GREEN TECHNOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY
What are the barriers that are stopping organisations from moving away from legacy tech?
Mark Yeeles:“ I think we’ ve got an opportunity to think about getting 80 % of the way there fast rather than 100 % of perfection. That’ s what our mantra is within Schneider Electric – let’ s get there fast and then we’ ll tweak when we get there. Let’ s not go for perfection from day one because that really does inhibit us. We’ ve got a roadmap that says education is key. We sit in the middle of that because I’ m very fortunate to sit in a technology company where our offer changes, almost on what feels like on a daily basis. I’ m very fortunate to see what’ s coming down the road, but I think we have an ownership and a right to educate the market and our customers much better. There is more that we can do as a technology provider to help and guide people just on that whole education piece.
“ I was really delighted to see we added the arts into STEM, making it STEAM, because the most creative people will sit in that. Especially around the topic of sustainability, we need creative minds to help us think how we can best use AI to solve some of these challenges.
Elhannah Adekeye:“ Cost – money – is something that everyone is concerned about and it’ s very important that we are financially afloat.
Sometimes solutions provide long-term value, but not short-term value. I find that people may struggle with the explanation and justification of that shift. When you have companies that are global, we’ re finding that sustainability practices and standards differ from country to country, so you’ re working out the cost, trying to prove the value both in the short term and the long term, all while working with different standards. It adds an extra layer of complexity. This creates barriers as well when people are trying to move away from legacy systems that aren’ t built with sustainability in mind.”
Petrina Steele:“ For me, it’ s really about transformation. There are going to be companies that know that they need to transform, they need to start to move on to newer systems, they need to look at how they adopt AI, how they really get the use cases and the benefits from that. I’ d say that digital transformation is going to be a huge challenge for many. The first part is those who want to do it, you have to transform. The second part is if you don’ t want to transform and you want to focus on your core business, then work with providers who will do that for you.” technologymagazine. com 145