This case study is about the ESG software search for a Postal Services company.
Client’s business problem
The postal services company responsible for the delivery of national and international mail. It provides a range of postal, courier, direct marketing, banking, insurance, and electronic services.
It seeks to consolidate all their ESG data from all their systems, and this for all the 13 subsidiaries. This solution should give them different views in function of the requestor (audit, banks, internal management).
The company has 2 main KPIs:
KPI #1 : Have a YTD view of their actuals vs. their objectives
KPI # 2 : Have a consolidated view for auditors.
List of relevant vendors:
SPHERA FigBytes Inc. Greenstone (Cority) Workiva IBM KEY ESG ecolytiq Position Green myConsole Limited CO2AI Alyne GmbH Cogo Ltd Intelex Technologies Normative iPoint-systems UL Solutions Empowered Systems International LLC Persefoni ENABLON Hydrus.ai ESG Tree Sustainit
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Anonymized Performance Matrix
Vendor’s answers
Wokiva answer
Workiva’s mission is to power transparent reporting for a better world. We are a publicly-traded company (NYSE: WK) working with over 5,900
customers in 180+ countries, including 300+ ESG customers and more than 75% of the Fortune 500®. Our ESG reporting platform is an end-to-end
solution that enables cross-team collaboration, giving you audit-ready ESG reports you can trust & scale. Our solution is based on a single platform
with fit for purpose solutions where the data can be shared across solutions and folks from multiple teams, internally and externally, can truly
collaborate within one technology creating transparency, assurance driving stakeholder business value.
With Workiva, you can collect data from anywhere, build your strategy with any and all frameworks and collaborate on a variety of ESG projects
across finance, accounting and sustaining teams. The future will bring real scrutiny to ESG reporting. Workiva’ ESG solution will help you in being
audit-ready, with tools like data lineage, data history, tracked changes at a detailed level, and XBRL® tagging support and expertise. Workiva ESG
product description can be found on https://www.workiva.com/solutions/esg-reporting.
Workiva as an organization as well as our ESG reporting offering are in a growth mode. We differentiate in the market by having a Connected
Reporting platform with the fundamentals applicable to a broad spectrum of enterprise-wide reporting including financial/ operational/ risk/
compliance reporting and are designed to efficiently manage any disparate structured (source-based) as well as unstructured (qualitative) data in
order to provide efficiencies to repurpose both common data and narrative for the purposes of various reporting streams. The fact that we are the
only platorm that streamlines the work across financial reporting, non financial reporting (ESG) and risk and compliance remains one of our main differentiator.
Workiva also differentiates in the market by re-investing a significant portion of the revenue (30%+) into R&D and innovation of our products to stay ahead of the market. ESG reporting is viewed as a highly strategic component of our offerings moving forward and we continue to develop our capabilities in this space at a very fast pace.
What other vendors think about Wokiva
Vs Greenstone: Greenstone offers a full suite of sustainability solutions, enabling clients to calculate their carbon footprints and report to a variety of internal and external stakeholders, frameworks and investors. We do not need partnerships with other companies to deliver across the full range of a client’s sustainability reporting requirements.
Vs IBM: Enviz is better in solving data health issues, missing data situations and forecasting. Verdantix writes against Workiva, and emphasizes
strength at Envizi: ‘Workiva could incorporate predictive analytics functionality to better forecast future sustainability performance, thereby assisting
customers in making sustainability related business decisions. Envizi scores higher in ‘Organizational management’ category, so how the business
devisions and reporting structure can be represented to facilitate stakeholder reporting. Envizi Scores higher ‘Business analytics and reporting’ due
to Envizi’s flexibility and out of the box content delivered in the Envizi embedded Microsoft PowerBI capability
Vs MyConsoleLimited: We are an end-to-end ESG management platform, whereas they are a popular ESG compliance and reporting platform
Vs Hydrus.ai: Hydrus offers an all-in-one suite solution. Unlike Workiva, which solely focuses on data collection and reporting, our comprehensive platform covers all aspects, including carbon emissions calculations. With us, there’s no need to purchase additional tools, providing a seamless and efficient experience for our clients.
Enablon answer
Enablon is a software vendor dedicated to ESG topics.
Among our different modules integrated into a native platform, can be listed:
• Metrics – Enablon’s Metrics Management empowers organizations to collect, analyse, act on and communicate about the key indicators which
can drive improvement of business processes over time. Numerous indicators, both qualitative and quantitative, can be created, then campaigns
launched globally picking and choosing the entities and frequencies that need to enter data.
• Action Plan – Enablon’s Action Plan enables all workers to have a single place where they can access, complete and document all the actions
assigned to them, whether they are in the field via a native mobile app or at a desk. Companies can effectively create action plans and relative
tasks, track completion, manage reminders, ensure follow-up and create reports. It helps companies to mitigate risks, improve performance and
stay compliant. Corrective and preventive action plans are shared across all applications and centrally available to analyse and report on actions from across the platform.
• GHG Emission Management – Enablon’s GHG Emissions Management allows companies to monitor and manage their GHG emissions. It natively integrates all of the key global GHG standards and referentials (e.g. GHGP, DEFRA, AP 42, NGA, ADEME). It enables companies to calculate and consolidate GHG emissions at any level of the organization, run baseline emissions calculations and generate auditable GHG emissions management reports.
• External Reporting – Enablon’s External Reporting enables companies to quickly and easily generate reports in the template required by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). Once the effort of data collection and consolidation achieved, companies can gather all the data needed on a single document, ready-to-be processed by marketing/communication teams.
Sphera’s answer
To leverage sustainability as an advantage, it is important to understand the Postal Services situation across the complete organization – including your own operations and supply chain – to determine the impacts in all three sustainability dimensions: environmental, social and financial. This allows create and share performance reports with management to communicate to stakeholders, and to report to authorities for compliance schemes. We summarize these activities under “Reporting & Compliance”. Once the current sustainability performance is understood, then it can be analysed using key performance indicators such as use of energy, raw materials, water, and natural resources, GHG emissions and waste or social impacts concerning labour and health and safety. You can evaluate your opportunities and risks and develop the business case for profitable sustainability initiatives. This leads to improvement of your sustainability performance and at the same time increases your competitive edge. This phase we call “Performance Improvement.”
What other vendors think of Sphera
Vs Greenstone: Greenstone’s brand promise is the provision of ‘data that talks to you’; we underwrite this commitment by providing targeted
solution training and unlimited solution support at no additional cost, ensuring Postal Services continues to maximise value from Greenstone’s solutions.
Training is a key part of the Greenstone implementation process but is also integral to providing ongoing support. Additional training sessions can be
scheduled at no additional cost, ensuring all existing and new Postal Services users are continuously up to speed with solution functionality; training and
support must always remain relevant, and effective.
Vs IBM: Sphera’s data capture is highly manual vs Envizi’s highly automated We identified that Sphera tends to be more expensive than Envizi.
Sphera has capabilities scattered in more solutions instead of an integrated suite. Envizi is higher scored in category ‘Regulated and Managed frameworks‘, ‘Industry specific functionality’, ‘Engagement tools‘, ‘Performance Management‘ and ‘Data Quality Enhancement‘ categories in
Verdantix’s Smart Innovators: ESG Reporting And Data Management Software report from January, 2023
Vs Position Green: Data management + Intelligence dashboards
Vs UL Solutions: UL Solutions has the right services to support clients in their full ESG/carbon journey. UL Solutions Brand and stability: 125 years & 20+ years of experience focused in Sustainability. 1 stop shop: In-house Advisory Services combined with UL 360 Software Solutions and Training Solutions
Vs Persefoni: Sphera is a legacy platform built for EHS reporting: requires extensive implementation and likely has insufficient controls for investor- grade reporting 1. The very high price point for Sphera. Their customer support is weak customer support / with slow response times, Persefoni SLA is 24h. Sphera has no evidence of SOC 1 certification
What other thinks of Salesforce
Vs Greenstone: Greenstone has been providing sustainability SaaS solution for over 15 years. Our focus, and the core of our business, is based on
helping our clients meet their sustainability objectives. Our software development roadmap reflects those priorities. Our Client Services ESG data and the software they’ve invested in.
Vs Enablon: Salesforce is appearing many times to be our shortlist competition for Envizi due to their CRM system presence and relationships at Enterprises. However, from functionality perspective they were scoring less or significantly less in most categories vs Envizi in the 2022 Verdantix report, and in the 2023 Verdantix Green Quadrant they were not listed in the top 20 software. They appear in the broader list of 39 vendors in Verdantix’s Smart Innovators: ESG Reporting And Data Management Software report from January 2023, but score lower vs Envizi in each 10 categories evaluated
Vs MyConsole: They are focussed largely on the E of ESG (carbon, energy etc.), whereas we are across E, S & G
Vs Persefoni: Salesforce has limited emission datasets. Multiple applications vs. Persefoni’s single platform. Does not support PCAF. Specialized point solution leader solely focused on carbon accounting vs. part of a general offering. Persefoni has in-house sustainability experts and SAB, shaping/anticipating regulation vs. following regulation, NZC has no sustainability expert to support customer. Persefoni does not force add-on consulting implementation modules (reported at very high price). Persefoni integrates regulatory reporting through partner Workiva
Greenstone’s answser
Greenstone’s Enterprise SaaS solution will provide Postal Services with a robust, comprehensive ESG data software solution for data capture, processing and reporting, meeting Postal Services two key KPIs.
• The Enterprise Environment module will enable Postal Services to calculate, analyse, and report its GHG emissions, monitor progress of reduction initiatives, and track reduction targets across all relevant Scope 1-3 emissions categories. Data is processed automatically by Greenstone’s calculation engine to record consumption, calculate the associated GHG emissions and make the output available for analysis and reporting.
• The Enterprise Frameworks module expands the scope of Greenstone’s Enterprise solution to include the management and reporting of broader
ESG data and metrics. It will provide Postal Services with a centralised library of established and bespoke ESG metrics, to streamline reporting to all internal and external stakeholders, frameworks, banks, rating agencies and investor requests. It can also map ESG data to themes, such as the pillars of Postal Services People, Planet, Proximity strategy.
Greenstone Enterprise employs a flexible node structure that will enable Postal Services to track and report ESG data at any required level of granularity across their organisation. An unlimited number of organisational views can be created for any combination of analysis and reporting requirements- e.g. by site, business unit, country, subsidiary, or at the overall group level. Greenstone’s Enterprise solution provides multiple options for data acquisition. During the implementation process, we will work with Postal Services to develop the most efficient and accurate method of data collection from existing business systems across its subsidiaries, as well as and other sources.
• Automated Data Acquisition: Greenstone is flexible regarding the systems in which Postal Services data is stored and we will look to automate data acquisition wherever possible, enabled by: Automated Bulk Template upload using SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol), and REST APIs that are tailored to the client’s system.
• Excel Template Upload: Data stored in Excel or csv templates can be uploaded to the Greenstone Enterprise solution through the web interface, or SFTP.
• Online Input Form: Postal Services users can enter data through online forms, accessed through the solution interface.
.The Enterprise Targets section can be used by Postal Services to monitor actual performance against objectives over any specified time period. Targets can be distributed in a linear or non-linear way and set on absolute or normalised consumption or GHG emissions data. Science-based targets, scope specific targets and consumption and emissions targets can be set for up to 30-year periods.
The Greenstone Enterprise solution includes a number of dedicated audit functions and resources. This includes a dedicated Data Audit section which allows users or third-party auditors to access and download all emissions factors used alongside consumption data and supporting files in a centralised location.
Greenstone Enterprise also contains a central audit log of activities taken place in the system. All user activity is automatically recorded (e.g. data uploads, edits, deletions, approvals etc.). The dashboard can be filtered according to multiple variables, searched and exported enabling audit-related activities to be navigated easily.
On average, Greenstone’s solutions undergo more than 60 external audits per year.
Empowered Systems International’s answer
No-code technology ensures the solution can be configured to meet Postal Services specific process requirements without any customization of the delivered software:
• Data structure without Code – A flexible and adaptable data model forms the core, with infinite many-to-many relationships between entities determining data, data aggregation and security flows across Postal Services subsidiaries, requestors such as Internal Audit, Banks and Management functions.
• Administrator Configurator – The template best-practice configuration is further adapted to Postal Services with a page builder, data field creation, workflow designer, charts, filters, security, roles, and more.
• WebServices API – Fully documented RESTful API web service endpoints that allow programmers to directly insert and retrieve data from other Postal Services tech assets and databases and into your solution.
• Dashboards and Reporting – Create extensive interactive reports with an integrated report builder and publish to users at both group and subsidiary level as well as other stakeholder groups. Reports also include assessment progress, overdue actions and accountable stakeholders, allowing Postal Services to identify bottlenecks and delays.
• Issue & Action Management- remediation activities can be raised at any time and subject to workflow tracked to completion. For example, Internal Audit can raise an Issue or Finding.
• Multi-language GUI – To drive user adaption, the solution interface can be presented in French, Dutch and other languages as required.
Hydrus’AI answer
We are excited to share how Hydrus.ai’s groundbreaking AI can effectively solve your challenges by streamlining the entire process, eliminating manual tasks, and providing unparalleled value to your organization.
• Efficient Data Collection: With Hydrus.ai’s versatile data collection methods, including excel uploads, customizable surveys, machine learning OCR, and API connections, Postal Services can bid farewell to manual data collection. Our AI-powered solution automates the entire process, ensuring accurate and timely data entry from various sources, saving your team valuable time and effort.
• Automated GHG Emissions Calculation: Say goodbye to the labor-intensive process of manually calculating GHG emissions. Hydrus.ai’s AI algorithms handle this task effortlessly, accurately measuring your environmental impact based on the collected data. This automation enables you to continuously monitor your sustainability efforts and make data-driven decisions to reduce your carbon footprint effectively.
• Data Analysis and Visualization: Hydrus.ai empowers your team with real-time insights through data analysis and visualization. Our AI generates interactive charts, KPIs, and visual representations of critical data trends, providing a clear overview of operational performance. This enables you to identify areas for improvement, optimize routes, and make informed decisions swiftly.
• Customizable Reports and Insights: Hydrus.ai’s advanced reporting capabilities allow Postal Services to generate tailored reports that align with industry
standards and your specific requirements. Our AI processes the collected data to create insightful reports, helping you present information to stakeholders with confidence and supporting strategic decision-making.
• Auditability and Data Integrity: Hydrus.ai maintains a comprehensive audit log of every data change made within the system, ensuring complete transparency and data integrity. This feature simplifies the auditing process, allowing Postal Services to comply with data protection regulations and
industry standards effortlessly.
Our value proposition lies in the groundbreaking AI that powers Hydrus.ai, revolutionizing your processes and elevating efficiency. Gone are the days
of manual data collection, laborious carbon calculations, and time-consuming data analysis. By embracing Hydrus.ai, Postal Services can embrace a future of
streamlined operations, improved accuracy, and data-driven decision-making.
Persefoni’s answer
Persefoni software is reviewed on an ongoing basis by the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute (GHGMI) to evaluate and confirm that calculations
completed in the platform are in-line with GHGP standards. Persefoni’s Carbon Management and Accounting Platform (CMAP) is built on GHGP
methodology and its accounting and reporting principles of Relevance, Completeness, Consistency, Transparency, and Accuracy. The platform guides
users through identifying and calculating relevant sources of emissions. As Persefoni covers all three scopes of GHG emissions, it enables users to
capture a complete GHG inventory and document any exclusions. Users are able to use a consistent methodology by selecting accounting
approaches, inventory boundaries, and calculation methodologies. The Persefoni platform is transparent in enabling users to see the components of
the calculations, including emission factors. The platform covers all Kyoto gases – Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O),
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6), Nitrogen Trifluoride (NF3) where the emissions per gas are provided
by the emissions factor data. In some of the datasets, the minor gases have been aggregated to “Other GHGs”.
We follow PCAF and the GHGP Corporate Standard & Value Chain and have full Scope 1, 2, and 3 coverage available in the platform including
• Scope 1 – Stationary & Mobile Combustion, Process & Fugitive Emissions;
• Scope 2 – Electricity usage (Facilities & Fleet), Steam or Heating;
• Scope 3 – Purchased Goods & Services, Capital Goods, Upstream Transportation & Distribution, Waste Generated, Business Travel, Employee
Commuting/Teleworking, Downstream Transportation & Distribution, Investments + PCAF.
Persefoni leverages calculation methodology set forth by the GHGP and PCAF, and sources and maintain over 150,000 emission factors from 19
sources. Also, Data is the core of an organization’s carbon footprint. From beginning to end, this step in the carbon accounting journey is time
intensive. During this phase, an organization may be asking themselves, “How does my organization know what emission sources I should include in
my carbon footprint? and “What type of data does my organization need to calculate Scope 3, Category 5: waste generated in operations? Who in
my organization has this data?”
This can be overwhelming for any team to tackle. After gathering necessary activity data, the process of quality checking and formatting data can be
cumbersome. Manual data collection doesn’t scale well and requires implementing new processes as your organization grows. Auditing the data
chain-of-custody becomes more complicated when data is processed and passed by hand. This results in data collection being a significant
bottleneck, whereas time would be better spent exploring decarbonization pathways.
By identifying which emission sources are relevant and having the ability to track the data collection process, an organization is one step closer to
actionable insights that influence your decarbonization strategies. Manually gathering, processing, and loading data has its limitations.
The Persefoni platform includes many features that reduce time to calculate carbon footprint, increase accuracy of the data, and improve
transparency, including:
• Role Based Access: The Persefoni CMAP provides five user security roles to use:
• Administrator: Highest level of permissions in Persefoni; can perform the following actions: Establish and maintain Organizational
Hierarchy, Set boundary percentages for Equity Share, Operational and Financial Control, View, add, edit, or deactivate Users
• Contributor: Users can Add, Edit, Delete, and View Carbon Activities in Persefoni and access their own User Settings.
• No Access: Users have no permissions to view or access Persefoni in any capacity.
• User Manager: Users can only create, modify, and delete other user accounts including the ability to initiate a password reset for an
Administrator as well. Users cannot view, create, edit, or delete data in the footprint ledger or downstream components.
• View Only: Users can navigate and view emissions data within Persefoni. View Only Users cannot add, edit, or delete any Carbon
Activities or access the Account Settings. This access could be given to NYSERDA in order to have a direct and real-time view of current
carbon footprint data and trends.
Collect Footprint: Streamlines the data calculation process, enabling you to assign task owners and due dates, receive guidance on what type of data
needs to be collected, and be notified when Tasks are completed. If you do not have access to specific data required for a Footprint Source, you can
use the Create Task button to request information and delegate the data collection process to others. Receive guidance on which emission sources
are relevant to your organizational and business needs.
Integration Hub: A space that allows you to connect your business applications to Persefoni to streamline greenhouse gas inventory data collection.
Our solution enables the automation of activity data collection, saving you time and resources running your carbon accounting program. Once you
connect to your application and activate an integration, Persefoni automatically extracts your pertinent application data and calculates your
footprint. You can customize your integrations to adjust for customizations in your application or reporting rules that are specific to your accounting
needs. With Integration Hub, Persefoni enables the end-to-end automation of the full carbon accounting process, helping your organization simplify
your footprint calculation to move your focus to decarbonization. Integration Hub is included with a subscription to Persefoni; please contact your
Customer Success Manager to get started with this capability.Some of our featured applications include AWS, Coupa, SAP Ariba, SAP Concur,
NetSuite, Expensify, TripActions, Google Sheets, iLEVEL, eFront and many more on the roadmap.
CO2E Activity Ledger: Designed to enable users to pass stringent audit and assurance processes for disclosure and reporting purposes. Whether
you’re reporting to stakeholders or regulators, instantly view all calculation frameworks, formulas, data, and emission factors used to ensure
accuracy. If you’ve loaded a large number of Footprint Activities, your CO2e Activity Ledger ledger can be quite lengthy. There are a number of Filters
available to help you trim down the page and display the precise footprint data you’re looking for. Date Ranges And Reporting Periods: Clicking the
date range filter in the upper left-hand corner enables you to select one of Persefoni’s pre-set date ranges (1) or one of your custom Reporting
Periods (2): Organizations, Category, Subcategory, Footprinnt, Scope
Position’s green answer
Position Green is a leading platform provider in Scandinavia & Europe for helping companies; structure, collect and analysing their sustainability data.
Today we work with over 500+ clients worldwide from a variety of different industries.
We tailor-build the platform for every unique customer that we have in order to match their own ambitions with our platform. We are aware that
sustainability has grown to a very broad field and 2 companies ESG data rarely looks the same.
This means that the platform is both flexible and scalable, it’s never too late to make any changes and the platform can grow with you organisation.
Each of our customers get a dedicated team from Position Green to help support their sustainability journey.
For us its very important to engage the whole organisation, we offer our customers unlimited users within the platform, free of charge.
(This includes reporters, external reporters, controllers, and auditors).
We have many different ways of importing data into the platform, we can of course do it manually but there is also an option to integrate Position
Green with already existing systems to automate the data flow.
We also have the ability to build specific measures around documents which lets the platform map up specific data and do automated Co2e –
calculations for example.
All data existing in the platform is traceable and transparent.
What other’s think of Persefoni
Vs Normative: Normative’s engine calculates corporate carbon footprints using two types of business data: transaction data or activity data. To
ensure the most accurate calculation, the engine selects the approach depending on the type of data provided by your company. Your dedicated
Normative Climate Strategy Advisor advises you on the most suitable approach for each category, following the GHG Protocol. Wherever the GHG
Protocol gives flexibility for handling a particular process or situation, our sustainability engineers have made deliberate choices about how to handle
the calculations to ensure the highest possible degree of accuracy in the results.
IBM’s answer
Generic Envizi differentiators. Highest scored in Data quality control, accrual and indentification of missing data and forecasting trends
Envizi’s clients automatically capture and ingest more than 90% of data
Envizi is very highly scoring for ESG/Sustainability Performance Management. ‘Envizi has particular strenghts helping firms with long-term
sustainability planning, including tracking net-zero pathways, allowing users to set assumptions around ground scenarios and helping customers
explore these scenarios so they can make better decisions in how to allocate funding. In addition, IBM offers strong modelling capabilities through its
Planning Analytics solution, which uses AI and ML from the Watson tool to perform what-if analyses and multi-variate forecasting. Planning Analytics
solution can also incorporate information from other reporting systems, such as financial and IT data, across variety of use cases’ Quoted from
source: Verdantix Green Quadrant: ESG Reporting and Data management software, 2023
Envizi incorporates machine learning (Natural Language Processing) technology currently to automatically categorise Purchased Goods and Services
and Capital goods spending to spend categories and emission factors. Spend data can be in 180 languages. This highly simplifies these two Scope 3
categories to be translated into emissions. The technology will be usable soon for activity data as well.
Envizi uses embedded Microsoft PowerBI as reporting and analytical tool with most of the enterprise reporting needs covered out of the box, while
providing possibility of custom or modified reports via an easily accessible skillset on the market
EU ESRS/CSRD is supported as of today as custom ESG reporting framework in Envizi, and during the 2023 Verdantix Green Quadrant evaluation
Envizi did not yet have an announced commitment to support it as a managed framework. Now it was officially announced for Q4 2023 to have
CSRD/ESRS as a managed framework, which means Envizi keeps the framework content up to date in Envizi if there are changes appearing in the framework
What other’s think of IBM
Vs Alyne: Time-to-value as well as Alyne’s Library which provides prepopulated risks and controls and their mapping to underlying standards, laws
and regulations
