners heard me speaking about at this year’s NRF show. Why? because Epicor has the Holy Grail - Epicor Retail Enterprise Selling solution which is best in class when it comes to centralizing real-time inventory across a retailers enterprise and finding the best fulfillment location. And the icing on the cake is our seamless integration with the Epicor Retail Suite – Store, Merchandising, WMS, Sales Audit. If you’re a retailer and you’re not able to sell me something no matter where it is in your chain, you are giving millions and millions of dollars away to your competitors and I know this for a fact. Your call to action is contact me or anyone else in Epicor and we will help you see the light.

Last, but certainly not least, is how retailers are providing a seamless shopping experience across their channels without adding a lot of overhead to do it. The Epicor answer is our Multi-Channel Transaction Adapter (MCTA) which simplifies the task of sharing key functions and logic across channels and devices. What we mean by key functions and logic is one promo tool and logic for promos, one CRM used by all, centralized inventory for all, one place for tax, one way to calculate the basket, etc. So, for instance,  instead of E-commerce, F-Commerce, M-Commerce all having their own promotion engine and CRM database why not have one across all channels with one place to get the data from? The MCTA simplifies things for the retailer, and also provides the shopper with a more consistent shopping experience regardless of where or how they shop – remember consumers don’t shop by channel, they shop by brand!!

All in all, lots of energy on the show floor and retailers seemed very up tempo – down economy or not. It’s almost as if retailers know: Now is not the time to just connect and engage customers, it’s the time to inspire them and shine. Epicor is here to help you get there!!

Posted by Diane Cerulli, Director, Product Marketing