Eliott Mourier, you are a Data compliance manager, how do you support companies today?
Micropole's Data Compliance department, which I have had the pleasure of managing since 2016, strives to build bridges between the legal and compliance departments on the one hand, and the IT departments on the other, which must work together to ensure that companies comply with the ever-increasing number of technical regulations concerning digital technology, data protection and security, and artificial intelligence.
At the heart of regulatory concerns, CSR (Social and Environmental Responsibility) has become a real lever of transformation for companies. How have these societal issues become part of business strategies?
It is no longer a debate, we are now all convinced of the relevance of a CSR strategy and its societal and generational dimension.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR), also known as corporate social responsibility,is defined by the Commission as the'voluntary integration by companies of social and environmental concerns into their business activities and their relations with stakeholders.
Until recently, the legal framework was still relatively flexible, but it is clearly being strengthened, particularly on structuring subjects such as the impact on the climate, waste and the circular economy, pay equity, responsible digital technology and extra-financial reporting.
We must be aware that CSR has become a real lever of financing for many structures. SRIs (socially responsible investments) are developing and offer advantageous mechanisms such as impact credit, which allows companies to borrow at relatively low rates if they meet certain CSR criteria.
CSR commitments are also likely to generate substantial operational savings (particularly in terms of energy expenses), thus helping to improve the overall profitability of companies.
From a human resources point of view, a genuine commitment to CSR becomes a real argument for giving meaning to the organization's objectives and for attracting and retaining new employees.
These new challenges and issues inevitably generate new needs in companies. How do you respond to this demand at Micropole ?
Micropole has been supporting its customers for years in their inevitable transformations, whether organizational or digital. We also help them to understand and comply with new regulations that are imposed on them and that are likely to impact their systems and data management.
It is interesting to note that CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) commitments echo other existing regulatory obligations such as the AGEC, which, since 2020, requires better product traceability, more detailed knowledge of suppliers and more transparent data management throughout the production chain. In this respect, Micropole supports many retail players, particularly in the luxury sector, in the collection, consolidation and reliable and transparent restitution of their product data.
Another interesting example is the link between the principles of minimizing and limiting the retention of personal data under the RGPD (European Data Protection Regulation) and the increasingly strong expectations in terms of "Green IT" or "responsible digital" driven by CSR. Micropole is therefore now offering its customers a wider range of Data Cleaning services - which aimed to clean up obsolete personal data from information systems - to all structured and unstructured data and useless documents in their systems, while calculating the quantity of CO2 equivalent saved.
"Micropole is thus striving to put its expertise in data and systems at the service of its customers' new CSR needs and challenges. Another striking example is certainly the support we provide to our clients in the construction of their extra-financial reports.
Yoni, you are the director of the Finance Transformation & Performance entity, specialized in performance management and planning. How do you support companies in their transformation?
Companies are face a changing environment that requires them to become more reactiveves and agile.
Our entity accompanies them in the transformation of their management and planning process, through our consulting and implementation activities d''EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) solutions to meet these challenges.
The Data has truly become a keystone for successful transformation on CSR TRANSFORMATION. How does extra-financial reporting become essential for to monitor its performance and its environmental impact?
This reporting has several objectives it allows of course to respond to legislation, but above all it helps companies to manage their extra-financial performance (social, societal and environmental) by providing them with the level of information necessary for effective decision-making.
First of all, finding and cleaning the data is a major challenge to produce this reporting.
Once the data has been qualified, the teams can begin the calculation and aggregation work to bring out the relevant indicators needed for production, publication and decision-making.
To implement this set of tools, multiple technical skills are required: From Data Governance, through Data Preparation, Data Store, Data Calculation or Data Vizualization that must be combined with functional and business skills. Skills that we must continue to acquire to become a key player in CSR issues.
Beyond reporting, we notice that companies now want to anticipate, predict and plan their impacts on the climate.
Absolutely! From tomorrow, all companies will be challenged on the achievement of their "CSR" objectives in order to attract customers, suppliers, investors, and even employees! They will be challenged in the same way as they are today on their profitability or growth objectives.
We realize that the performance management and connected planning tools, the EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) are perfectly adapted to this need. Companies will be able to build their CO2 consumption and carbon impact reduction forecasts with the same tools used to build their financial forecasts.
The improvement of gender equality indicators (salary, distribution, promotion) will be piloted with the same tools that are currently used to manage the workforce and the payroll.
To sum up, CSR is becoming a priority topic for companies, and technology is already ready to respond.
This is a promising subject that has become a societal issue that every consulting firm must take into account in its strategy. Micropole has positioned itself as a player in these areas by supporting companies in their transformation through Data and by l'Micropole is positioning itself as a player in these areas by helping companies to transform themselves through Data and, in this case, in their responsible and sustainable transformation.
