How Flexera’s sustainability program builds strong customer relationships

Challenge

Rising climate demands and the need for sustainability expertise

When IT management solution Flexera noticed a spike in highly regulated customers requesting their sustainability commitments, they knew they had to focus on sustainability. So they launched a sustainability program that has improved customer relationships and helped the company prioritize sustainability as a corporate initiative.

SaaS-based Flexera helps companies get the most out of their technology investments by providing visibility and actionable insights into IT ecosystems. They know the importance of getting that same visibility and insights into their own data, including sustainability data, firsthand. But because sustainability was a new initiative, Flexera didn’t have any way to gather or understand such data, let alone set and track goals. With encouragement from investors and employees, as well as strong requests from highly regulated customers, Flexera turned to Watershed to manage all sustainability initiatives and launch the program. They discovered eye-opening insights and can now respond to customer requests faster, resulting in a smoother sales cycle.

Kraig Washburn, Flexera’s General Counsel, stepped up to lead the efforts, with the support of Jordan Hojati, Flexera’s Associate General Counsel. They collaborate with cross-functional partners, such as the Sales, Finance, and Procurement teams, to set goals, build strategies, and respond to mounting internal and external sustainability requests.

How customers, employees, and the industry sparked Flexera's sustainability efforts

Flexera recently began to receive customer pressure to measure, report, and set sustainability targets from both existing and prospective customers, especially from their large, heavily regulated customers—many of which are based in Europe. “It started to put us in a position where sales cycles would be increasingly impacted if we didn’t address our sustainability commitments,” says Washburn. And even if customers weren’t asking for numbers, many still wanted to know that Flexera had a plan to address their climate impact.

Not only were Flexera’s employees and customers asking about sustainability, but the company began to see it in reports from Gartner and Forrester, which have started grading SaaS providers on sustainability efforts. Overall, tackling sustainability became a strategic need for the company to tackle.

“We knew we had to look at our climate numbers and set a plan, but we didn’t have a way to get the numbers. ”

Jordan Hojati,
Associate General Counsel, Vice President

Some customers requested the company sign up for a Watershed competitor, but as Hojati explains, “That platform didn’t give us any visibility into our data or provide us with a way to set goals and track our progress toward them.”

Solution

Responding to customer requests and setting climate goals with reliable data

Flexera chose Watershed because of its ease of use. “We were new to the space and wanted a vendor to help us get up to speed quickly without throwing a team of people at solving this,” Washburn explains. “We needed a company we could partner with and a tool we could use ourselves—Watershed was that.”

The team spun up the program and established its first sustainability footprint within three months.

Using eye-opening insights to rapidly establish a baseline

With Watershed implemented, the team established their baseline footprint, which was critical for responding to customer questions and determining a longer-term plan.

“Our first effort in sustainability was eye-opening. We didn’t know what we could or would find, but Watershed helped us understand what we didn’t know and gave us a true sense of where our emissions were coming from for the first time.”

Kraig Washburn,
SVP, General Counsel

There were areas Washburn and the team expected to see emissions—like cloud hosting providers and travel—but others were a surprise, such as the environmental impact of an office renovation. “The good news is that many of our highest emissions causes were easily addressable—Watershed helped us see the proverbial low-hanging fruit,” he says.

With a baseline established and a way to consistently gather and share data, the team quickly made sustainability top of mind for the whole company.

Proactive risk mitigation: How Flexera addresses customer and investor needs

Using Watershed helps Flexera arm the business with critical information that mitigates risk across the organization. They're able to:

• Reduce the risk of churn or lost business by quickly addressing customer questions;
• improve turnaround times for RFP responses; and
• exceed investors' due diligence expectations.

One of Flexera’s primary goals in adopting Watershed was to address customer requests and reduce the risk of churn or lost business. "Many of our customers are banks, financial institutions, and insurance companies—a group, in particular, that has been the most out front on climate issues,” Hojati explains. “As we started seeing these customers pushing back on contract spend and lengths without us having a formalized sustainability plan, we knew Watershed would help us maintain positive customer relationships.”

With these larger customers—who bring more significant deals to the table—Flexera needed to respond to the pressures of global sustainability regulations. Using Watershed, Hojati put together standard responses to RFPs, shortening the time to address customer requests and speeding up the sales process. “Our goal is to front-load the process and equip sellers with the information they need to scale their deals,” he says.

Results

Improving sustainability reporting, mitigating risk, and achieving top scores

With Watershed, the team feels capable of responding to mounting requests from customers and mitigating risk. Says Washburn: “We operate with many large customers spending a material amount of money with Flexera each year, and that future revenue was beginning to be tied to having a sustainability posture with an actionable plan. We are much better equipped to meet their demands with Watershed.”

The team can also better predict revenue since they can anticipate customer requests about climate—and respond appropriately.

“Watershed has put us in a great position to be responsive to customer demands: We went from not understanding the climate space beyond customer requests to putting together a multi-faceted plan.”

Kraig Washburn,
SVP, General Counsel

Flexera has also expanded its ability to respond to climate as a part of the investor due diligence process. “One of my primary jobs is to think about making sure Flexera can meet new investors’ due diligence efforts, and climate is a critical pillar that we need to ensure we’re positioned to answer,” Washburn says. Using Watershed, Flexera can quickly gather data and ensure they meet investor requests with trustworthy, up-to-date information.

Using accurate data to boost Ecovadis scores and drive sales success

Before using Watershed, Flexera relied on sustainability reports like Ecovadis to report on its climate impact to customers and investors. However, because Flexera lacked a formalized strategy and couldn’t report on actual emissions numbers, the company achieved poor scores. “We’d answer some of the questions, but often didn’t have anything to share because we didn’t have a way of tracking our emissions accurately,” Hojati says. As a result, they scored in the 30s.

With Watershed, Flexera now has accurate data and raised its Ecovadis supply chain sustainability rating into the 60s, a material positive increase, placing Flexera in the top quartile of companies reporting with Ecovadis.

“Improving our Ecovadis score with Watershed data removed a huge barrier to sales and proved the value of the Watershed platform very quickly.”

Jordan Hojati,
Associate General Counsel, Vice President

Elevating sustainability to a corporate initiative

In early 2024, when Flexera’s team got together for its annual all-hands, the company’s CEO underscored sustainability as one of its critical corporate initiatives that was addressed in 2023, highlighting the company’s progress and enthusiasm for sustainability work.

With a dedicated platform to track emissions and its multifaceted climate plan, Flexera expanded its understanding of sustainability and brought it to the forefront of the company’s work. Their climate promise lives front and center on their website, and their own product is evolving to include sustainability insights, empowering customers to visualize and improve their sustainability efforts.

“Eighteen months ago, I was asked to lead something I didn’t have any exposure to or understand—our sustainability program. Partnering with Watershed brought a deep level of expertise, which has been hugely helpful in elevating our efforts and protecting our business. We wanted to be on the leading edge of our peer group regarding climate, and Watershed has helped us get there.”

Kraig Washburn,
SVP, General Counsel