“At SAP, our customers are always on top of our mind. With 77 percent of the world’s transactions touching an SAP system, we’re ensuring that our customers’ business systems are always operational.” – Sindhu Gangadharan – Senior Vice President and Managing Director, SAP Labs India
In today’s COVID-19 environment, SAP Labs India remains unfazed implementing initiatives for its team and customers to help them thrive in these challenging times. Programmes such as SAP Transformation Demo webinar session, All-Hands Meeting with Thomas Saueressig, COVID-19 City Scale Epidemic simulator, and the CSR initiatives of the company keep SAP’s community together.
In a recent interview with Business Line, SAP Labs India’s SVP and Managing Director Sindhu Gangadharan talked about the company’s plans and outlook during and after the coronavirus pandemic. An SAP Veteran who has been with the company for about 20 years, Sindhu has deep technical expertise, business knowledge, and leadership skills that led her to manage several global teams.
Explaining what she foresees after COVID-19, Sindhu shared that COVID-19 has forced companies and employees to adapt to the ‘new normal’, which includes remote working. Before, working from home is not widely accepted in India. She exclaimed:
“…overnight, customers and companies had to get comfortable with online communication, collaboration and delivery. “
“In doing so, companies will realise that a digital transformation is no longer an option, but essential to their survival. They will also realise that only by transforming into an intelligent enterprise can they future-proof their operations against disruptions,” Sindhu stressed.
In Keeping Businesses Running
The SAP Labs India MD shared that business continuity plans developed by SAP business, support, and cloud delivery teams have always been in place in case disruptive incidents such as the coronavirus pandemic happen. This ensures that there will be minimal impact on the delivery of services to customers while also safeguarding the health of its employees.
“We have been entrusted by our customers to run their mission-critical business processes,” she emphasized.
Some of the company initiatives and plans in place to help employees and businesses going are:
Working from home as an option. SAP Labs India was one of the first companies to introduce flexible working hours and work-from-home options so transitioning to it as needed during the pandemic was seamless. Rotating schedules were also implemented for onsite business-critical work.
Prioritising employees’ well-being. Virtual platforms, applications for communication, group work, and data backup were set up to ensure employees’ health and safety while working remotely. SAP Come Alive initiative, which delivers online fun, wellness, and motivational programmes, was launched to keep employees’ spirits up.
Constant contact with suppliers. To ensure SAP maintains its service levels and manage supply operational resources, the company is focused on scheduling and in-office practices to reduce the impact of any potential event. SAP also maintains a database of updates and feedback from suppliers concerning COVID-19.
Seizing the Digital Supply Chain Solutions. Recognising the growing digital supply chain management, Sindhu indicated that SAP’s supply chain software would be an area of growth for the company as well as of significant assistance to customers in terms of operational visibility and intelligence in managing their entire supply chain digitally, future-proofing their business with flawless execution. In a report from Transparency Market Research, the global supply chain management solutions market to grow at a CAGR of 11.2 percent within 2018-2026 and anticipated to reach a value of $32.9 billion by 2026.
Sindhu shared a bit about her recent blog on the future of work that encourages agility, flexibility, and security. She explained:
“At SAP, agility and flexibility have always been a part of the work culture. SAP has consistently been identified as an employer of choice due to the forward-looking and innovative policies that we have introduced in our journey towards becoming the workplace of the future.”
“We have created a workplace where our employees can do meaningful and rewarding work. We understand that advances in artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and big data are making a profound impact on how we work, learn, communicate and collaborate, thus we are leveraging the power of these technologies to make our workplace more agile, flexible, and secure,” Sindhu stressed.
SAP Labs India was recognised as the number 1 company in the list of India’s Best Companies to Work for 2019 by the Great Place to Work Institute. The same recognition was given to the company in 2018.