Interview From a local perspective, Acer UK is working closely with Px3,
a sustainable IT consultancy to deliver independent and science based research and facts associated to our products. We have also worked with Px3 and Consenna to create the
Acer Green Rewards programme, which incentivises companies to trade-in old IT equipment for models with a lower carbon- footprint. Tis is very much targeted towards SMB and Mid-Market end customers. Of course, the missing link here is to provide hardware options
that offer a credible balance of sustainability, performance and design. We are proud of the reaction to the new Acer Aspire Vero laptop, which achieves this tricky goal, and we will launch the Vero business range in 2022.
Please could you explain more about the new Acer Green Rewards reseller tool? Te new Acer Green Rewards scheme enables resellers to instantly quantify the specific reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and also the cost savings that each customer would achieve if they upgraded their IT devices for more energy-efficient Acer equipment. Te instant impact-calculator tool provides all of this crucial information in a simple and scientifically verified format that can then be formally reported by each customer as part of their own ESG strategy. Sounds good, right? It’s a hugely valuable tool for resellers – and yet this is only half the
story. Te scheme also provides incentives for customers to upgrade sustainably, such as cashback and enticing channel promotions. Te goal is to give resellers the data they need so that their customers can make better and more informed decisions. Independent research revealed that 97% of IT decision-makers
in the UK think that reducing their organisation’s carbon footprint is important and yet only half of them actually have a CSR or ESG strategy which includes IT. When we also realised that 95% of these respondents were craving this kind of accurate and reliable information, it was obvious that Acer should help to close the loop. Our mission is to support resellers to have credible
conversations that deliver sustainable solutions. We’re super proud of this programme and are confident it will create a virtuous circle for everyone.
Please could you explain a bit more about migrating the Kingston & Sutton Council offices to Acer Chrome during the pandemic and the cost and emission savings that were made in the following year? We collaborated with these two Local Authorities, which run a shared IT service, for some time prior to the pandemic to plan their migration from legacy Windows-based computers to Chromebooks running Citrix Virtual Desktop. Te goal was to achieve a low maintenance thin-client solution that was more energy-efficient. Te councils had invested in Acer Chromebooks before and during the pandemic and we provided a seamless rollout of these devices. Overnight, some 4,000 staff across both boroughs seamlessly
switched to the new system, which proved ideal for remote working. Tis migration lowered energy consumption by 32% and when you factor in the drop in commuting due to remote working, the total saving was benchmarked at 46% according to the
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environmental-impact audit conducted by Px3. Tis fall equates to a saving of £40k per year in council energy bills. To put it another way, it’d take 3,700 acres of mature forest –
roughly one and a half times the size of nearby Richmond Park – to remove the equivalent amount of pollution from the atmosphere. Best of all, the client says that everything simply works. You’d have to call that a win-win situation.
Post pandemic how is business looking now for Acer? Acer has seen significant growth in the last 2 years across its commercial business globally and in the UK. Our UK commercial business will double in size from 2019. With significant challenges across the industry over the last 18 months, Acer has delivered exceptional service levels to our customers and I’m extremely proud of the entire Acer team in terms of how we have navigated these challenges. Tis strengthens our customer relationships for the future. We have evolved our channel programmes and focused on the value for the customer and our channel partners. Ultimately, we see significant opportunities for aggressive incremental growth as we bring dynamic and disruptive tools to the channel such as Acer Green Rewards. Market conditions are less certain as we go into the post pandemic world, however what is certain is that Acer has never been in a stronger position to enable our partners to grow. It’s an exciting time for Acer and our partners.
What predictions do you have within the channel for 2022? Public sector organisations are increasingly obligated to produce carbon-emission reports and so there will significant growth in the sales of devices that are able to quantify their energy efficiency. Tis is more than a trend – it is the new economics. It’s partly
because individuals have finally woken up to the climate emergency but also due to the structural changes in the way companies will report sustainability. Once adherence to environmental and social goals becomes part of their corporate bottom-line, directly alongside profit, only suppliers who support these corporate aims will survive.
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