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“影响即服务”软件是如何帮助企业造福社会的?

“影响即服务”软件是如何帮助企业造福社会的?

Tom Davidson, Steve Ellis 2021-06-14
对企业来说,“影响即服务”将让一系列旨在影响利益相关方的举措变得更加真实、易于理解、精确、可扩展,最重要的是使这些活动变得可衡量。

图片来源:Courtesy of Getty Images

软件已经颠覆了世界。它改变了我们的日常活动,并为我们建立了新的生活秩序。想想短期住房、拼车服务、电子支付、流媒体服务等领域的惊人进步吧。软件和技术攻克了一个又一个部门,帮助无数企业重新想象其运营方式的速度、规模和深度。不妨回想一下“软件即服务”(SaaS)如何重塑客户管理领域,并将赛富时公司(Salesforce)转变为一台支撑如此多组织的高效机器。

现在,软件已经将注意力转向社会和环境影响领域。“影响即服务”(Impact-as-a-Service™)时代已然来临。这是EverFi公司在其商业模式中倾情投入的一个概念。是的,如你所见,我们甚至为这个术语注册了商标。

无数企业正在以重新焕发的能量和活力来对待企业社会责任,并积极参与各种社会影响活动。它们被要求在众多问题上公开表明其真实立场,从环境、种族公正,到心理健康和财务能力,不一而足。这些企业正在依靠创新,采用规模化手段来解决这些极其厚重的问题——它们需要数据驱动的解决方案。

企业正在以我们在仅仅几年前还意想不到的方式履行企业社会责任。摩根士丹利等大公司挺身而出,正在为实现净零碳排放而不懈努力,并集中力量促进社区的心理健康。国家橄榄球联盟(NFL)正在全美各地的学校开展品格教育,并进一步推动黑人历史教育。克罗格公司(Kroger)正在设法解决在全美各地社区泛滥成灾的阿片类药物滥用问题。正在推动这些转变的,不只是大型组织:数以百计的小公司和初创企业正在将社会影响战略作为其核心精神。积极转向利益相关者资本主义,并着力加强环境、社会和治理实践,已经成为公共和私人公司的战略要务。

越来越多的人开始相信,一家公司的成功与它对其所服务社区的影响直接相关。在这一理念的感召下,一个庞大的网络正在迅速形成。而这一切都是有原因的。

过去一年的实践表明,企业社会责任不再是一种自上而下,酌情而为的举措。它现已成为一种自下而上的商业需要。包括客户、供应商、监管机构和员工在内,利益相关者越来越直截了当地表达他们对美国企业界的期望。员工不再满足于仅仅赚取一份薪水,他们还想知道雇主是否在推动积极的变革。消费者想知道他们支持和资助的品牌是否在维护他们的信念。董事会和监管机构想知道,他们投资和监督的公司是否倾情拥抱多样性和包容性。这无疑是一种翻天覆地的转变。它在一个我们称之为“影响即服务”的新领域催生了一批新公司。

那么,什么是“影响即服务”,谁在构建这项技术,谁在利用它?简单地说,“影响即服务”能够让企业借助技术力量,大规模地处理和报告棘手的社会问题。该技术的第一阶段集中在四个关键领域:员工多样性、包容性、无意识偏见和防骚扰培训;助力技能提升课程和关键技术教育,帮助学生和员工跟上技术变化,以确保长期的机会和职业发展;旨在追踪和减少温室气体排放的项目;以及企业捐赠和志愿服务。

在这种软件的早期使用者中,微软、谷歌、ADP和摩根大通等科技和金融巨头占据了主导地位。这不足为奇。但在这些以数据为中心的行业之外,包括可口可乐、李维斯和本田在内的大公司也在使用“影响即服务”。就像大多数依靠软件转型的行业一样,“影响即服务”将以无与伦比的创新速度,获得广泛使用和部署。

一批寻求解决这些全球性问题的创业者呼吁企业加强、拥有并扩展这种软件类别。崛起基金(The Rise Fund)和EverFi公司是“影响即服务”领域的重要开拓者。崛起基金是一只掌管着50亿美元的全球影响力投资基金,致力于实现可衡量的社会和环境成果,并获得有竞争力的财务回报。该基金已经为多家“影响即服务”软件供应商提供支持或缔结合作关系,其中包括:

Greenhouse:帮助40多万家公司促进和跟踪招聘的多样性、公平性和包容性;

InStride:与亚利桑那州立大学和弗吉尼亚大学等高等院校密切合作,帮助雇主为员工提供相当于大学水平的课程和学位项目;

Benevity:为650多家公司及其员工和客户管理在线捐赠、助学金发放和志愿服务等企业社会责任项目;

Persefoni:支持组织实现测量和减少碳足迹的目标。

最近,随着虚拟学习的蓬勃发展,我们看到美国企业界正在寻求扩展面向数字时代的关键技能教育。以InStride和EverFi为代表的“影响即服务”公司,已经进入这一领域的最前沿,并且正在以前所未有的方式重新构想这个空间。2017年,崛起基金与EverFi合作,进行了首次“影响即服务”投资。EverFi致力于帮助企业建立缺失的学习层,迄今为止已经为逾3000家大型企业开发了一流的“影响即服务”产品,并重塑了K-12系统(即中小学教育)的关键技能教育——此举有望推动未来几代人的生态系统发生变革。

在EverFi,我们相信一个人即使不经历一系列毁灭性的财务错误,也能够掌握财务能力。心理健康可以不只是学校走廊里的窃窃私语。医疗保健知识不需要充满困惑和恐惧。可持续发展教育的重心不只是理解循环利用。借助于“影响即服务”解决方案,EverFi专注提供可随时启用、由数据驱动,并且具有可扩展性的项目,助力企业解决一些最棘手的社会问题。EverFi的解决方案触达全美所有社区的学生,尤其注重覆盖贫困社区的学生,竭力为他们创造公平的竞争环境,扩大实现终生成功的机会。

EverFi的“影响即服务”解决方案和数字教育内容,与数千家领先品牌、全球公司、体育联盟和基金会携手合作。通过赞助和参与教育等社会议题,这些组织正在为其社区提供关键的解决方案,同时获得各类指标和董事会级别的报告——这些报告有助于企业掌握它们正在对社会产生哪些积极的影响。对企业来说,“影响即服务”将让一系列旨在影响利益相关方的举措变得更加真实、易于理解、精确、可扩展,最重要的是使这些活动变得可衡量。

随着可持续发展、技能提升、多样化的招聘实践、缺失的学习层等问题,以及更广泛的社会影响举措,日益扎根于各大公司的议程之中,对“影响即服务”技术的需求肯定会不断增长,因为这种技术能够帮助企业大规模地实施和推动变革。很快,大多数公司将采用全套的“影响即服务”解决方案——假以时日,其规模足以与它们的“软件即服务”系统相媲美——以帮助它们实现环境、社会和企业治理(ESG)以及企业社会责任目标。从其他市场被技术改造的趋势来看,我们预计,随着“影响即服务”公司争相成为行业领导者,未来几年将会出现激烈的竞争。

通过帮助企业提升效率和生产力,“软件即服务”迅速发展成为一个价值1230亿美元的产业。同样地,我们预计,通过帮助世界各地的公司扩大其社会影响力,应对全球挑战,同时建立起惠及所有利益相关者的强大业务,“影响即服务 ”将以类似的速度迅猛发展。(财富中文网)

本文作者汤姆·戴维森是EverFi的创始人及首席执行官。史蒂夫·埃利斯是崛起基金(Rise Fund)的联席管理合伙人。

译者:任文科

软件已经颠覆了世界。它改变了我们的日常活动,并为我们建立了新的生活秩序。想想短期住房、拼车服务、电子支付、流媒体服务等领域的惊人进步吧。软件和技术攻克了一个又一个部门,帮助无数企业重新想象其运营方式的速度、规模和深度。不妨回想一下“软件即服务”(SaaS)如何重塑客户管理领域,并将赛富时公司(Salesforce)转变为一台支撑如此多组织的高效机器。

现在,软件已经将注意力转向社会和环境影响领域。“影响即服务”(Impact-as-a-Service™)时代已然来临。这是EverFi公司在其商业模式中倾情投入的一个概念。是的,如你所见,我们甚至为这个术语注册了商标。

无数企业正在以重新焕发的能量和活力来对待企业社会责任,并积极参与各种社会影响活动。它们被要求在众多问题上公开表明其真实立场,从环境、种族公正,到心理健康和财务能力,不一而足。这些企业正在依靠创新,采用规模化手段来解决这些极其厚重的问题——它们需要数据驱动的解决方案。

企业正在以我们在仅仅几年前还意想不到的方式履行企业社会责任。摩根士丹利等大公司挺身而出,正在为实现净零碳排放而不懈努力,并集中力量促进社区的心理健康。国家橄榄球联盟(NFL)正在全美各地的学校开展品格教育,并进一步推动黑人历史教育。克罗格公司(Kroger)正在设法解决在全美各地社区泛滥成灾的阿片类药物滥用问题。正在推动这些转变的,不只是大型组织:数以百计的小公司和初创企业正在将社会影响战略作为其核心精神。积极转向利益相关者资本主义,并着力加强环境、社会和治理实践,已经成为公共和私人公司的战略要务。

越来越多的人开始相信,一家公司的成功与它对其所服务社区的影响直接相关。在这一理念的感召下,一个庞大的网络正在迅速形成。而这一切都是有原因的。

过去一年的实践表明,企业社会责任不再是一种自上而下,酌情而为的举措。它现已成为一种自下而上的商业需要。包括客户、供应商、监管机构和员工在内,利益相关者越来越直截了当地表达他们对美国企业界的期望。员工不再满足于仅仅赚取一份薪水,他们还想知道雇主是否在推动积极的变革。消费者想知道他们支持和资助的品牌是否在维护他们的信念。董事会和监管机构想知道,他们投资和监督的公司是否倾情拥抱多样性和包容性。这无疑是一种翻天覆地的转变。它在一个我们称之为“影响即服务”的新领域催生了一批新公司。

那么,什么是“影响即服务”,谁在构建这项技术,谁在利用它?简单地说,“影响即服务”能够让企业借助技术力量,大规模地处理和报告棘手的社会问题。该技术的第一阶段集中在四个关键领域:员工多样性、包容性、无意识偏见和防骚扰培训;助力技能提升课程和关键技术教育,帮助学生和员工跟上技术变化,以确保长期的机会和职业发展;旨在追踪和减少温室气体排放的项目;以及企业捐赠和志愿服务。

在这种软件的早期使用者中,微软、谷歌、ADP和摩根大通等科技和金融巨头占据了主导地位。这不足为奇。但在这些以数据为中心的行业之外,包括可口可乐、李维斯和本田在内的大公司也在使用“影响即服务”。就像大多数依靠软件转型的行业一样,“影响即服务”将以无与伦比的创新速度,获得广泛使用和部署。

一批寻求解决这些全球性问题的创业者呼吁企业加强、拥有并扩展这种软件类别。崛起基金(The Rise Fund)和EverFi公司是“影响即服务”领域的重要开拓者。崛起基金是一只掌管着50亿美元的全球影响力投资基金,致力于实现可衡量的社会和环境成果,并获得有竞争力的财务回报。该基金已经为多家“影响即服务”软件供应商提供支持或缔结合作关系,其中包括:

Greenhouse:帮助40多万家公司促进和跟踪招聘的多样性、公平性和包容性;

InStride:与亚利桑那州立大学和弗吉尼亚大学等高等院校密切合作,帮助雇主为员工提供相当于大学水平的课程和学位项目;

Benevity:为650多家公司及其员工和客户管理在线捐赠、助学金发放和志愿服务等企业社会责任项目;

Persefoni:支持组织实现测量和减少碳足迹的目标。

最近,随着虚拟学习的蓬勃发展,我们看到美国企业界正在寻求扩展面向数字时代的关键技能教育。以InStride和EverFi为代表的“影响即服务”公司,已经进入这一领域的最前沿,并且正在以前所未有的方式重新构想这个空间。2017年,崛起基金与EverFi合作,进行了首次“影响即服务”投资。EverFi致力于帮助企业建立缺失的学习层,迄今为止已经为逾3000家大型企业开发了一流的“影响即服务”产品,并重塑了K-12系统(即中小学教育)的关键技能教育——此举有望推动未来几代人的生态系统发生变革。

在EverFi,我们相信一个人即使不经历一系列毁灭性的财务错误,也能够掌握财务能力。心理健康可以不只是学校走廊里的窃窃私语。医疗保健知识不需要充满困惑和恐惧。可持续发展教育的重心不只是理解循环利用。借助于“影响即服务”解决方案,EverFi专注提供可随时启用、由数据驱动,并且具有可扩展性的项目,助力企业解决一些最棘手的社会问题。EverFi的解决方案触达全美所有社区的学生,尤其注重覆盖贫困社区的学生,竭力为他们创造公平的竞争环境,扩大实现终生成功的机会。

EverFi的“影响即服务”解决方案和数字教育内容,与数千家领先品牌、全球公司、体育联盟和基金会携手合作。通过赞助和参与教育等社会议题,这些组织正在为其社区提供关键的解决方案,同时获得各类指标和董事会级别的报告——这些报告有助于企业掌握它们正在对社会产生哪些积极的影响。对企业来说,“影响即服务”将让一系列旨在影响利益相关方的举措变得更加真实、易于理解、精确、可扩展,最重要的是使这些活动变得可衡量。

随着可持续发展、技能提升、多样化的招聘实践、缺失的学习层等问题,以及更广泛的社会影响举措,日益扎根于各大公司的议程之中,对“影响即服务”技术的需求肯定会不断增长,因为这种技术能够帮助企业大规模地实施和推动变革。很快,大多数公司将采用全套的“影响即服务”解决方案——假以时日,其规模足以与它们的“软件即服务”系统相媲美——以帮助它们实现环境、社会和企业治理(ESG)以及企业社会责任目标。从其他市场被技术改造的趋势来看,我们预计,随着“影响即服务”公司争相成为行业领导者,未来几年将会出现激烈的竞争。

通过帮助企业提升效率和生产力,“软件即服务”迅速发展成为一个价值1230亿美元的产业。同样地,我们预计,通过帮助世界各地的公司扩大其社会影响力,应对全球挑战,同时建立起惠及所有利益相关者的强大业务,“影响即服务 ”将以类似的速度迅猛发展。(财富中文网)

本文作者汤姆·戴维森是EverFi的创始人及首席执行官。史蒂夫·埃利斯是崛起基金(Rise Fund)的联席管理合伙人。

译者:任文科

Software has disrupted the world. It has changed our routines and established a new order in our lives. Consider the advances in short-term housing, ride-sharing services, electronic payments, streaming services, and so much more. Software and technology have moved from sector to sector, helping companies reimagine the speed, scale, and depth of how they operate. Think about how Software as a Service (SaaS) reinvented the world of customer management and transformed Salesforce into the machine that underpins so many organizations.

Now, software has turned its attention to the world of social and environmental impact. The era of Impact-as-a-Service™ has arrived. It’s a concept EverFi is fully committed to in its business model—so much so that we even trademarked the term.

Corporations are approaching corporate social responsibility (CSR) and engaging in social impact initiatives with renewed energy and vigor. They are being asked to take a real and public stand on a myriad of issues, from the environment and racial justice to mental health and financial capability. They are relying on innovation to tackle these massive problems at scale, and they require data-driven solutions.

Corporations are committing to CSR in ways we would never have expected just a few years ago. Large companies like Morgan Stanley are standing up in the fight for net-zero carbon emissions and making a concentrated push in communities for mental well-being. The National Football League is taking on character education in schools across the country and furthering education on Black history. Kroger is tackling the epidemic of opioid misuse in communities nationwide. And this isn’t just a shift being made by large organizations: There are hundreds of smaller companies and startups that are adopting social impact strategies as central to their ethos. The shift to stakeholder capitalism and the focus on strengthening environmental, social, and governance practices has become a strategic imperative for public and private companies alike.

There is a massive network coalescing around the notion that a company’s success is directly tied to the impact it has on the communities it serves. And all for good reason.

The past year has underscored that CSR is no longer a top-down, discretionary initiative, it’s now a bottom-up business imperative. Stakeholders including customers, suppliers, regulators, and employees have become increasingly vocal in their expectations of Corporate America. It is no longer enough to just earn a paycheck—employees want to know that their employer is driving positive change. Consumers want to know that the brands they support and fund uphold their beliefs. And boards and regulators want to know that the companies they invest in and monitor are recognizing diversity and inclusion across the board. This shift has been seismic. It has birthed a new crop of companies in a new category we call Impact-as-a-Service.

So what is Impact-as-a-Service, who is building it, and who is leveraging it? Simply put, Impact-as-a-Service enables companies, through technology, to tackle and report on intractable social issues at scale. Phase 1 of this technology has concentrated on four key areas: employee diversity, inclusion, unconscious bias, and harassment prevention training; upskilling courses and critical skills education to help students and employees stay up to date on changes in technology, to ensure long-term opportunity and career advancement; programs to track and reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and corporate giving and volunteerism programs.

Not surprisingly, tech and financial giants including Microsoft, Google, ADP, and JPMorgan Chase dominate the ranks of early adopters of this software. But major companies outside those data-centric industries, including Coca-Cola, Levi Strauss, and Honda, are using Impact-as-a-Service, too. As has been the case with most software-transformed industries, Impact-as-a-Service will be broadly adopted and implemented with an unparalleled speed of innovation.

Entrepreneurs working to solve these global problems are asking companies to step up, own, and scale this Impact-as-a-Service category. The Rise Fund and EverFi are at the forefront of the category creation. The Rise Fund, a $5 billion global impact investing fund committed to achieving measurable, positive social and environmental outcomes alongside competitive financial returns, has backed or partnered with several Impact-as-a-Service software providers. Among them are…

Greenhouse, which helps more than 400,000 companies promote and track diversity, equity, and inclusion in hiring;

InStride, which works with colleges like Arizona State University and the University of Virginia to enable employers to offer college-level courses and degree programs to their employees;

Benevity, which manages social responsibility programs such as online giving, grants, and volunteer work for more than 650 companies, their employees, and customers;

Persefoni, which supports organizations in their goals to measure and reduce their carbon footprint.

Recently, with the move to virtual learning, we have seen Corporate America looking to scale critical skills education for the digital age. Impact-as-a-Service companies like InStride and EverFi have moved to the foreground of this sector and are reimagining the space like never before. In 2017, the Rise Fund partnered with EverFi for its inaugural Impact-as-a-Service investment. EverFi helps companies build the missing learning layer, and to date has developed a premier Impact-as-a-Service offering for over 3,000 large enterprises, reimagining K–12 education in critical skills that can drive ecosystems of change for generations to come.

At EverFi, we believe that financial capability can be mastered without a series of devastating financial mistakes. Mental health can be more than whispers in school hallways. Health care literacy doesn’t need to be fraught with confusion and fear. Sustainability education can focus on more than understanding recycling. By leveraging Impact-as-a-Service solutions, EverFi offers turnkey, data-driven, and scalable programs that can help address some of society’s most intractable problems. EverFi reaches students across the country in all communities, with a special focus on reaching students in disadvantaged communities to help level the playing field and further opportunities for lifelong success.

EverFi’s Impact-as-a-Service solutions and digital educational content work hand in hand with thousands of leading brands, global companies, sports leagues, and foundations. Through sponsorship and engagement around issues like education, these organizations are delivering critical solutions to their communities while receiving metrics and board-level reporting to show how they positively impact society. For corporations, Impact-as-a-Service makes stakeholder engagement more authentic, accessible, precise, scalable, and most important, measurable.

As sustainability, upskilling, diverse hiring practices, issues like the missing learning layer, and broader social impact initiatives become firmly embedded in companies’ agendas, the need for Impact-as-a-Service technology that enables them to implement and drive change at scale is certain to grow. Soon, most companies will employ full suites of Impact-as-a-Service solutions, which will rival their SaaS systems in size, to help steer their environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and CSR objectives to fruition. And following the trends of other markets transformed by technology, we expect that there will be fierce competition over the next few years as Impact-as-a-Service companies jockey to be leaders within the space.

SaaS quickly became a $123 billion industry making companies more efficient and productive. We anticipate that Impact-as-a-Service will expand at a similar pace, enabling companies worldwide to scale their impact and address our global challenges while building strong businesses that benefit all stakeholders.

Tom Davidson is the founder and CEO of EverFi. Steve Ellis is co–managing partner at the Rise Fund.

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