Corporations worldwide are looking at how their operations—from the data center to the shop floor—contribute to carbon emissions and energy use, and how they can instead contribute to environmental sustainability.

To do so, they're turning to a rapidly growing range of software solutions from independent software vendors (ISVs) for help. And many of those ISVs are turning to Microsoft to help them build and promote solutions that can become useful quickly, address a global audience, integrate seamlessly with customer infrastructure technologies, reduce IT and training costs for those customers, and can be continually updated to meet changing customer needs.

ISV solutions based on Microsoft technology serve every aspect of environmental sustainability, and help corporations track energy consumption, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, manage data center operations, and educate customers about environmental responsibility. The total number of customers who use these solutions—and the cumulative impact on the environment—is enormous.

A Platform for Current and Future Software Leaders

ISVs in the Microsoft partner ecosystem focused on environmental sustainability range from larger organizations such as ESRI, Autodesk, and OSIsoft, to small, rapidly growing, companies, such as 1E, Green Building Studio, TR Control Solutions, and Verdiem.

• ESRI is a leader in geographic information systems (GIS) software. Its ArcGIS software is itself a platform for solutions for hundreds of thousands of companies and government agencies, including solutions for reforestation, animal preservation, and water management.
• Autodesk geospatial solutions provide customers with an open platform to create, manage, and share spatial data. Their varied uses include helping the U.S. National Park Service to preserve the country's natural resources and historical heritage, to helping South Korea's agricultural agency to improve land utilization and irrigation systems.
• OSIsoft is a leader in performance-measurement software. Its PI System software helps to reduce carbon emissions, conserve energy, enhance water quality, and more and at more than 14,000 installations worldwide across manufacturing, energy, utilities, life sciences, and other process industries."
• 1E produces automation solutions that help companies streamline their IT operations, cut power consumption, and reduce costs. More than 1,000 companies with 2 million people in 36 countries eliminate 250,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year with the 1E's NightWatchman software.
• Green Building Studio is an architectural, engineering, and construction company that offers a Web-based software solution that provides whole building energy and carbon analysis on any building design scheme, which enables architects to design carbon-neutral buildings faster than they can design conventional buildings.
• TR Control Solutions has applied its expertise in process control technology to develop eco|Driver Schools, a package that helps students, teachers, and school administrators monitor their consumption of power, water, paper, and other resources.
• Verdiem software for remote control of PC power settings provides measurable energy and cost savings, simplified and automated management of PC power options, and painless implementation that comes with minimal maintenance and a rapid payback.

Building Business with Microsoft

These ISVs and many others have built their businesses on the full range of Microsoft technology. They use leading development tools such as the Microsoft Visual Studio development system, Microsoft Windows Server and Windows Vista operating systems, and powerful applications for the desktop and server such as the Microsoft Office system and Microsoft SQL Server database software.

ISVs find that development with Visual Studio decreases their time to market by up to 50 percent or more, which boosts competitiveness through faster time to market, and helps customers benefit from their solutions months sooner than otherwise. For a company such as 1E, Microsoft technology provides the agility to compete with larger companies. For companies such as OSIsoft, Microsoft technology allows the continual innovation that keeps them ahead of customer needs.

"We chose to partner with Microsoft because we're a customer-driven company and that's what our customers wanted," says Dr. J. Patrick Kennedy, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of OSIsoft.

How Microsoft Shares Technology

Beyond gaining the advantages of Microsoft technology, independent software vendors benefit from Microsoft's in-depth information sharing about those technologies.

Microsoft shares detailed product information months in advance of commercial release, so developers can adopt new products readily and seamlessly. Microsoft offers high-level platform strategy reviews and detailed architecture design reviews that address specific development questions from technology professionals. In many cases, developers can participate in early-adopter programs and make their own products available at the same time that Microsoft releases the products on which those solutions are built.

These companies also provide insight to Microsoft about product direction, which helps to shape technology to serve independent software vendors and their customers. ESRI input, for example, was instrumental in the development of new geospatial data types in Microsoft SQL Server 2008, which make the database ideal for GIS packages.

Making the Most of Market Opportunities

Microsoft's support of ISVs extends to supporting their business and marketing efforts. Microsoft trains its own sales force on partner solutions, participates in joint sales presentations with its partners, provides sales leads, and sponsors partner trade shows, customer meetings, and other partner activities.

For a company such as 1E, Microsoft's support can have extraordinary impact. "We get more than half our sales leads through Microsoft-referred sources," says 1E CEO Sumir Karayi. "Being able to market our message jointly with Microsoft has been integral to our success. We've won all the sales we've worked on with Microsoft for the last three years."

For companies such as OSIsoft and ESRI, Microsoft helps to shorten the sales cycle, improve visibility with a customer's top management, and increase sales volume. "It's extremely important to customers that we have this relationship with Microsoft," says OSIsoft's Kennedy.

A Closer Look at Partner Solutions

1E NightWatchman conserves electricity for desktop computers by integrating with and complementing the Windows platform that its customers already run on both the desktop and the server. NightWatchman uses and extends the power-state configuration features of Windows Vista and the remote management and update features of Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007. SQL Server provides database support, with solution components written using Microsoft Visual Studio, C++, and C#, and presented using Microsoft ASP.NET.

1E NightWatchman enables computers to shut down when not needed—and to power up when they are needed. The result is energy savings, lower costs, and a reduced carbon footprint for customers using the 1E solution. Dell Computer uses NightWatchman to control 50,000 computers—and to save USD $1.8 million a year, 40 percent of its total energy bill. Verizon Wireless projects USD $500,000 in annual savings from energy reduction.

In all, the solution reduces energy use and carbon emissions for 2 million computers worldwide, which translates to a reduction of over 250,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

The OSIsoft PI System is an event-driven enterprise infrastructure running on the Windows platform. The PI System's multiple-point of integration (client, server, and Web-parts) with the Microsoft Office system, enables creation of dynamic plant-floor Office Business Applications (OBAs). This makes real-time operational data immediately available to workers and analysts in the familiar business productivity environment—Microsoft Office—in which they already work. OSIsoft's RtWebParts and DataLink Excel Services bring operational data directly into spreadsheets that workers access through role-based portals running on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Greenhouse gas emissions are down worldwide thanks to OSIsoft. OSIsoft estimates that half of the world's largest 1,000 manufacturers already use the PI System, by OSIsoft's estimate, and because most of those companies can use the product to compute their greenhouse gas emissions, they already have an important tool to make progress against global warming. For example, Rhodia, one of the world's largest chemical manufacturers uses the PI System to help eliminate 15 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, which has the same environmental impact as the removal of four million cars from the road.

Air quality is only one natural resource enhanced by OSIsoft's customers. Water utilities worldwide use the PI System to minimize water waste and to improve the quality of drinking water. The Halifax Regional Water Commission in Canada, for example, saves nine million gallons of potable water per year, for a gain of USD $550,000.

The ESRI ArcGIS product family was completely designed with Visual Studio development tools. ESRI and its development customers can easily customize ArcGIS through built-in Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications scripting, or extend, build, and deploy custom GIS applications through Visual C# or Visual Basic.NET. The use of SQL Server enables easy storage and powerful management of any geospatial data. And the use of Microsoft Windows Mobile software—the exclusive platform for ESRI's mobile solutions—makes it simple for developers to extend their solutions for mobile use, and for workers to use those solutions while on the go.

ArcGIS software includes an Office Business Application, integrated with the Microsoft Office system, that makes real-time operational data immediately available to workers. Excel Services bring operational data directly into spreadsheets that workers access through role-based portals that run on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

ESRI ArcGIS is at the heart of the Green Belt Movement, an organization that has planted more than 30 million trees in Kenya. The project has assisted women in rural villages by paying for their participation, has reduced soil erosion in reforested areas, and has improved drinking water for local villages. Founder Wangari Maathai is now seeking to replicate the success of the Greenbelt Movement worldwide.

Meanwhile, forests aren't the only environmental resource sustained through ESRI technology. Biodiversity, climate change, oceanology, and pollution and waste management are among many areas that benefit from ESRI technology. Since 1993, the Save the Elephants organization has been working to preserve African elephant populations. ESRI technology enables the organization to track herd movements in order to manage herd size effectively.

For more details on how ESRI and Microsoft have been working together to deliver complete Geographic Information Systems (GIS) solutions, visit https://www.microsoft.com/isv/esri/default.aspx.

Call to Action

Customers interested in solutions from Microsoft partners, and ISVs interested in development on the Microsoft platform can find more information throughout the Environmental Sustainability site . ISVs interested in showcasing their Microsoft-based solutions for environmental sustainability can visit The Ingenuity Point.