In a world where sustainability and environmental responsibility have become priorities, associations are constantly looking for ways to improve their ecological impact. The integration of a sustainable Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system proves to be an innovative and effective solution.
This text explores how a sustainable CRM can not only optimize the internal operations of an association, but also significantly reduce its environmental footprint. Discover the multiple benefits of this technology and how it can transform your organization into a model of sustainability.
Sustainable CRM: How the Vendere Group Integrates Sustainability into Customer Relationship Management
How the Vendere Group uses customer relationship management to minimize its environmental impact with a sustainable CRM
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems offer numerous benefits for automating tasks within organizations. Did you know that most of these benefits have a positive impact on the environment?
Here’s how sustainable CRM software can contribute to reducing the ecological footprint of businesses:
Reduction of paper and physical waste: Allows all customer information to be stored electronically. This reduces the need to print paper documents such as invoices, purchase orders, and contracts. Less paper means less deforestation and less waste to manage.
Optimization of travel: Facilitates communication and planning between teams, even remotely. Physical travel is minimized for meetings or client visits, which means less gasoline consumption and fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Effective resource management: Allows better management of human and material resources. They optimize time organization, reduce waiting periods, and minimize resource wastage.
Personalization of interactions: Allows personalizing interactions with customers based on their preferences and needs. This allows maximizing resource time by targeting communications more precisely.
Reduction of errors: Thanks to a better understanding of customers, companies can anticipate their needs and avoid errors in requests. By avoiding unnecessary email exchanges, wasted resource time is minimized.
Using a CRM in an environmental context: 5 Competitive advantages
In a world where sustainability has become a priority, choosing local solutions like Membri 365 for member management offers significant benefits for the environment. Implementing a sustainability strategy while promoting growth may seem paradoxical, but when we can evaluate and prove everything, we do to reduce our carbon footprint, it’s extremely rewarding. Here’s how a technology company like Vendere can reconcile growth and sustainability in our economic and environmental context.
Innovation from a product and service perspective
Developing products or services that meet the growing demand for sustainable solutions can not only reduce your company’s carbon footprint, but also attract new customers. Membri 365, for example, is designed to centralize all data from your members, partners, sponsors, and prospects in one secure location. This facilitates the automation of several key features of a member management system:
Automatic and manual membership management and renewals
Activity and event management
Automation of finance-related tasks
Communication with members
Mass marketing
Seamless integration of all your Microsoft tools
Configuration of subscription types and options
This centralization of data contributes to sustainability by supporting our mission of sustainable development while promoting efficiency, waste reduction, performance evaluation, and digital communication.
In terms of profitability, using a sustainable CRM like Membri 365 also allows for savings thanks to key features. For example, the sending of renewals, invoices, and entry into the accounting system are done automatically, reducing by nearly 90% the workload required to process a file annually.
Sustainable strategic partnerships
As an organization, investing in technologies and practices that reduce energy consumption in an operational context can increase profits. Membri 365 helps organizations reduce their paper consumption thanks to digitally grouped information. This reduces the need to use several different software or systems, leading to a reduction in energy consumption related to running multiple software or cloud platforms simultaneously.
We are committed to working closely with other businesses and organizations to achieve common sustainability goals, thus paving the way for new growth opportunities. The Vendere Group partners with companies like Microsoft, which is dedicated to transitioning to a more carbon-neutral electrical grid and to sustainable and innovative technologies. Thanks to this collaboration, our business solutions, like Membri 365, stand out as a sustainable CRM, as they are built on the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
Valuation of commitment to sustainable best practices
Communicating sustainability efforts to customers can strengthen the brand and attract customers who value environmentally responsible companies. Green IT (or Green Information Systems) helps software publishers evaluate, prevent, and reduce the environmental impacts of digital services throughout the product life cycle. This includes reducing GHG emissions, eco-design, efficient use of IT resources, and product performance optimization.
Encouraging employees to adopt sustainable behaviors in the workplace can also improve the company culture and attract talents who value sustainability. Offering a competitive salary allows employees to purchase brands that keep their sustainability promises and consume quality, ecological, and local goods.
Training developers and IT teams in Green IT best practices is an important step. By adopting these practices, software publishers can contribute to a more sustainable future for their products while continuing to innovate in the digital field.
Analysis of software lifecycle and energy expenditures
Evaluating the environmental impacts of software throughout its life cycle, from design to end of life, is essential and doing business with data centers that use more efficient technologies by optimizing their use is crucial. For example, Microsoft Azure can be up to 93% more energy-efficient and up to 98% more CO2-efficient than other cloud services.
Microsoft has set up a dashboard to assess the carbon footprint related to the use of its cloud services, such as Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365. Users can track their emissions and make targeted decisions to improve the efficiency of their cloud use. Here are the benefits that using dashboards represents for the environment:
Transparency and accuracy: Microsoft’s dashboards, like the Emissions Impact Dashboard, provide accurate and transparent data on carbon emissions generated by the use of cloud services such as Azure and Microsoft 365.
Emissions tracking: These tools allow tracking of direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, which is essential for understanding and reducing your carbon footprint.
Informed decision-making: By having access to detailed data on your emissions, you can make more targeted decisions to improve the energy efficiency of your operations.
Compliance and reporting: The dashboards help comply with environmental regulations and prepare sustainability reports, which can be crucial for companies concerned about their environmental impact.
Easy integration: Microsoft’s dashboards easily integrate with other Microsoft tools and services, simplifying data collection and analysis.
Dashboards offer a perfect solution for monitoring and optimizing your energy expenditures, while contributing to your sustainability targets.
Grants and financial aid for companies wishing to reduce their GHG emissions
There are several grant programs available for Quebec businesses looking to acquire sustainable CRM software. Here are some relevant examples in Quebec:
Digital Transformation Offensive: The Quebec government has allocated nearly $37 million to support digital transformation projects, including those aimed at reducing GHG emissions. This program helps businesses adopt more efficient and less polluting technologies.
ESSOR – Component 2: Support for investment projects promoting productivity and business expansion: Accelerate the productivity growth of Quebec businesses through innovative technological transition or the acquisition of new technologies.
These programs are designed to encourage businesses to invest in more sustainable technologies and practices while improving their competitiveness and profitability. Note that these programs are subject to change. It is therefore recommended to check the details and eligibility criteria directly with the responsible organizations.
Reducing environmental impact is everyone’s business!
In conclusion, CRM software is not only beneficial for customer relationship management, but also for the environment. They contribute to a more efficient use of resources and a reduction in the ecological impact of companies.
Thanks to environmentally friendly technologies and practices, companies and their employees can contribute to preserving our planet for future generations. For example, reducing water consumption, favoring public transportation, and reducing plastic use are simple but effective actions. Encouraging positive behaviors in adopting sustainable practices can make change more accessible for everyone. Opening the discussion on good behaviors is a very important step for sustainability.
By highlighting the benefits of an association’s digital transformation, we hope to encourage organizations to adopt local and sustainable solutions like Membri 365. We work tirelessly to offer products and services that make sense to reduce environmental impact.
Thanks to several communication tools such as Lunch & Learn, the distribution of Grandi Notizie (internal newspaper), and team awareness activities, we explore and share our technological tips and advice to reduce our environmental impact in different areas:
Carpooling to get to our social activities
Using LED bulbs
Favoring alternative transportation such as cycling and public transit
Choosing your equipment (electronics and computers) wisely and keeping it for a long time
Reducing data consumption by watching fewer online videos
Favoring wifi over mobile data
Installing an ad blocker
Turning off power strips at the end of their use
Adopting good daily habits: sorting photos, videos, emptying your email inbox
Using an alternative search engine and bookmarks
Typing the full URL in the address bar
Minimizing the number of applications used at the same time
Unplugging your phone charger
Remembering to disconnect: We spend way too much time in front of screens. Replacing a few hours of internet and screens with other activities allows us to clear our minds and thus reduce our environmental impact.
Did you know?
Digital technology has huge impacts on the environment that we need to reduce, but it can also be useful, as the COVID crisis has shown. And it can even be beneficial on some environmental points, for example:
Videoconferencing could reduce emissions from business air travel by 1.1 to 3.8 billion tons of CO2 between 2020 and 2050.
Teleworking 1 day per week saves 230 kg of CO2 per worker each year.
Connecting the three billion people who do not have access to the Internet can help fight climate change and solve other environmental problems by helping farmers’ associations better manage their production and reduce food waste at the source.
Microsoft aims to have a negative carbon footprint by 2030, having already reduced its carbon emissions by 6% in 2020.
Since its creation in 2011, the Vendere Group has been helping associations to perform better with technological products under Microsoft 365.
Membri 365 strengthens the social fabric of the user community, with more than 70 chambers of commerce and Quebec associations. By encouraging innovation and the development of local software, we remain competitive in the market. Our operations are mainly done remotely, offering several advantages to satisfy our employees.
The Vendere Group has always favored the local economy and adopted transparent and sustainable business practices. As a local organization, we promote job creation in the community and support local businesses.
To discuss your environmental issues related to technologies, do not hesitate to contact one of our advisors:
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