May 18th, 2009

Watch this space: Consolidation in the offing for corporate carbon management applications

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 2:30 pm

Categories: air pollution, climate change, conservation, green tech

Tags: Consolidation, SAP AG, Clear, Clear Standards, Web Site Development, Productivity, Internet, Heather Clancy

I actually DID NOT find this news on the SAP Web site, but noticed it on the Gartner web site this morning and it is definitely noteworthy because it portends of things to come. I’m a couple days late with this post, but hopefully I may be forgiven a vacation sans notebook computer.

The skinny is that SAP is buying out Clear Standards, which is one of the small software vendors that has come up with tools to aid with enterprise carbon management. The two aren’t talking terms. The move, though, will speed up SAP’s ability to help companies manage their carbon portfolios. The idea is that Clear Standards’ tools will be able to easily tap financial data and other information relevant to calculating greenhouse gas emissions equations by integrating with SAP Business Suite 7 and the SAP Environment, Health and Safety Management application.

Clear Standards sells three flagship products.

They are:

Assess, which gathers and organizes emissions information

Analyze, which visualizes the impact of various environmental initiatives

Act, which helps companies make operational changes to act on its environmental programs.

The acquisition of Clear Standards is supposed to be completed by June 2009.

Mind you, SAP itself has been discussed as an acquisition target in recent weeks (days), but keep your eyes peeled for other large enterprise and midsize applications companies to round out their portfolios by buying environmental management tools that are, for the most part, the brainchildren of smaller, start-up vendors. And, if you’re considering an application from a vendor of this sort, you might want to inquire about their future partnership or buyout aspirations.