You had to have noticed by now. The new decade began with unseasonable warmth. The most obvious sign was rain followed by more rain in many parts of the country, but that didn’t seem like more than a minor annoyance. In addition to the odd fact that the Canada Geese still haven’t left New York in mid-January. But what might be marginally annoying to us translates to extremely worrisome for environmental scientists, who see the rain and can’t help but notice the increase in West Nile Virus cases. Where we see goose-poop, they see an increase in Lyme Disease and an overall change in bird migration patterns.

Earth’s climate is changing

“The Earth's climate is changing,” warns the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA[KH1] ). “Temperatures are rising, snow and rainfall patterns are shifting, and more extreme climate events – like heavy rainstorms and record high temperatures – are already happening.” Scientists offer a variety of reasons for the warming trend, including both the possibility that the earth’s temperature is actually in the process of stabilizing following the most recent Ice Age or that human activities are causing the rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

Greenhouse gas emissions are real

We’re not here to convince you whether climate change is or is not a manmade process.  However, greenhouse gas emissions have demonstrated some impact on climate change, which proves that we do in fact have some degree of control over how hot it’s getting and can make change by reducing those very same greenhouse gas emissions. Here are some of the major factors provided by the EPA that are responsible for the increase in the release of greenhouse gases:

• Transportation: Nearly a third of greenhouse gases are attributable to cars, trucks, ships, trains, plains, and other forms of fueled transportation.
• Electricity Production: Over a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to the burning of fossil fuels like coal and gas.
• Industry: Nearly a quarter of our greenhouse gas emissions come from the use of fossil fuel-based energy and chemical reactions that occur in the production of goods from raw materials.
• Commercial/Residential: Over 10 percent of greenhouse emissions come from heating, gas, and handling of waste.
• Agriculture: Nearly 10% of greenhouse gas emissions are, perhaps ironically, produced in farming, including methane gases from livestock, the working of agricultural soils, and rice production.

The “Paper Problem”

One thing that helps offset greenhouse gas emissions is the presence of forests and natural green land, which the EPA states can be credited with cutting slightly over 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, forests are disappearing, and research indicates our planet’s reliance on paper is a factor in at least 10% of worldwide deforestation.  These are not new facts and by now many people are aware of the paper problem, and are already in the process of reducing paper consumption through digital transformation initiatives.

The power to make change happen

But who can ignore the fact that 2019 ended as the second hottest year on record, capping off one of the hottest decades on record? Whether you believe Earth is going through nothing more than a mundane “inter-glacial cycle,” as opposed to a melting trend being hastened by humans, reducing greenhouse gas emissions has the power to slow the creeping up of the thermometer.  Which means that we all have the power to control what we’re putting out there.

Who are “we”?

By “we”, we’re referring to both ourselves as individuals and as global citizens. With regard to ourselves as individuals, there are a great many actions to take or refrain from taking , and there are equally as many with regard to ourselves as global citizens. As a company whose mission is to help the business world reduce its reliance on manual processes, Exela is in a unique position to facilitate change amongst our fellow global citizens in the corporate arena.

Our pledge to Planet Earth

Accordingly, “We” at Exela, both as individuals and as global citizens, are pledging to make 2020 the year we make an impact by making less of an impact. We have several initiatives already in development and as a business, we are working to emphasize to our customers and potential customers the importance of incorporating digital transformation, automation and innovation into their businesses for the betterment of the planet. We are planning our inaugural 24-hour global “One River” event, during which Exela employees, friends and family will step in to literally stem the flow of plastic into the vast ocean that comprises nearly three-quarters of the Earth’s surface. As a collection of 23,000 humans across the globe, Exela is, this month, ushering in its “I’m Accountable” campaign, through which we will be asking every single one of our employees to make a personal pledge to take specific action in the interest of environmental sustainability--and to hold themselves accountable. We’ll be keeping track of our progress here on the Exela Blog, so please stay tuned for updates on our “I’m Accountable” campaign. 

We look forward to making a big impact by lessening our environmental impact in the coming year and we hope you will do so as well.

About Exela

Exela Technologies is a global leader in digital transformation, information strategy, and business process automation. Our innovative data-driven business solutions drive growth, competitive advantage, and agility for businesses in all industries. Let us transform your business processes into efficient workflows generating actionable intelligence. Here are just some of the solutions Exela offers that promise to change make your business more efficient and the world a cleaner, more sustainable place.

It’s a straightforward strategy – effective big data management can help lead to better predictive abilities for businesses, and increased predictive abilities can help create better decisions. As a data-driven approach to business decisioning takes hold across industries, it also becomes a progressively more prominent part of creating a competitive advantage for your company. Those that manage big data in the most effective ways, and unlock the insights it can hold can gain an advantage.

But even if effective big data management is becoming a widely-held tenet of effective business administration today, what may be less clear are the steps, systems, processes, and best practices that enterprises must implement to do so effectively.

When it comes to launching a big data management program, enterprises should have a clear vision for the ideal impacts these efforts will have. Several important competencies will serve as the foundation for that vision: from obtaining the right technology, to forming a clear strategy on how to use this information to drive decisions. But of course, that vision only serves as a starting point. Running and managing one of these programs in a best-class manner requires continual improvement and on-going best-practices. Here are five strategies to help your enterprise leverage big data to drive desired outcomes.

    1. Focus on the Proper Data

More data proliferates on the internet every second than was stored on the entire world wide web just two decades ago. So, it’s important to think about what will be most helpful for your specific goals by narrowing your focus. Harnessing the right data can provide enterprises the ability to enhance customer experience, tailor go-to-market strategies, and improve operational processes.

But to do so, enterprises need to find the right data. Companies can hone in on a more effective strategy to mine data for operational insights by being precise about the corporate difficulties and opportunities they want to address. Oftentimes, the data that is truly the most useful is already within the enterprise itself, and is centered around employees, processes, customer or clients. For instance, the insights that will help improve processes and operations can lie within daily or monthly service reports from managers. Where are you employees spending their time? How productive are they in terms of reaching benchmarks? Armed with this information, and the right technology platforms, real, actionable insights can begin to be gained.

    2. Pair Data with the Right Technology

Not every big data management platform is right for every enterprise. What should business leaders look for in such a platform? You’ll want one that matches and integrates with your legacy technology systems, and which also meets the requirements you need to ingest and analyze data from both structured and unstructured data sources. These can include social media feeds, customer accounts information, client histories, employee performance data, or other sources. Once you understand the type of data your platform will need to address, as well as the type of results you are seeking – you’ll have a better idea of what an ideal platform looks like. Typically, an effective approach is gained from a partnership with a provider who offers these platforms as a service or a license, and which integrate with your data streams.

    3. Secure Stakeholder Buy-In – IT, Leadership, and Managerial

What exactly are you trying to accomplish by taking a more serious approach to big data management? Whatever those goals may be – make sure they are clearly communicated to IT, managers and leadership, the stakeholders that matter most in this type of operational improvement. By doing so, you can avoid the pitfall of gathering massive amounts of information only to end up with questions of what exactly you should do with it all now.

Make sure the platforms you procure align with legacy technology to keep the IT team happy, and clearly communicate the benefits that can be derived from big data-driven insights to create further buy-in from management. Letting stakeholders know that this is a well-constructed plan, with clear goals and benefits in mind can help ensure that this endeavor will be a successful one.

    4. Speaking of Management…

It requires large amounts of data and sophisticated platforms to truly reshape marketing and communication efforts, process improvements, or strategic leadership directions. This can be intimidating for those in your organization that are not data-focused – managers in other areas of your business such as operations, marketing, or sales. This requires intuitive, easy to use platforms, tools, and interfaces that can help them understand these data-driven insights through a range of dynamic visualization tools, ideally including a summary dashboard view, with the ability to drill down on select traffic for more pointed investigations. Any platform you evaluate should offer such features.

    5. Digitally Transform your Company’s Competencies

Collecting, analyzing, and communicating your data-driven insights is a transformative undertaking in and of itself. But in the larger context of a sustainable, effective digital transformation – what’s described in this article is just the beginning. The real work begins once you’ve accomplished what we’ve outlined here, and entails improving your processes according to what the data is telling you. The insights you can gain by putting big data to work for you can create a powerful blueprint for digital transformation. But ultimately, a blueprint is just a plan. It’s up to the stakeholders of each enterprise to put that information into implementable strategies – ones informed by deep, data-driven insights.