IBM has unveiled new software and services to support businesses of all sizes as they address efficiency-related challenges in dealing with the energy crisis and creating environmental business metrics.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the price of energy will continue to rise over the next 25 years as global demand is poised to grow by 57 percent. Rising energy costs, regulatory mandates, the exponential growth of information, and data center capacity shortages are driving organizations to consider more power-efficient ways of doing business. IBM's announcement, including new software designed to reduce energy consumption by more than 35 percent--such as new solutions based on IBM Enterprise Content Management and the new version of Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5-addresses these concerns bringing together experience and capabilities across IBM hardware, software, IBM Global Business Services, and Research.

"Organizations today are under increasing pressures to become more energy efficient and environmentally responsible," said Art Gloster, vice president for information systems, Bryant University. "At Bryant University, IBM software is providing us the ability to monitor and reduce power consumption and we've embarked on a project to consolidate and reduce the size of our data center, providing us an estimated savings of 15 percent in facility overhead, power and cooling costs. IBM's approach to addressing energy and environmental concerns spans hardware, software and services to help us reduce both expenditures and our energy consumption."

Eliminating the Burden of Paper
The continued use of paper to record critical business transactions can weigh organizations down with related costs, compliance risks, as well as environmental challenges. New IBM Content Collection and Archiving software provides de-duplication and integration with records retention services that help reduce customers' storage and electronic discovery costs while simultaneously helping customers to manage not just e-mails, but also integrate to a common Enterprise Content Management infrastructure to manage other content types. A recent IBM No Paper Weight study, indicates that when companies stop printing their "born digital" documents, paper consumption can be reduced between 80-90 percent. The newest version of IBM FileNet Business Process Manager also helps customers in their move to a paperless environment by streamlining business processes, eliminating redundancies, unnecessary papers trails and reducing content storage costs.

Built upon IBM FileNet Business Process Manager and IBM FileNet Content Manager, IBM Business Partner, Imagine Solutions, is also launching a new Paperless Lending Solution for lenders that rely on the processing of large amounts of paper-based documentation in their business transactions. Designed to help reduce underwriting costs and improve loan approval processing, the new solution typically saves in excess of $75 per loan.

Software Drives Efficiency
The next significant release of Lotus Notes 8.5 and Domino e-mail and collaboration software, expected to be available in the first quarter, 2009, includes a new efficiency feature called Domino Attachment Object Service. This ensures that only one copy of the file attachment is kept on each mail server helping companies benefit by eliminating the use of valuable storage hardware and software resources including floor space, energy and related costs. The savings due to reduced storage space requirements for Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino is expected to be on the average of 35 percent for each business. IBM Lotus Notes version 8.5 will also make it easier to find content stored on an IBM Lotus Connections server so that the content does not need to be present in every mail file.  

IBM has combined the capabilities of Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager software with Tivoli Monitoring for Energy Management to enable organizations to meter and charge back energy costs within their own enterprise. For example, a manufacturer can collect energy and power consumption data from across the organization and determine how energy is being consumed by individual, application, service, machine or department. Using a simple dashboard, it also helps quickly identify and analyze the top energy users, wasters and use trends.

To help companies more effectively use IT assets to reduce energy consumption, IBM is announcing a new product, IBM Rational Test Lab Manager and new capabilities in Telelogic System Architect. Available today, Rational Test Lab Manager configures, builds and effectively manages the use of physical and virtual machines to help conserve energy while reducing operating costs and hardware demands. Available later this year, Telelogic System Architect's new analytics and reporting capabilities will help organizations establish a blueprint for energy impact analysis. For example, the new Telelogic System Architect features provide analysis and virtualization of current and future power consumption by location, application, processes, strategies and staff, while executive reports help organizations plan greener IT initiatives, resulting in more energy-efficient and cost-effective business operations. Organizations will be able to download the new Telelogic System Architect capabilities at no cost from IBM.

Also available, an updated SmartSOA Sandbox from IBM provides enterprises with in-depth information about how IBM SOA middleware can help with smart energy management enabled by SOA.

Combining software across IBM's portfolio, C-Lock Technology, Inc. and IBM Premiere Business Partner Enterprise Information Management, Inc. (EIM) have released a new beta version of a greenhouse gas meter called GreenCert. Developed on IBM technologies including WebSphere Portal, Lotus and Information Management software, GreenCert helps organizations in multiple industries measure, verify, and report Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions with an emphasis on carbon management. The new version is in testing with power and utility plants in the United States and Europe.

Additionally, a new Energy and Environment Self-Assessment Tool will soon be available to help guide customers in improving energy efficiency across the enterprise. The online tool, available at no cost, analyzes the current status of an organization and recommends steps that can be taken to address issues such as compliance mandates, the reduction of paper use, and improving energy efficiency, for example.

IBM has created a new technical validation team to help Business Partners and IT professionals create innovative solutions to reduce energy use and lower the impact of IT on the environment. This team will provide access to technical workshops, expert IBM technical support, and IBM technology through a worldwide network of 41 IBM Innovation Centers. In addition, IBM is providing marketing resources to partners such as access to a virtual client event package utilizing Lotus Sametime Unyte Events technology.

Clean tech and energy-related areas represent one of the largest growth areas for venture capital investment. By working through IBM's Venture Capital Group, venture capitalists and their portfolio companies can take advantage of today's announcement to help drive innovation for their customers and gain access to IBM's worldwide partner ecosystem.

The new software complements the work of IBM Global Business Services in providing a range of consulting offerings to help address these issues from a business strategy standpoint. This includes the IBM "Green Sigma^TM" consulting offering to help reduce energy and water usage throughout a company's operations; a Carbon Tradeoff Modeler to help evaluate and balance carbon and energy usage throughout the supply chain; and Environmental Product Lifecycle Management offerings. With today's announcements, broad portfolio, deep expertise and business process transformation skills, IBM is expanding its global effort to help customers take action on energy, the environment, and sustainability.

For more information, please visit http://www-01.ibm.com/software/solutions/green/