Ventures from SAP India, Philippines and Japan have been selected as winning teams for SAP’s APJ-wide One Billion Lives (1B Lives) initiative.
The initiative aims to use SAP technology to improve the lives of one billion people across the APJ region in the areas of health and disaster management by 2020.
The winning teams, chosen from over 170 submissions, receive seed money of €200,000, executive support and a startup accelerator with industry experts.
SAP APJ has also invested €200,000 in the overall programme management, which includes the setting up of a process to crowdsource ideas from employees as well as enable employee voting to shortlist the best ideas based on the likelihood of success in terms of feasibility, scalability and ease of implementation.
“Many of us are deeply passionate about giving back to the communities we serve,” said Adaire Fox-Martin, president, SAP Asia Pacific Japan. “1B Lives provides the platform, funding, infrastructure and time to turn a great idea for social impact into a reality. This not only creates shared value and a unifying purpose to engage our employees, but also showcases the power of SAP in making real our vision of helping the world run better and commitment to improving people’s lives.”
The teams have set out a prototype for each venture, which are expected to go live before the end of 2016:
- Seismic safety – A team from SAP Japan has brought together big data and the power of the SAP HANA Cloud Platform to analyst the impact of earthquakes on building stability. The team partnered with Hakusan Corporation, a seismometer manufacturer, to transform smartphones into seismometers to measure building movement during earthquakes. Predictions of building damage will help with disaster preparedness and mitigation strategies in earthquake-prone countries in the region.
- Clinical data collection and research for cancer – Treatment regimens prescribed for Western populations can lead to incorrect dosage, higher toxicity, and higher expenditure for Indian patients, so a team from SAP India has reached out to the Ramesh Nimmagadda Cancer Foundation (RNCF), to help study trends and clinical data to drive the delivery of evidence-based medicine for the Indian population. With data from 100,000 patients already collected, the team aims to improve cancer diagnosis through the development of an open platform powered by SAP HANA that expedites data extraction, computation and predictive analysis.
- Medical assistance made responsive – The team from the Philippines worked with the Philippines Charity Sweepstakes Office, using SAP HANA, to digitise the unpredictable and manual process of gaining access to health services for the underprivileged in the Philippines. By developing a streamlined, efficient and automated application system that delivers a mobile and intuitive user experience will speed up the process, encourage more applicants, and ultimately help more Filipinos in need for assistance.
The venture teams work with public sector agencies, non-governmental organisations and technology device makers to conduct pilots for the last three months.
“The startup model of leveraging venture capitalists as sponsors and accelerated development allows us not only to come up with the best solutions, but also to test a new model where ideas are developed organically, in a way that is both sustainable and commercially viable. We look forward to seeing more life-changing ideas brought to life through 1B Lives, and eventually connect this to broader product development for SAP,” said Fox-Martin.
