In the race to a net-zero future, even the biggest brands in the world are changing the way they do business. We’ve been excited about Shell Fleet Solutions is combining decarbonisation and digitalisation to transform the SME space. Our sponsored feature by Shell will show you every business owner should be too.
As the world transitions to remote ways of working, businesses have been turning to scalable digital solutions to meet their unique challenges and thrive amidst the disruption.
Reducing administrative pressure and increasing savings is a key concern for small businesses. In 2016, UK business owners said they spent nearly a quarter of working hours dealing with paperwork and 67% felt they are unable to focus on their primary purpose.
An increasing number of solutions is rising to meet the needs of these small businesses. For instance, Shell Fleet App streamlines administration by consolidating transactions for up to ten vehicles* into a single, monthly payment and eliminating paperwork with digital VAT compliant invoices. It also offers customers monthly fuel credit and allows them to track driver spend and allocate spend limits.
Bigger than you and me
“I can’t tell you how many times I introduced a leader of sustainability to their own CIO and said, ‘You two should work together.’”
John Frey, chief technologist for sustainable transformation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, quote taken from SAP Insights blog.
An effective digital transformation undoubtedly drives operational efficiency. But we are thinking too small when we focus only on the immediate benefits digitalisation offers individual entities, without any further end goal in sight. When used right, digital transformation is what will make a net-zero future possible.
According to SAP, sustainability and digitalisation cannot exist without the other. The path to net zero is laden with complexity that can only be simplified by the ease and transparency that digitalisation offers. The visibility and efficiency grant businesses the ability to gain valuable insight into their own operations and supply chains, reduce their waste and costs, identify the amount of carbon spent or saved on transportation, and proactively build more sustainable models. It also allows businesses to monitor regulatory compliance and activities beyond their borders, such as the sourcing of raw materials and the subsequent environmental business impact of harvesting them.
However, most businesses don’t harness these considerable superpowers, keeping their digital transformation and sustainability initiatives siloed from one another. This lack of integration has contributed to a sad reality: a new report by IBM’s Institute for Business Value, “Sustainability as a transformation catalyst: Trailblazers turn aspiration into action”, reveals that only 35% of businesses ever end up acting on their sustainability strategies.
A happily ever after to your sustainability story
We want your journey to net zero to get off the ground, not peter out before it’s begun. Here’s how you can make your mark on tomorrow, today with us
- According to Forbes, the paperless office in one of the most tangible ways digitalisation positively impacts the environment. On our app, we allow you to transact and manage invoices and costs entirely without paper.
- We spoke of how data-driven insights accelerate us to net zero. Our telematics offering helps customers reduce vehicle carbon emissions with data-led operational insights such as vehicle idle time, fuel economy, driver behaviour and route-optimisation, giving you the tools to help you run a safer, more fuel-efficient fleet.
- To help businesses to balance their harder-to-avoid emissions, our carbon offsetting programme allows customers to track their fleets’ overall fuel consumption, calculate the resultant CO2 emissions, and offset the emissions from their fuel purchases with carbon credits from nature-based projects.
- Still need more guidance? No problem. With Accelerate to Zero, you’ll enjoy our full range of products and consultancy services in a programme tailored to meet your fleet’s specific decarbonization needs.
Operational efficiencies are a must for you and your business. But we urge you not to stop there and to think of digitalisation and sustainability not as two different agendas, as inseparable core values. If you act with vision and foresight today, your digital transformation will have planet-wide impact.
This article comes courtesy of Shell Fleet Solutions UK. As an end-to-end solutions provider, Shell Fleet Solutions helps businesses to maximise efficiency, productivity and security, while driving sustainability forward, and works with customers to meet their goals and keep pace in an ever-evolving industry.
