Analysis of the company
- Background of the company
Dassault Systèmes is a French company that designs engineering software to assist organizations in waste reduction. The company prides itself in 3DEXPERIENCE Center Network, which comprises of innovation labs, whereby tech experts, industry experts, regulatory authorities, and researchers work collaboratively to shape the future of various industries (About Dassault Systems, 2019). All of the company’s centers for innovation share the common objective of providing a dedicated environment for using viable solutions and expertise to meet the objectives of clients. The company seeks to drive innovation by helping companies to achieve digital continuity and by offering support systems through engineering, manufacturing, among other processes. In order to deliver its 3DEXPERIENCE service, the company offers clients a number of options – in one day, clients could explore the power of the service while exploring options with a team of experts. Alternatively, in a 3-5 workshop, the client could work with the company’s experts to solve an engineering challenge (About Dassault Systems, 2019). For the third option, the client could authorize a team of experts from Dassault to utilize the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on its facilities. The final option entails contracting to outsource a team of the company’s engineers. Considering that the company’s primary focus is to consistently improve the systems of its clients through innovative engineering, it is unsurprising that the company ranks so high in Corporate Knights’ performance index.
- Target audience
Dassault’s primary market comprises of large organizations that rely on engineering solutions in order to deliver services and products to the market. An example is Safran Electronics & Defense which used Dassault’s 3DEXPERIENCE service to aid in a digital transformation process. As part of the service offered by Dassault, the company’s team helped Safran employees to master the configuration processes throughout the lifecycle of their products.
Lifecycle of the service
- Materials used
Being a service provider, Dassault does not rely on physical materials to offer services. It however relies on a range of engineering and software products which include CATIA, SOLIDWORKS, ENOVIA, DELMIA, SIMULIA, GEOVIA, EXALEAD, 3DVIA, BIOVIA, NETVIBES, and 3DEXCITE.
- Manufacturing process
As a service provider, Dassault is not directly involved in manufacturing processes. However, the company’s team of experts provides support and recommendations to help clients to determine the best manufacturing processes that would facilitate the attainment of sustainability objectives. These solutions are developed in innovation labs.
- Distribution and purchase
In order to deliver its services, the company’s team of experts work collaboratively with clients’ teams in innovation labs. Alternatively, the team of experts visits specific sites where they conduct any pertinent analysis before developing solutions in the labs. Purchase is done by way of online transactions.
- User experience
The company thrives on providing clients with an interactive user experience that can stand the test of time. As part of the solution-finding process, teams at Dassault are mandated with creating the best possible design solutions that will ease the experience of their clients.
- Disposal
Considering that Dassault is not directly involved in manufacturing processes, mass disposal of wastes does not pose a challenge to the company. However, in order to analyze its carbon footprint and to ensure compliance with globally-set limits for carbon emission, the company relies on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol. The company also uses the Bilan Carbone methodology to report its GHG emissions in France.
Identify the Sustainable Practice
- Indicators used to rank the company
The company was ranked as the world’s most sustainable company based on the following factors: energy productivity score, carbon productivity score, water productivity score, research and development/revenue, cash taxes paid ratio, CEO-average worker pay ratio, pension fund status, injury rate, number of fatalities, employee turnover rate, percentage of women in the workforce, women executives, sustainability Paylink, clean revenue, clean air productivity score, and supplier score (2018 Global 100, 2019). The company scored 86.13%, which compares favorably with 100th ranked Real Estate Management (Singapore) which scored 54.07% (2018 Global 100, 2019).
- Where and how “sustainability” is practiced
As evident from the above-listed factors used to evaluate sustainability, the company’s performance was judged on a wide range of factors, including its compensation culture and the percentage of women in the workforce. Dassault particularly performed favorably on waste productivity score (95%), water productivity score (93.8%), percentage of women in the workforce (45.5%), and the percentage of revenue contributed to taxes (26%) (2018 Global 100, 2019). These high scores are facilitated by the company’s organizational culture which not upholds transparency, sustainable growth, and fair recruitment practices.
- Attributes of the product that have sustainable value
The company’s range of software products have sustainable value because they are designed to help clients to achieve sustainable goals through engineering and design solutions. The range of services offered by the company are neither resource-intensive nor environmentally harmful. However, they are useful in adding value to those that use them. For this reason, the company’s software products and range of services have sustainable value.
References
2018 Global 100. (2019). Corporate Knights. Available at: http://www.corporateknights.com/reports/2018-global-100/#requestReport
About Dassault Systems. (2019). Dassault Systems. Available at: https://www.3ds.com/about- 3ds/