FAQ
Questions about Sopht, answered
What CIOs, Green IT managers and CSR teams ask us most about measuring and reducing the cost and footprint of IT, module by module.
Platform
What is IT efficiency management, and how is it different from FinOps or a carbon accounting tool?
IT efficiency management measures what your IT estate costs, financially and environmentally, and turns that view into prioritized actions. FinOps tools optimize cloud spend only, and carbon accounting tools aggregate yearly totals. Sopht reads cost, energy and carbon on the same data, across cloud, on-premises, devices and applications, and keeps the view up to date so teams can act on it.
Which parts of the IT estate does Sopht cover?
Sopht covers five modules: multi-cloud (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud), on-premises servers and data centers, the workplace (laptops, smartphones, tablets, printers, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace), applications through GreenApp, and AI, from cloud AI services to AI licenses. You can start with one module and add the others later.
How does Sopht collect data without manual work?
Sopht connects to the tools you already run through read-only connectors: cloud cost and usage reports, VMware, ServiceNow, Dynatrace, Microsoft 365 and others. No agent is installed on your machines. Where no API exists, a structured file import fills the gap, and the platform flags data quality issues so they can be fixed at the source.
How quickly do we get a first baseline, and can we start with a single scope?
Most organizations have their first baseline within weeks, after which it refreshes automatically. Starting small is the recommended path: one cloud provider, one business unit or one module, to prove the value internally before extending the scope.
Our data quality is poor. Can we still start?
Yes. Incomplete data is a starting point, not a blocker. Sopht shows where the gaps are and which ones matter most, and for devices it classifies and enriches inventory data automatically, so quality improves while you already work on the first actions.
Can a large group roll out Sopht by entity, country or site?
Yes. Each business unit can have its own space while the group keeps a consolidated view, and every dashboard can be filtered by subsidiary, country or site. Groups usually roll out entity by entity, without asking local IT teams to change their tools.
How do recommendations and simulations work?
Sopht pre-identifies optimization levers on your own data, such as rightsizing, decommissioning or extending device lifespan, and estimates their potential. In the simulator you choose the levers, set how far to push each one, and see the cost and carbon gain together with the effort involved. The scenarios you keep become actions in your plan.
How do we track progress against a baseline and a target?
Every action, whether it comes from a recommendation or is created by your team, lands in one action plan. Sopht tracks the trajectory against your baseline and your target, so each review shows what was done and what it changed in cost and carbon.
How do we prove the return on investment to leadership?
Sopht quantifies every lever in euros as well as in carbon. For every euro invested in the platform, clients save four euros on IT operations, and they spend 87% less time collecting data. Simulations can be run before any budget decision to build the business case.
Cloud
We already use a FinOps tool and our providers' dashboards. What does Sopht add?
Sopht adds the carbon and energy layer to the cost data you already have, so cost and footprint are optimized with the same effort. Cost and carbon do not always move together: a cheaper instance or region can be more carbon intensive. Provider dashboards also stay within one cloud, while Sopht consolidates all of them in one view.
How does Sopht compare AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud fairly?
Each provider publishes carbon figures with its own methodology and its own gaps, which makes them impossible to compare. Sopht applies one unified methodology to the cost and usage reports of every provider, so services, regions and providers are measured on the same basis.
What access does Sopht need to our cloud accounts?
Read-only access to your cost and usage reports, plus monitoring endpoints such as CloudWatch when you want usage-level detail. Sopht never writes to your accounts, and data is refreshed daily or weekly depending on the provider.
Can Sopht attribute cloud cost and footprint to applications or teams?
Yes. Sopht uses the tags you already apply to your cloud resources to break down cost and carbon by application, team, environment or business unit, down to the service and region.
Which cloud optimizations does Sopht recommend?
The main levers are rightsizing oversized instances, decommissioning unused virtual machines and moving workloads to lower-carbon regions. A region simulator compares the cost and carbon of relocating your actual services, and every recommendation comes with its estimated gain.
On-premises
How does Sopht measure servers and data centers?
Sopht combines your CMDB, which describes the hardware, with usage data from your monitoring and virtualization tools such as VMware. This reconciles the footprint of manufacturing the equipment with the energy it consumes in operation, host by host.
Can Sopht help consolidate underused hosts and extend server lifespan?
Yes. Sopht shows which hosts run well below capacity and which virtual machines could move, so you can plan consolidation waves and free hardware instead of buying more. Lifespan and refurbished purchasing can be simulated before the next renewal.
Workplace
How does Sopht measure laptops, smartphones, tablets and printers?
Sopht reads your device inventory from tools such as ServiceNow and combines it with usage data when an agent like Nexthink is available, or with manufacturer energy specifications otherwise. You see the footprint and cost of your fleet by device type, model, age and location.
Can we compare buying refurbished, keeping devices longer or switching brands?
Yes. Simulators compare refurbished and new purchases, longer renewal cycles, bring-your-own-device policies and alternative models, with the impact on total cost of ownership over the real lifespan and on carbon per year of use.
Can Sopht measure Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace usage?
Yes. Sopht collects usage data through the Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace APIs, covering storage, email, meetings and collaboration tools such as Teams, Outlook, SharePoint and OneDrive. It is a strong basis for awareness campaigns and usage policies.
Which digital workplace habits weigh the most?
Storage that is no longer used and video calls where audio would be enough are usually the two biggest levers. Sopht quantifies both by business unit and suggests concrete actions, such as purging files untouched for a year or encouraging audio-first meetings.
Applications
What is GreenApp, and what does the EcoScore measure?
GreenApp reads your infrastructure through the lens of each application. The EcoScore, from 1 to 4, compares the resources an application requests with the resources it actually uses, broken down by CPU, memory, storage, network and data center, so oversized applications stand out immediately.
Do we need Dynatrace to use GreenApp?
GreenApp builds on an observability platform. Dynatrace is supported today and teams can also see GreenApp recommendations directly inside Dynatrace, so the people who run the applications act without switching tools.
Does GreenApp cover Kubernetes and development pipelines?
Yes, as long as they are monitored by your observability platform. Kubernetes workloads get their own view, and pipelines hosted in your infrastructure are measured like any other workload, in GreenApp or in the cloud and on-premises modules.
How are application recommendations prioritized?
Each recommendation carries a trust level, the number of resources concerned and its estimated gain, and is weighed against the business criticality of the application. For cloud hosts, the rightsizing recommendation includes the financial saving based on public prices.
AI
Can Sopht measure the cost and footprint of our AI usage?
Yes. Sopht brings AI into the same view as the rest of your IT, with its cost, energy and carbon. You see your total AI spend and footprint at a glance, then drill down from the whole organization to a single service, model or license. Usage collected through APIs and usage you declare manually are shown separately, so you always know what is measured.
Which AI usage does Sopht capture?
Sopht captures AI services consumed through your cloud providers, such as AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI or Azure OpenAI, direct API usage from model providers such as OpenAI, and AI seats and subscriptions such as Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude. Most organizations track these in three different places: cloud bills, API invoices and license contracts. Sopht consolidates them into one view.
Can we see AI cost and carbon by model?
Yes. Sopht breaks AI usage down by provider, model and model version, down to the token. You can see which models drive most of the bill, how usage shifts from one month to the next and which services rely on the most expensive models.
Why does our AI bill grow faster than our usage?
Model choice is usually the main driver. Moving a workload to a larger or newer model can multiply the bill within a month for the same number of requests, and the jump often goes unnoticed because it is spread across several cloud invoices. Sopht tracks the evolution month by month and model by model, so a model change shows up as soon as it hits the bill.
Can we simulate switching to a smaller or more efficient model?
Yes. The simulator lets you swap one model for another on your actual usage and see the cost and carbon gain before you change anything, quantified down to the token. Teams then check that the smaller model still delivers the quality the use case needs, and keep the swap only where it does.
How is the carbon footprint of an AI model estimated when providers do not publish it?
Model providers do not publish the energy used per token, so the footprint of AI is estimated rather than metered. Sopht relies on EcoLogits, an open-source methodology that combines the number of tokens, the model and the data center region, and shows how each figure was obtained. You get reliable orders of magnitude to compare models, regions and use cases, which is what decisions need.
How does Sopht handle Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude licenses?
Every AI seat and subscription is ranked by cost and emissions, from Copilot to Claude. Figures are flagged as measured when they come from the vendor's usage API, or declared when they come from your contracts. Where usage data is available, you can spot underused seats and right-size subscriptions before renewal.
Reporting
Are Sopht's figures reliable enough for CSRD reporting and audit?
Yes. The methodology is certified against ISO 14064-2 and is visible inside the product, and every figure can be traced back to its source data. The same numbers serve IT decisions and CSRD reporting, so you do not rebuild them once a year.
Which emission scopes does Sopht cover?
Sopht covers the energy your IT consumes in operation, reported under Scope 2, and the emissions from manufacturing the equipment, reported under Scope 3. Energy in kWh and cost in euros are reported alongside carbon.
IT is a small share of our footprint. Why measure it separately?
Because it is one of the few sources you can measure precisely and reduce quickly, often while cutting costs at the same time. Cloud and AI usage keep growing, and generic ESG tools tend to underestimate IT. A dedicated measure keeps it from slipping out of your reduction plan.
Does Sopht replace our ESG platform or our consultants?
No, it complements them. Sopht feeds reliable IT data to your ESG reporting and automates the collection work, so consultants and internal teams spend their time on analysis and decisions rather than on spreadsheets.
Still have a question?
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