As green IT has become increasingly mainstream over the past couple of years, providers are now beginning to move into IT for green. IT for green represents a fundamental shift from the data center and distributed IT activities that predominantly characterized green IT. This requires not only a change in service offering but also a shift in the portfolio and go-to-market strategy of vendors and service providers — going beyond helping the IT organization to becoming an enabler of a corporatewide, holistic vision of sustainability.

This means that strategists charting their firm's course in the green IT and sustainability market need to:

• Sharpen the ROI story. Companies that are lagging in their adoption of green IT and wider sustainability initiatives face several barriers to adoption that have still not been fully overcome. Too many competing priorities, a lack of organizational ownership, and a lack of clear ROI metrics all play their part in dampening demand for green IT capabilities. To overcome this, vendor strategists must redouble their efforts to provide tangible evidence of ROI, both through "hard" cost savings on energy bills and "soft" returns like improved brand perception, higher employee satisfaction and retention, and greater ability to meet customer requirements for greener processes and products.

• Aim higher in customer organizations. As seen in our survey data, many companies are moving past the basics of energy efficiency and consolidation in their IT infrastructure. While green data centers and PC power management will continue to penetrate corporate IT shops, vendors seeking leadership positions must shift their focus to the role that IT organizations, and IT infrastructure, will play in broader, corporatewide sustainability programs. This realm of IT for green is where the bigger potential impact lies to make long-lasting changes to the business. This is the fundamental shift to IT for green.

  For strategists, this means engaging at the top of the IT organization, where the business interface lies — helping IT leaders collaborate with their counterparts in operations, finance, marketing, and HR to identify and pursue initiatives where IT can enable greener business policies and practices.

• Source - Forrester