Wednesday 25 May 2011

May Update

What have we been doing this month?
All sorts!

10th May AM
At Coventry University Tech Park on a sales and marketing training course, made a few useful contacts, had to run to catch the train to London so I could attend  BCS HQ to listen to Bob Crookes, the chair of the Green IT specialist group speak to the PROMS-G regarding "Green Project Management", fascinating stuff.

I returned for a meeting with our local LEP co-ordinators on the Thursday.

We were in North Wales for the weekend.

On Monday 16th, I met with Peter Woodward, who was a part of the team that put the "Low Carbon Coventry 2020" document together. This meeting was regarding the "low carbon economy" focus group within the LEP and what can be done.

I then travelled to London for a client meeting and to attend the Cloud Conference at Canary Wharf.
Back home to Warwick and then a visit to the Richo Arena for the LEP stakeholders breakfast meeting.
The weekend at Leisure! yeah right!!

We have some friends staying near us at a holiday cottage, right on the banks of the Stratford Canal in Lowsonford, so we had dinner with them last night, and we're returning the favour tomorrow.
Cider Pork Roast, for the meat eaters, and salmon for the veggie.

I went to Sustainability Live at the NEC to catch up with the Coventry City Council Sustainability team and to strengthen links with a London based IT company.

Tomorrow, I shall be at the LEP IT & Media meeting in the morning, closely followed by an event at the Shire Hall in Warwick,
I shall then spend the afternoon in the kitchen.

Next week is half term and we'll be off to London for a few days, might even take in a show!

Sunday 8 May 2011

Talking Shop

We have been invited to participate in a series of talks on Green IT.
We are still finalising the details for these events, so keep coming back to this blog to find out more.

Green IT Trial Stuff

What is Green IT?
Many organisations ask this question and then fail to understand the value of the concept.
So what is Green IT?
Green or more importantly Sustainable IT is a multitude of different inititatives that come together to reduce costs. Yes, it is a simple as that, Green IT is a cost saver.
Green IT saves you money!
So how does Sustainable IT save you money?

1. Reduces Waste
2. Adds Value to your Corprorate Social Responsibilty statement by providing PROOF.
3. Attracts Customers
4. Positions your organisation at the forefront of New Business


Green IT involves People, Processes and Technology.

Technology
Lets look at reducing waste, the easy win here is to install a PC power monitoring and management system, there are 37 different products on the market all of which will reduce energy consumption, the costs of the system will normally be recovered in the first year of use, thus allowing for continuing savings in subsequent years. Most systems can save up to 30% on desktop energy costs.
Carbon3IT are offering a free trial of the Greentrac PC Power monitoring and management software package, Greentrac is a very powerful product and further details can be found onthe link below.
If you have a data centre in your organisation, Carbon3IT can supply a Data Centre efficiency tool, this is in beta at present and we are looking for a partner to install the system within their data centre to allow us to fine tune the product, this will be totally free and projections indicate that a 20% saving is possible.
Both these products can link into to your website to show your customers what, where and how much you are saving.

People & Processes
We also are in discussions with another company that provides a system to reduce waste in your processes.
We cant say much about this at the moment, but more details can be provided on request.

So, if your organisation is looking to move down the sustainable IT road and are not sure where to start, take advantage of our free trials and our sustainable IT consulting services to begin your journey, we look forward to guiding you.

Links

www.greentrac.com
www.carbon3it.com

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Easter, The Royal Wedding and Birthday

Well, what a couple of fantastic weeks we've had, well those of us in the West Midlands (of the UK) anyway.
The weather's been great and we've had lots of days off to enjoy it.
So what have we been up to?
Not a lot, truth be told, we watched the royal wedding on tv and then went to a street party, my daughter is of an age where princesses and weddings are an absolute must and she really enjoyed herself, she'll be a bridesmaid at my wifes brothers wedding in the Autumn, so she was getting hints on how to act and where to stand (not that the wedding is at Westminister Abbey though)
We also went to Ragley Hall for the Falconery Fair, we visited the house, the gardens, the fantastic kids play area and the event itself which had birds of prey, ferrets and gundogs.
Yesterday was my birthday and we celebrated with a steak at the Lazy Cow in Warwick.

I'm very busy for the rest of the week.
I'm up very early tomorrow to attend a "meet the buyer" event in Birmingham, then a meeting with our low LEP and a networking event in the evening.
Friday, I'm off to Sheffield for a BCS planning meeting.

Today, I visited a local technology start up or spin off company that has attracted some funding from the Carbon Trust Investment arm.
Their core product is a data centre efficiency tool and I'll be adding more information on this product soon.

Have a good weekend.