SUNNYVALE, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 04/06/11 -- Fujitsu (http://solutions.us.fujitsu.com) today announced that the Financial Services Industry Benchmark report, launched globally by Fujitsu today, contains the findings of the first multi-country survey to determine the maturity of Green IT practices and technologies within banking, finance and insurance organizations in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and India.

The consumption of energy by IT within the financial services sector is greater than in any other industry as information systems -- with large scale infrastructure, data storage and transaction requirements -- are central to its operations. This makes energy sourcing, usage and pricing important management issues.

Funded by Fujitsu, the Financial Services Green IT Benchmark report quantifies current practices to better understand the role IT can play in maximizing energy efficiencies and enabling organization-wide transformation, to return significant cost savings to the industry.

Alison Rowe, Global Sustainability Executive Director, Fujitsu Group, said: "The results of our benchmarking survey provide an invaluable international perspective on global best practice trends and enable comparisons within countries against similar organizations. The data reveals the potential for Green IT to provide the next set of tools which IT management can leverage for critical energy and cost savings, as well as the flow-on effect of environmental improvement."

The research compared the Green IT maturity of financial services institutions in the four countries under five categories:

• Lifecycle (procurement and disposal)
• End user IT efficiencies
• Enterprise and data center IT efficiencies
• Use of IT as a low-carbon enabler
• Measurement and monitoring

The four countries' financial services sectors were ranked UK first with a score of 63.8, USA at 60.3, Australia at 53.9 and India at 51.1.

And the sector's performance was also ranked against other industries using the Green IT benchmark. Overall, the financial services sector performed just above the average, scoring 57.3 against the top rated ICT sector at 62.6.

Fujitsu sees this as providing broad and positive opportunities for improvement, with enormous potential for Green IT to supply critical energy efficiencies and cost savings to the sector.

Analysis of the data identifies that Metrics is the area which can provide the greatest improvement. Measurement is a precondition to effective energy and emissions management. The sector will also benefit from greater strategic migration to the efficiencies of scale and superior energy saving practices of data centers and cloud.
Rowe said: "At Fujitsu we take our responsibilities for promoting global environmental action very seriously. We also understand that our customers must underpin this action with clear economic benefits. Information of this breadth and caliber provides baseline data to assist managers develop strategies to drive change for large scale, significant impact."

Fujitsu has a long term commitment to the annual production of the Green IT Global Benchmark Research. By reporting the measurement of practices and attitudes over time, these Green IT surveys will track the progress of change. The research will also document the evolving maturity of Green IT and assist in defining best practice. "A score of 75-80 should be the target across every component of the survey," Rowe said.

The global benchmark is based on detailed research, conducted by Connection Research and RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia), of more than 630 CIOs and senior IT managers across industry sectors in the four countries.

The USA's second place ranking in the survey is largely the result of strong performances in Lifecycle and End User computing. Overall the US finance industry performed well but its ranking within the Enterprise area of the survey is still lower than the global average and shows considerable opportunity for improvement.

Fujitsu believes the US financial services sector has the potential to lift to No.1 because of the scale of its operations.

"Our banking and finance sector is recovering from the devastating impact of the recent crisis and it can use this research as powerful proof of the value in making a strategic change to Green IT for underlying cost controls and efficiencies," said Jim Bradbury, vice president of business consulting services at Fujitsu America.

Click here to download a copy of the report:
https://www-s.fujitsu.com/au/whitepapers/Fujitsu_GreenIT_FinancialServices_Industry_Report.html

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About Fujitsu -- www.fujitsu.com
Fujitsu is a leading global service provider of business, information technology and communications solutions. In more than 50 countries around the world Fujitsu partners with customers to consult, design, build, operate and support business solutions. From strategic consulting to application and infrastructure solutions and services, Fujitsu has earned a reputation as the single supplier of choice for leading corporate and government organizations. Fujitsu is a global leader is sustainability, listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index since inception and holds worldwide ISO 14001 certification.

Fujitsu America, Inc. is a leading ICT solutions provider for organizations in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. Fujitsu enables clients to meet their business objectives through integrated offerings including consulting, systems integration, managed services and outsourcing for enterprise applications, data center and field services operations, based on server, software, storage and mobile technologies. Fujitsu provides industry-oriented solutions for manufacturing, retail, healthcare, government, education, financial services and communications sectors. For more information, please visit: http://solutions.us.fujitsu.com/

Fujitsu, the Fujitsu logo and "shaping tomorrow with you" are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fujitsu Limited in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and product names are the property of their respective owners.

About Connection Research -- www.connectionresearch.com.au
Connection Research is a market research and consultancy company specializing in the analysis of sustainability issues. Services are provided in Consumer and Community Sustainability, Green IT, Building Industry and Trades, and Carbon and Compliance. Connection Research undertakes primary research (surveys of users, trades people, suppliers, practitioners), conducts market modelling analysis (combining our primary data with other sources) and consultancy in these fields.

About the methodology
The research uses the methodology developed by Connection Research and RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. The results allow the development of an overall Green IT Readiness index for IT-using organizations in any industry or country.

The methodology allows separate indices to be calculated for each of five key areas of Green IT:

• Green IT Lifecycle (Procurement and Disposal)
• End User IT Efficiencies
• Enterprise and Data Center IT Efficiencies
• Usage of IT as a Low-Carbon Enabler
• Green IT Measurement and Monitoring

The data was gathered through an online survey of organizations in most industry sectors across four countries, which asked respondents at CIO and IT Manager level over 80 questions about their Green IT policies, behavior and technologies in each area.

Press Contact
Fujitsu America Inc.
Wesley Bates
Public Relations Manager
214- 429- 3161
wes.bates@us.fujitsu.com