Learn how automotive companies can use technology to build a resilient and sustainable EV battery supply chain through gigafactories.

The key to playing a decisive role in the growing electric vehicle market is producing enough batteries sustainably at a competitive cost, at scale, and at speed.

Industry analysts anticipate global demand for electric vehicles (EVs) will rise in the next few years, thanks in large part to trends in China. Despite signs of growth cooling a bit, particularly in the US, it’s still incredible when compared with other segments of the transportation industry. The long-term growth story is alive and well, and getting to market with a lead is as important as ever. A confluence of factors indicate that North America will take more of a role in producing the batteries needed for the worldwide transition.

The Capgemini Research Institute’s (CRI) recent report on reindustrialization strategies in North America and Europe found that 63 percent of organizations recognize the importance of establishing a domestic manufacturing infrastructure to ensure national security, and 62 percent acknowledge its significance for strengthening strategic sectors.

The research also revealed that the US stands out as a top location for gigafactories – large-scale manufacturing facilities for batteries and component parts. Fifty-four percent of executives surveyed from automotive, battery manufacturing, and energy companies said they are currently building or plan to build at least one gigafactory in the US. Meanwhile, 38 percent said this about continental Europe.

Automotive companies that understand how to unlock the potential of North American gigafactories stand to gain market share and position themselves as lynchpins in this emerging ecosystem.

But winning the gigafactory race will require a holistic enterprise architecture that enables data-driven business agility. Automotive companies can master this transition by accelerating speed to production, optimizing costs sustainably, digitizing end-to-end core business processes, and upskilling their workforce.

Increasing speed to market and reducing scrap rates

Battery production is still responsible for much of the EV’s price tag. As new competitors race to the market, even incumbent players understand the need to transform their operations to be competitive.

It typically takes about five years for an organization with a small-scale pilot factory to complete a gigafactory and stabilize production. To remain competitive and responsive to demand, companies need a streamlined process of getting gigafactories to world-class production.

An inefficient gigafactory launch could mean that up to 30 percent of early production ends up discarded. Reducing the scrap rate by just 10 percent can save up to $300 million annually for a 30 gigawatt-hour factory.

Unlocking solutions with digital twins and data

Organizations can use digital twins – virtual models of objects or systems – to recreate the cell, battery pack, manufacturing process, and factory. Digital twins enhance co-creation and simultaneous product and process engineering. By optimizing in a virtual environment, companies can design and commission production lines that minimize extensive prototyping and costly changes on the factory floor.

Building the factory virtually before physically can save months of work. Today, we estimate that digital twin leaders see 15 to 20 percent savings in operational efficiencies.

Companies can expedite commissioning real-world gigafactories and ramp up operations at scale, by integrating virtual and physical models to enable data-driven automation for proactive quality and production.

They should aim to establish a closed-loop operation based on a highly scalable and flexible architecture. A solid and standardized data platform will allow interoperability between different sources for a data-driven operations strategy, which enables analysis that could reduce a factory’s scrap rate.

Digital tools can also accelerate the path to recycling, making it safer, faster, cheaper, and easier. For instance, models can combine physical and chemical disassembly with data analytics and automation to enhance the precision of planning and executing recycling. In recycling and waste management, it’s not uncommon to disentangle complex materials into simpler substances for safer disposal.

Engineering resilient, sustainable supply chains

Gigafactories need a connected supply chain with visibility throughout transportation and material handling to operate effectively and produce enough batteries.

Manufacturing electric batteries often relies on procuring raw materials – lithium, nickel, graphite, manganese, etc. – from countries with geopolitical risk, which renders them vulnerable to sanctions and other political hurdles.

Meanwhile, the entire battery supply chain contributes to an EV’s lifetime emissions and could be subject to future climate-conscious legislation. While the battery supply chain is still developing, it’s important to build it right with sustainability and resiliency.

To build resilient supply chains for gigafactories, organizations will need a single thread to connect bills of materials, partner with reliable suppliers, and enable transportation networks for valuable cargo. This requires thorough analysis of potential partners across many countries, sourcing in the Americas when possible, signing long-term contracts (for ongoing delivery) if suppliers are in riskier geographies, and designing packaging to protect battery components during shipping.

Organizations should digitize the supply chain for a comprehensive view on sustainability – one that enables data-informed decisions and battery tracking for responsible end-of-life disposal that recycles materials, and aims toward circularity.

Empowering the workforce

Organizations can face challenges recruiting the highly skilled workforce needed for specialized gigafactory responsibilities, which diverge from traditional factories in many ways. For instance, employees may be expected to maintain complex robotic systems, utilize precision automation, interact with digital twins, or use data analytics for energy management in sustainable production. Few candidates in today’s job market have all the necessary skills that align with new gigafactory processes.

Gigafactories need thousands of employees ready for day one of production, meaning that hiring, training, and expert development must happen while the factory is still under construction.

A training program like the Capgemini Battery Academy can help organizations define skill requirements for potential employees and upskill these hires through virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) training modules. The Capgemini Battery Academy develops and builds the necessary skills that transfer directly into the job on day one.

Capitalizing on growing interest in EVs

Annual global demand for passenger plug-in EVs is expected to grow 127 percent (to nearly 22 million vehicles) by 2026, compared to 9.7 million in 2022, according to S&P Global data.

Kelley Blue Book, a Cox Automotive company, estimates that US consumers bought a record-setting 1.2 million EVs in 2023, comprising 7.6 percent of all vehicles sold in the country – up from 5.9 percent the year before. That figure is expected to reach 10 percent by the end of 2024. EV sales are still rising, just not as quickly.

The slowdown in the US stems from the typical concerns when deciding between EVs and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles: range awareness, infrastructure reliability, maintenance costs, resale value, upfront costs, and so forth.

Despite this mild cooldown, automakers still see the long-term benefit of investing in EVs and batteries. In fact, my research indicates that federal support virtually negates near-term worries and incentivizes more aggressive investment in this sector.

The Biden administration’s Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act together mobilized more than $50 million toward climate resilience, which is encouraging domestic automakers to prioritize EV batteries and foreign manufacturers to open facilities stateside.

According to the Department of Energy, more than $120 billion of investments in the US battery manufacturing and supply chain have been announced so far – nearly $45 billion pre-IRA and around $85 billion post-IRA launch.

The CRI report found that nearly half (47 percent) of companies have already started investing in reshoring their manufacturing, which is expected to increase average onshore production capacity from 45 percent to 49 percent in just three years.

Now is the time to go full throttle.

Digital engineering’s impact on defense

“Embrace change, endure chaos, and emerge transformed.”

Author unknown

Digital engineering is quickly emerging as the principal means to deliver the technological advantage in defense. Though not sufficient on its own, this advantage is an important contributor to success.

In digital engineering, both traditional systems engineering and the engineering of the digital environment are integrated; ie. the traditional practice of engineering is enabled by digital technologies – eg. computer aided design (CAD) software that allows us to develop detailed ‘digital twins’ of existing or potential systems. These digital technologies are supported by the digital environment – for example, detailed synthetic spaces to test these digital twins in a variety of accurate simulated circumstances that would be expensive, slow or impossible to reproduce in real world test environments.

The result is in a transformational impact on productivity and delivery times, which is important – in the current security and threat environment, reduced development and fielding timelines are essential – to respond to the dynamic situations of 21^st Century conflicts and today’s increasingly uncertain geopolitical situation.

When applied effectively, digital engineering can be used to deliver military capability quickly that is relevant to the threat, before an adversary’s countermeasures can be developed or alternative ‘game changing’ technologies emerge.

For example, new capabilities could be used for the first time in conflict against an enemy. Initially, the enemy may be unprepared to defend against these. However, given enough time, they will develop a countermeasure or a game changing technology to nullify your advantage. Digital engineering, and the speed it provides, ensures that it is the enemy who is always a step behind in the deployment of such advantageous new capabilities.

But digital is more than capability development. It also provides a military force with operational and logistical advantages. In support of military operations, digital engineering can be used to integrate a military force across large distances, yet still provide improved situational awareness and firepower to human decision makers. From the perspective of a naval officer from 1982 to 2002 and as a systems engineer from 2002 to now, this move towards digital engineering is happening faster than we think. It’s also changing the nature of global conflicts itself.

Network centric and the digital age

Since 1998, when Proceedings, a monthly periodical published by the United States Naval Institute, published Network Centric Warfare: Its Origin and Future [Ref 1], military organizations have been transitioning their capabilities from ‘platform-centric’ to ‘network-centric’.

Platform centric capability has sensors, command and control and weapons on the same platform. Network-centric capability, on the other hand, could have sensors, command and control and weapons on different platforms, but connected via an information network that links this ‘system of systems’. The network-centric capability allows for more agility and flexibility, more resiliency to attack with fewer geographic constraints. For example, its three nodes – sensor, decision maker and shooter do not have to all be in the same location.

Sensors could be airborne and uncrewed; command centers could be located within national boundaries and weapons could be launched by any capable platform that is within range of the target. The network-centric capability could be more survivable than the platform-centric one, as its nodes can be located separately and thus must be destroyed separately. However, the network itself is now a target and it must be protected against cyber-attack or electronic warfare (EW). It has been over 25 years since the publication of the Proceedings article and, today, network-centric capability is a reality.

Revolution of military affairs

A revolution of military affairs has occurred in much the same way that aircraft and motorized vehicles changed 20^th century conflict. The digitalization of that information environment over time has improved connectivity across all bandwidths, allowed enormous amounts of data and computing power to be shared by many platforms and provided information, predictions, and situational awareness to users upon demand.

We know these capabilities today as wide area networks (WANs), cloud computing, the internet, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), and digital twins. 21^st Century global conflicts have therefore been characterized by drones, long range weapons and intelligent, uncrewed systems linked to network-centric platforms, like the newer generation of network-enabled military vehicles that by themselves are not particularly lethal. These vehicles instead achieve their lethality from the systems that they are linked to, resulting in a force multiplier effect as more vehicles are added to the network.

However, recent technologies and network capabilities bring about new problems and vulnerabilities. The use of low technology systems, like improvised explosive devices (IEDs), combined with high technology threats, such as cyber-weapons, can provide an effective asymmetric response, allowing forces that are conventionally outgunned to defeat larger and better equipped adversaries.

Paradigm shift

The result is a major change in thinking around how military capability is developed, used, and maintained. In our experience, we have seen that, as network-centric concepts mature, effective military capability is increasingly dependent on the integration of human, process, organizational, information and technology elements – along with key enablers like infrastructure, maintenance, enterprise architectures, logistics and training. These factors are relevant when defining, building, operating, and maintaining a military capability that can actually survive in a conflict 30 years from now – and are highly dependent on the use of digital twins, digital manufacturing, and digital collaboration.

Traditional operational and engineering practices struggle to keep up with all of this because they are more resource intensive and use a workforce that is located in a smaller geographic area. They also use a more laborious, document-based approach, which is inferior to mature digital methods of collaboration and data exchange available today. As a result, change management is slow in such development projects – a major liability in a world that is changing so quickly.

Instead, model-based approaches enabled by a remote working environment are needed, along with digital technologies that allow effective requirement traceability, virtual reality visualization and improved human collaboration throughout a design process that is based on a single source of truth (SSOT). This SSOT can ensure that everyone within the organization accesses the same, up-to-date information, reducing the risk of errors or discrepancies that can occur with multiple sources of data. Digital engineering is needed to bring these capabilities together in a value-driven approach for the military, as well as allow industry to provide improved engineering and innovative designs in an agile, collaborative, and secure way.

Future trends

In this network-centric and digital age, the need for partnership between the military and wider industry ecosystem of SMEs (in addition to the traditional major prime defense contractors) is greater than ever. However, new military capability does not always mean purchasing new systems. Often, older systems can be re-purposed to address the new battlespace environment and new threats.

In this environment, the use of the Internet of Things (IoT), digital twins and AI can add new life to these systems, such as the B-52 bomber which is now over 60 years old, and, unlike its original iteration can now launch drones, cruise missiles, drop laser guided munitions, manage air surveillance platforms (as well as its own sensor suite) and still defend itself. Other examples include fighter aircraft such as Typhoon and Rafale which, over decades, have gained new life as multirole fighter-bombers, along with naval frigates and destroyers that benefit from life extension (LIFEX) programs that allow them, for example, to be more fuel efficient and launch deep strike cruise missiles.

It should be noted that the systems that we will be designing for, 10-15 years in the future, will be operated and maintained by people who are currently under the age of ten. New military capability should remain adaptive, as must the civilian defense industry. Indeed, based on defense project timeframes, the workforce that begins a project may not be the workforce that delivers it – even as we endeavor to shorten these development timeframes.

Summary

One way to judge how things are changing is to consider how long it takes to get a new system from concept to the field. Traditionally, this could take 10 years, or more in the case of very complex or expensive systems. But today, that is much too slow. Militaries need suppliers to provide early deliverables within 3-5 years, with more advanced versions within 10 years and an upgrade program to keep the capability relevant for 30 years or more. This pace cannot be achieved without digital engineering.

This poses the obvious question; are you ready to meet this pace? If not – we can help. What is needed is a way to manage your digital and systems engineering processes and transform your organization at the same time. This is indeed a colossal challenge, however, if properly managed and supported by people who have ‘been there’, a solution tailored to the specific needs and circumstances of your organization can be achieved. People, processes, digital infrastructure, architecture, and transformation activities can be coordinated and managed – to produce the best result for the future you want.

Ref1 : Network Centric Warfare – Its Origins and Future, Vice Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowski, USN, and John H. Garstka, Proceedings, January 1988, Volume 124/1/1139

Other links

• https://www.edrmagazine.eu/france-defence-programmes-and-challenges-the-dga-view
• https://des.mod.uk/digital-engineering-equip-frontlines/
• Digital Engineering for Defense and Intelligence Mission Success | OD42
• https://www.army.mil/article/259997/army_explores_new_digital_engineering_tools_as_part_of_holistic_modernization_aim
• https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/2019/04/05/10_zimmerman_destrategyimp_nist_mbe_summit_vf.pdf

Times are changing and digital engineering is becoming a necessity; both on the battlefield and in the competitive business environment of defense.

It’s time to transform to meet the challenges of this environment. To start by working out what this transformation may entail, please meet our experts. 

In today’s competitive banking landscape, customers demand personalized experiences tailored to individual needs and preferences. However, the current generic interactions and misalignment with financial goals leads to dissatisfaction with the current state of customization offered by banks. A report by Blend found that 65% of consumers wanted banks to make it easier to shop and find tailored products, and 72% felt product offers to be more valuable when tailored to their personal needs. This illustrates the gap between customer expectations for personalized services and the reality of banking experiences.

Generative AI is a key tool that has emerged to drive personalization. Customers love it, with the Capgemini Research Institute’s 2023 survey revealing that 73% of 8500+ consumers trusted content written by it and 53% have faith in generative AI-assisted financial advice. With the scramble to develop such solutions for enhanced business outcomes, business leaders should know how this technology can drive personalization for their businesses.

Content creation at scale

Generative AI revolutionizes media creation, infusing personalization into every aspect from text to images. This approach ensures that tailored content resonates uniquely with each consumer, be it product descriptions, blogs, or video scripts. Replacing labor-intensive manual efforts, generative AI streamlines the process, delivering messaging and visuals based on individual preferences, demographics, and past behaviors.

AI algorithms swiftly analyze real-time consumer interactions and transactions, ensuring content remains relevant and effective across platforms. In contact centers, Generative AI addresses common queries, reducing agent costs and resolution times, elevating overall customer experience.

CRI’s survey highlights this approach’s significance, with 29% of executives extensively leveraging generative AI for content creation and another 26% embracing it to some extent. Ally Financial, a US all-digital bank, used generative AI to reduce marketers’ production time by up to 2-3 weeks, achieving average time savings of 34% with prompt accuracy of 81% (indicating users generally received relevant content output).

Hyper-personalized recommendations

Generative AI utilizes customer data to analyze past interactions, transactions, and preferences, generating tailored product and service recommendations. This fosters trust, and contributes to loyalty, retention, and revenue growth through repeat purchases and brand advocacy.

Detailed customer profiles enable targeted recommendations, such as credit cards and insurance, based on individual preferences. Real-time analysis suggests agent responses and identifies cross-selling opportunities, catering to specific consumer needs.

According to Capgemini’s research, 60% of executives use generative AI extensively for customized customer experiences, and 57% for creating personalized customer and brand avatars. Mastercard’s Dynamic Yield developed Shopping Muse, leveraging colloquial language to deliver customized product recommendations and predict shopping intents based on the past purchase data and behavior, enhancing shoppers’ discovery experience.

Dynamic and engaging interactions

Generative AI chatbots mimic human responses, providing round-the-clock support, engaging in natural conversations, and adapting to user mood or intent. This enhances service perception, offering personalized advice and support, ultimately boosting engagement and loyalty.

In a Capgemini survey, 83% of organizations deemed chatbots relevant for automating customer service and improving knowledge management. Wells Fargo’s chatbot, Fargo, manages 20 million interactions, offering banking services and financial advice via voice and text, powered by the Tachyon AI platform.

Tailored marketing and advertising

Generative AI transforms marketing with targeted campaigns, replacing generic ads with personalized content across different media formats. Historical data informs tailored messaging, optimizing clickthrough and conversion rates. Financial institutions leverage generative AI for personalized content, driving loyalty and engagement with instant cross-selling and up-selling offers.

Consumers embrace generative AI, with 62% comfortable with its use in marketing, per Capgemini Research Institute survey. For example, Square integrates this technology into its business software, streamlining email marketing with personalized content and supporting blog copywriting for SEO improvement and resource savings.

Transitioning from a compliance-focused KYC approach to a more dynamic customer-centric strategy that emphasizes the entire lifecycle of a customer relationship represents a paradigm shift in effective customer relationship management.

The global landscape of Know Your Customer (KYC) practices is undergoing a significant shift, moving away from traditional, manual methods toward embracing innovation and digital transformation. Within the dynamic realm of financial crime compliance (FCC), there’s a compelling need for financial institutions to integrate efficient KYC procedures into a broader strategy of end-to-end customer lifecycle management (CLM). These institutions face heightened regulatory scrutiny and evolving risk factors, driving a focus on enhancing client experiences.

Financial entities increasingly acknowledge the necessity of transitioning from conventional KYC practices to a more encompassing CLM framework. This evolution enables institutions to foster holistic customer relationships, leading to improved experiences, enhanced efficiency with potential cost reductions, strengthened compliance and risk mitigation, and the empowerment of data-driven decision-making through technology-driven solutions.

A significant challenge faced by majority of the financial institutions is the fragmentation of a single client’s KYC or AML data across four or more systems. Hence, CLM emerges as an imperative solution to deliver seamless and sustainable customer experiences.

Achieving the transition from decentralized KYC to a continuous CLM phase requires broadening the focus beyond mere customer identification to managing the entire customer lifecycle. This transition encompasses several key aspects:

• Data management – consolidating and integrating data from various channels to create a unified, comprehensive customer profile. This includes amalgamation of distinct data sources like internal systems, databases, external APIs, or third-party services
• Technology infusion – implementing automation to enhance efficiency and reduce manual interventions in the KYC process. This includes automation of continuous compliance checks and ongoing monitoring to ensure regulatory adherence
• Risk management – strengthening risk assessment methodologies throughout the customer relationship. This includes enhancing the risk assessment by incorporating and testing various risk models with real time monitoring. There could be an option to also include customized models basis customer behavior, product types and transaction patterns
• Data analytics – leveraging predictive analytics to gain insights into customer behavior and preferences, aiding in decision-making to identify potential risks
• Regulatory compliance – designing CLM systems adaptable to changing regulatory requirements the CLM system. This includes the need to be aware of any change in regulatory requirements so that the CLM system can be promptly updated in line with regulatory changes
• User experience – enhancing customer experience by streamlining processes and introducing secure CRM digital tools. Processes also need to be user friendly and should focus on reducing delays due to inaccurate document requirements or approvals
• Scalability – designing scalable CLM systems to accommodate a growing customer base. This will ensure the infrastructure and systems are flexible and equipped to handle increased volumes and demands.

While all these aspects are binding to transition to a successful CLM, collaboration among technology experts, domain specialists, and compliance officers is crucial to ensure a seamless shift from KYC to CLM.

The transition from KYC to CLM unfolds in a series of phases, each with specific objectives aimed at managing the customer relationship effectively:

• Customer identification to verify and authenticate the identity of customers
• Customer onboarding to establish a relationship with the customer
• Ongoing compliance to ensure regulatory standards are met
• Ongoing monitoring to periodically assess and monitor customer activities
• Enhanced due diligence to assess high risk customers
• Data integration to expand the scope to holistic customer management
• A 360-degree view to gain a comprehensive understanding of the customer
• Customer engagement to ensure long term client relationships
• Risk management to assess and mitigate risks.

In conclusion, the journey from KYC to CLM signifies a paradigm shift from a compliance-focused approach to a dynamic, customer-centric strategy, emphasizing the entire lifecycle of customer relationships. Continuous monitoring and optimization play a pivotal role in maintaining effective customer lifecycle management.

To learn more about how Capgemini can help you build engagement and trust with policyholders, contact: bhaskar.amit@capgemini.com

Insurers need tailored product development capabilities and advanced technology infrastructure to drive customer engagement and cater to the evolving needs of their aging policyholders.

An unprecedented $7.8 trillion will be transferred by life insurers to beneficiaries by 2040, according to Capgemini’s World Life Insurance Report 2023.

Ahead of history’s largest inter-generational wealth transfer that risks insurers losing over 40% of their assets under management (AUM), owned by policyholders aged 65 and above, the insurance industry needs significant business transformation to help pioneer new strategies such as:

• Building a unified value proposition to help individuals age well
• Strengthening the silver economy for effective ecosystem partnerships to integrate protection, retirement, and health solutions focused on customer needs
• And leveraging advanced technology and integrated data to create a single customer view and tailor personalized experiences.

Creating opportunities to build customer trust

According to Capgemini’s report, 71% of affluent/mass-affluent individuals over the age of 50 are considering multi-stage retirement. In order to secure current assets and facilitate future growth, insurers must prioritize building trust and enhancing engagement with their aging policyholders and beneficiaries by offering value-added services to realize their goal of aging well. These could include wellness initiatives, medical assistance, tax and estate planning, and assisted living to enable policyholders to maintain their current standard of living and fund leisure activities.

More than 75% of affluent/mass-affluent customers want innovative life products, but currently only 27% of insurers have advanced product development capabilities. Without tailored product development capabilities and advanced technology infrastructure, insurers are likely to lose opportunities to build customer trust and profitably serve their aging customers.

Insurers must anticipate future complexities such as living costs, healthcare, career longevity, and retirement planning to effectively cater to the evolving needs of the aging population.

Leveraging ready-to-deploy customer engagement solutions

Areas that could help your insurance company better serve and enhance trust with your ageing policyholders, while protecting your assets and unlocking growth, include:

• Care-led claims management – foster empathetic beneficiary engagement for personalized support by leveraging an engagement platform that deepens your understanding of beneficiaries’ needs and promotes asset retention (nearly 70% of affluent/mass-affluent customers expect transparency in policy terms and conditions, while 57% want regular and personalized engagement, yet only 28% of insurers focus on customer centricity through hyper-personalization, according to Capgemini)
• Experience-driven product innovation – develop an agile and efficient product framework by prioritizing a human-centric approach to product development
• Open insurance for Life and Annuities (L&A) – leverage a secure cloud-based platform with a robust operating model based on API strategy, data and process governance, and industry standards, enabling you to forge strategic partnerships with specialized firms
• Intelligent customer operations – drive a frictionless customer experience by implementing intelligent, omnichannel solutions that deliver enhanced business value across your customer interactions, marketing operations, and sales operations functions.

Capgemini’s deep industry experience and portfolio can help you better serve and enhance trust with the ageing population, while protecting assets and unlocking growth. Our ready-to-deploy solutions combine customer engagement with advanced technology and robust data analytics to help you drive enhanced trust among your ageing policyholders.

To learn more about how Capgemini can help your insurance company build engagement and trust with your policyholders, contact: bhaskar.amit@capgemini.com or aneta.szporak@capgemini.com

Climate Week’s panel discussion on sustainability, facilitated by Capgemini and ServiceNow last fall in New York City, focused on the regulatory, social, ethical, and business factors creating the imperative for organizations to act on environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices.

Coming out of that discussion, I wrote about investing in sustainability and the need for enterprise-wide and tech-based planning. This planning unlocks data and its insights that are absolute in the development of long-term strategies and measurable goals that mitigate climate change and support overall ESG actions.  

Now that we’ve established the context and the critical need for organizations to act on ESG practices, I want to turn to the practical steps organizations can take to move forward on their ESG journeys.  

Four stages of ESG maturity 

Of course, organizations begin their journeys at different levels of ESG maturity. At Climate Week, ServiceNow’s Senior Advisory Solution Architect, Risk Practice, Geeta Jhamb, identified the four stages of ESG maturity into which most organizations typically fall: 

• Ad hoc: Conducting some simple sustainability initiatives but in an unstructured way without reporting mechanisms. 
• Disclosure-driven: Reacting to the regulatory requirements driving the most immediate pressure, the most common stage.  
• Governed: Tracking projects against compliance benchmarks and communicating to the workforce within a formal, budgeted program. 
• Integrated: Incorporating ESG into their culture, values, and the business decisions that flow from them; this is the most mature stage.  

To move toward integration, sustainability must be a higher, board-level priority. While ESG is frequently the responsibility of a designated team, its success depends on demonstrating its relevance and importance across the organization, including to those who own the data that drives the program.  

Pillars of the ESG journey 

Capgemini and ServiceNow collaborate with one another and with mutual clients to help drive understanding of ESG’s criticality to their entire organizations. Our process encompasses these three phases:  

• Measure: We begin with both qualitative and quantitative assessments, encouraging our clients to conduct an honest self-assessment by asking themselves questions, such as, “Where are we as a company? What is our true mission?”  
• Plan: From this measurement, we ask our clients to think about what they want to achieve. As Geeta Jhamb noted in our discussion, they may want to go big, aim high or fix business processes that are broken to make their ESG programs more succinct and more consumable for their end users. We let our clients know that proper resourcing, whatever their plan, is essential to achieving objectives that make sense from both ESG and business perspectives.  
• Act: We know that our clients can only achieve their objectives if everyone is on board. To motivate, they can rely on a push strategy, externally imposed with key performance indicators (KPIs) and service level agreements (SLAs), to which service providers, such as Capgemini, must adhere. Or they can employ a pull strategy where motivation is intrinsic with people performing because they want to, not just because they have to. We’ve experienced that a combination of push and pull motivational strategies is the most powerful. 

So that’s the joint mindset our Capgemini and ServiceNow people bring with them when they join with a client organization as part of a project team. Yes, they have KPIs and SLAs to meet, but even more importantly, they have an inherent respect for and commitment to sustainability because of their training. These twin drivers foster a set of behaviors that connect with and spread to employees of the client organization. In short, what starts as an investment for the service provider can become a widespread and innate commitment to sustainability. 

Making it work 

If success in sustainability means achieving measurable targets, it also means you need a data strategy, which is why IT and ESG teams need to be empowered to work together. We believe this data maturity level underpins the business that companies must consider as they take the ESG journey.   

In our New York talk, Geeta made the point that progress depends on technology and on platforms to securely integrate data from other sources and create cross-functional workflows so that data owners can themselves provide input for robust audibility. Comprehensive technology platforms could be a game-changer in ESG. One example she noted: harmonizing frameworks across the organization would normalize working methods across teams, making it easier to meet regulatory requirements.  

Maria Hart asked the panel if we thought there is any intersection between ESG success and business success. Most panel participants agreed not only about the intersection of ESG and business success. Increasingly, we see them as interdependent. Leveraging data across the enterprise ecosystem contributes as much to net zero as it does to profitability. 

Working together for a sustainable future 

Teamwork is key across the board: not just across enterprise functions, but partner ecosystems and even entire industries as well. At Capgemini, collaboration is enabling us to meet our commitment to help clients save 10 million tons of CO₂ and to reach net zero by 2040. 

Here’s an example I gave during our discussion. Our work with an energy client included a move to cloud that saved hundreds of tons of CO₂ per year. Invigorated by this success, we worked together to find other opportunities, including substantial CO₂ savings in streamlining procurement processes. By working in partnership to build a workable roadmap and making best use of IT, we are now collectively committed to saving one million tons of CO₂. That’s 10% of our global commitment from just one client relationship and its extended ecosystem. 

Such results exemplify the power of collaboration in achieving large-scale sustainability goals. The challenge of sustainability is too great for any of us to tackle alone. It’s a team sport. Only by working together can we help clients get the futures they want. 

Join us in creating a sustainable future for all 

Achieving ESG goals requires a collaborative effort. By working together across departments, partners, and industries, organizations can leverage data and technology to create a more sustainable future. 

Ready to unlock your organization’s ESG potential? Explore how our ServiceNow partnership can help you develop a winning ESG program.  

Capgemini at ServiceNow Knowledge 2024

Earmarked as the most intelligent Knowledge yet, ServiceNow’s flagship event, Knowledge 2024 will bring together 15,000 brilliant minds from across the globe in the heart of Las Vegas. There you’ll discover new ways to drive digital transformation, unlock new levels of efficiency and innovation by putting AI to work for your people.

Productivity, meet experience. As a ServiceNow partner and a Platinum sponsor, we’ll be bringing to you experiences, demos and sessions to help you explore how to drive organizational success through seamless, people-centric approaches.

Visit us at booth 5208 to reimagine your employee journey.