SThree Plc. is a recruitment specialist, operating under four distinct brands: Computer Futures, Progressive Recruitment, Huxley Associates, and Real Staffing Group. The company focuses on specific industry sectors, including accounting and finance, banking, engineering and energy, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, and information and communication technology.
Part of SThree’s strategy for corporate social responsibility has been to significantly reduce its carbon footprint. As a result, SThree reduced its carbon footprint in its UK offices by almost one-third—from 2,346 tons in 2007 and 2008 to 1,740 tons in 2011 and 2012.
The Oracle green solution has saved 25 tons in carbon dioxide. SThree implemented Oracle Exadata Database Machine, consolidating its 59 databases and 40 disparate and inefficient database servers into two, co-located Oracle Exadata instances. This enabled the company to improve eco-efficiency by cutting its database server power consumption by more than 50%, which reduced its annual carbon footprint by 25 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2)—the equivalent of 25 flights from London to New York. SThree also saved US$35,500 per year in co-location costs by reducing its rack space by 99 units.
As travel accounts for 25% of SThree’s carbon footprint, the organization implemented a more stringent approval process via a system hosted on Oracle Exadata to reduce corporate travel. The system provides real-time data on travel commitments, manages travel requests, and suggests greener alternatives. As a result of the new policies implemented, SThree has significantly reduced internal meeting travel commitments.
SThree also aimed to reduce in-office paper consumption and minimize resume printing by making online recruitment data available to its sales consultants. SThree took advantage of the performance improvements offered by Oracle Exadata to enable sales consultants to access more recruitment data and resumes on-screen within main sales applications.
Further developments in the new Oracle technology stack enabled SThree to implement electronic client billing, eliminating printed invoices. In addtion, SThree now receives more than 95% of its contractor timesheets through its online timesheeting system. This significantly reduced its carbon footprint by minimizing the amount of paper and ink cartridges it previously used for faxed timesheets.
“Oracle helps us reduce our waste by enabling us to innovate, for example by giving our consultants more data on-screen and thereby reducing our paper requirements. In addition, Oracle’s continued innovation in more efficient technology has helped us to significantly reduce our CO2 emissions as well as to save us money,” said James Maltby, head of IT Strategy, SThree plc.