In today’s rapidly evolving global business landscape, promoting diversity and inclusion has become a critical priority for organizations worldwide. SAP, a leading multinational software corporation, has long recognized the importance of creating an inclusive workplace that celebrates and empowers all individuals, regardless of their neurological differences. The collaboration with Akshadhaa Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting individuals with autism, marks a significant milestone in SAP’s ongoing efforts to foster a more inclusive workforce.

Empowering the Neurodiverse Community through Code Unnati

The digital learning program launched by SAP Labs India and Akshadhaa Foundation is a testament to their shared commitment to promoting skill development and employment equity. Code Unnati, SAP’s flagship CSR initiative, serves youth between the ages of 14 and 30, providing them with the necessary skills, knowledge, and values to thrive in a rapidly changing world. By extending this program to the neurodiverse community, SAP aims to address income inequality and connect beneficiaries with meaningful employment or entrepreneurship opportunities.

Sindhu Gangadharan, Managing Director of SAP Labs India and Head of Customer Innovation Services at SAP, emphasizes the company’s vision of creating an inclusive future where everyone has equal access to opportunities and resources. She expresses confidence that the partnership with Akshadhaa Foundation will help SAP further extend its efforts to empower the larger neurodiverse community. By unlocking the full potential of neurodivergent talent and helping them break down employment barriers, SAP is fostering an organizational culture that not only empowers but also celebrates diversity.

Sumana Dutta, Founder and Executive Director of Akshadhaa Foundation, echoes the sentiment, highlighting the power of partnership in fostering inclusion and empowerment. By leveraging SAP’s expertise and Akshadhaa’s dedication, the collaboration paves a path of opportunity for neurodivergent individuals, particularly those with autism, in the IT industry. The partnership goes beyond building skills; it aims to break down barriers and ensure that everyone has a chance to thrive and contribute meaningfully. Dutta envisions the collaboration as a catalyst for positive change, inspiring others to join in creating a more inclusive and equitable future.

SAP’s Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

SAP’s dedication to the neurodiverse community extends beyond its own organization to the larger ecosystem. In addition to the digital learning program launched in collaboration with Akshadhaa Foundation, SAP has implemented several initiatives to support and empower neurodivergent individuals. The company’s ‘Autism at Work’ program focuses on recruiting and supporting individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), recognizing the unique talents and perspectives they bring to the workplace.

Furthermore, SAP Labs India has pioneered a network community of corporates that come together to advocate for neurodiverse employment. The ‘India Autism at Work Summit’ is one such initiative that aims to celebrate the success of neurodivergent individuals and create a collaboration platform for the community. By bringing together like-minded organizations and individuals, SAP is driving a movement towards a more inclusive workforce, where diversity is not only accepted but actively celebrated.

The Way Forward: Building an Inclusive Future

The collaboration between SAP Labs India and Akshadhaa Foundation further represents a significant step forward in promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace. By empowering the neurodiverse community through digital learning and skill development, the program aims to break down employment barriers and create meaningful opportunities for neurodivergent individuals.

As organizations increasingly recognize the value of diversity and inclusion, initiatives like Code Unnati serve as a model for others to follow. By investing in the development of neurodivergent talent and creating a supportive and inclusive work environment, companies can tap into a vast pool of untapped potential and drive innovation.

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During these pandemic years, SAP’s deepening presence in India has been demonstrated by the tech giant’s collaborative partnerships with both private and government sectors. Apart from helping organisations thrive in the digital era through intelligent, sustainable software solutions, SAP India and SAP Labs India, the biggest R&D centre of SAP outside Germany, have also created initiatives geared towards uplifting the digital skills and literacy of the country’s youth and professionals. 

Some of the notable partnerships of SAP that drive digital upskilling in India include Code Unnati, a flagship initiative by SAP in India that aims to provide opportunities to develop future skills and workforce readiness among the students and has so far trained more than 1 million students ages 10 to 16 years in digital literacy; ‘TechSaksham’, a joint skilling programme by SAP and Microsoft centred on equipping underserved women students with technology and employability skills to support them in building tech careers; and the AI for Managers training programme by SAP Labs India and Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) focused on delivering AI training courses to managers to further enhance their decision-making competencies through comprehensive knowledge of deep technologies.

Most recently, SAP has partnered with Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University (DSEU) to deliver a six-month training programme designed to engage students in emerging technologies. 

“India has a unique opportunity to become the global talent hub for future skills and drive deeper impact for our societies, organisations, and global communities. SAP’s partnership with Delhi Skills and Entrepreneurship University (DSEU) is an effort in this direction to empower India’s youth with the future skills required to catalyse the next decade of growth and innovation to help the world run better and improve people’s lives,” said Sindhu Gangadharan, SVP & MD, SAP Labs India and Head, SAP User Enablement, during the MoU signing.

Delhi Skill And Entrepreneurship University – SAP Alliance to Upskill Students

Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), SAP and DSEU will collaborate to develop the course curriculum encompassing deep tech fundamentals and offer opportunities to qualified and exemplary students to support their career pathways. The strategic partnership links to Code Unnati, which intends to back and bolster the Government’s Nation Building missions of “Digital India” and “Skills India by delivering corporate-to-citizen digital literacy and IT skills development initiatives. 

The youth training programme will be launched this academic year at six DSEU colleges with a curriculum designed for Computer Science, IT, Electronics, Electrical, B.C.A., and M.C.A students. Aside from deep technologies, students will have access to SAP-focused modular training modules such as HANA, ABAP as well as workforce readiness and soft skills. SAP and Delhi Skill And Entrepreneurship University will be welcoming a total of 500 participants to join each cohort with labs- and project-based teaching methodology. 

“This is an exciting union that we have formed with SAP. We, at the University place great value on experiential learning and, this tie-up with SAP shall be a great support for our students to engage with the experts to learn the technological and managerial systems to create systems that help build and grow an organisation in any domain. We look forward to this partnership as our students connect with SAP’s Startup Studio to explore the development of the entrepreneurial landscape,” said Prof. (Dr.) Neharika Vohra, Vice Chancellor, DSEU.

“Future skilling requires a multi-stakeholder collaboration to fill the growing skills gap, and give our youth the tools they need to build a better future for themselves and society,” stated Dr. Lovneesh Chanana, Vice President (Government Affairs), SAP Asia Pacific and Japan. “At SAP, building partnerships and collaboration has helped us in our endeavor to create a positive influence on the economy, workforce, and communities that we work with. Through our partnership with the Delhi Skills and Entrepreneurship University, we look forward to supporting a continuous improvement of people’s lives.”

SAP Investing in Indian Talent

Internally, SAP has also earlier announced that it is doubling its investment in India including bolstering the R&D capacity of SAP Lab’s India. SAP’s R&D center in India, which has added 1,600 employees until May 2022, is reinforcing its commitment to increase its manpower by hiring 3,600 by yearend. The company is also slated to establish a new campus in the country by 2025 at Devanahalli in Bengaluru.

On SAP’s massive investment in the country, Thomas Saueressig, a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, earlier said:

“What that shows to you is that the R&D workforce we have in India is the backbone of SAP. All of our innovations at scale come from here. This doubling (down on India), will be the major growth driver for SAP in the future.”

“We absolutely believe in the great talent in India. We don’t see it as a labour arbitrage,” he added.

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In 2020, SAP has demonstrated that amidst the unprecedented challenges COVID-19 brought to the world, the company remained steadfast on pushing for sustainable social initiatives leveraging its technology expertise. The German tech enterprise supported 1,567 innovative nonprofit organisations and social enterprises across 80 countries and engaged over 20,000 employees in volunteering and learning experiences impacting 8.3 million lives.

This year in the Asia Pacific and Japan region, the company has deployed several initiatives that tackled the most pressing socio-economic issues. For instance, SAP Labs China and India launched Girls Power Tech, an SAP tech programme designed to bridge the gap between education and employment by empowering young women changemakers. SAP Labs India has also partnered with UNDP and the Government of Karnataka to facilitate improved access to career guidance, employment, entrepreneurship opportunities, and to foster 21st-century skills. Code Unnati is one of the major programmes of this initiative to support the digital literacy of women and youth in Karnataka.

SAP Japan has recently shared its CSR initiatives in 2021 in partnership with Service Grant Japan, one of the intermediary organisations of the Global Pro Bono Network that supports civic engagement with positive social impacts to communities around the world. (InsideSAP Asia often references articles from websites in other languages to bring you as much information as possible.) As a pro bono service provider with a strong volunteer base of 3,700 registered professionals (pro bono workers), Service Grant Japan supports non-profit organisations (NPOs) by finding them the right business professional to match their specific needs including but not limited to project management, research, and strategic planning.

SAP Corporate Social Initiatives for NPOs

In relation to SAP’s global CSR initiatives, SAP Japan has “CSR for Everyone” to enable the company to support the “National Agenda” by engaging its employees in pro bono activities, such as the partnership with Service Grant Japan. For 3.5 months, 18 employees from SAP Japan– divided into three teams– participated in this joint initiative sharing their digital and technology expertise with these three selected NPOs:

NPO Workers Collective Chirorin Village 

SAP Japan provided Chirorin Village– a community that has experienced the impact of the pandemic on mental health of mothers and on businesses including in-person events – with a public relations tool to further donations to the organisation to enable it to further support the Chirorin community.

Yotsukaido City International Association (YOCCA)

YOCCA supports foreign citizens in Yotsukaido City with language learning, employment, and cultural exchange. To enable the organisation to address the pressing need for sources of income and work efficiency of the increasing number of foreign students in the city, SAP Japan provided the organisation a business flow design that included tackling issues related to member information management.

Women’s Action Network (NPO WAN)

To further advance the research capabilities of NPO WAN’s electronic library “Minicomi Library” of Minicomi magazine, a digital place for information exchange and projects promoting gender equality, SAP deployed a business flow design that includes managing database issues.

SAP corporate and social initiatives in Japan, with the collaborative support of Service Grant Japan, commit to continue to deliver remarkable, sustainable impacts on society and the economy in the future.

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According to the India Skills Report 2021, which was conducted in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), women make up 36{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of the workforce in the country. This participation is higher than it has been in the previous five years, reflecting a positive sign for future structural economic developments.

Additionally, the study has found that the employability of India’s youth has decreased to 45.9{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}, significantly lower than the analysis of youth employability in terms of overall employable youth in 2020. Despite this, the report noted that this percentage is a strong reflection of the average age group of India’s emerging professional landscape. 

Moreover, the report also looked at the patterns of men’s and women’s employability by region. The top three states with the highest percentage of employed women were Rajasthan, Telangana, and Karnataka.

Particularly in Karnataka, SAP Labs India and the UNDP have recently partnered with the State Government to facilitate improved access to career guidance, employment, entrepreneurship opportunities, and to foster 21st-century skills in a bid to empower women and youth in the state.

The India Skills Report 2021 has emphasised that the representation of Indian women in various industries is crucial when it comes to bridging the skills gap that has emerged as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement, Nadia Rasheed, Deputy Resident Representative at UNDP India, said:

“The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened many existing inequalities. Empowering women and youth to access sustainable livelihood opportunities is critical to ensuring an inclusive and sustainable recovery. With the Government of Karnataka and SAP, we intend to leverage our collective strengths to expand opportunities for young people and women and to help make communities more resilient.”

SAP in India Fosters Digital Inclusion with CSR Initiative 

Code Unnati, a recipient of the Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Social Responsibility, collaborates with academia, state, and district government institutions, as well as non-profit and private organisations to build a sustainable impact. Since its launch in SAP Labs India four years ago, Code Unnati has so far trained more than 1 million students ages 10 to 16 years in digital literacy, with 65{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of these young participants being girls.

Over the next three years, Code Unnati is anticipated to reach over 20,000 youth and 5,000 women in Bangalore Rural, Raichur, and Dakshin Kannada districts through the following initiatives:

• Giving opportunities for the youth to participate in design thinking seminars, innovation challenges, and boot camps by connecting them with government incubation centres
• Providing digital financial education, entrepreneurial skills, and digital literacy for women and youth
• Supporting women through community-level mentorship and handholding campaigns to help them establish or scale their micro-enterprises

Similarly, SAP India’s Global Bharat initiative also aims to enable businesses to digitally evolve themselves and upskill their workforce to equip them with today’s relevant skills. In partnership with the NASSCOM Foundation, the UNDP, and Pratham InfoTech Foundation, the program was launched in June 2020 to empower micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in India by providing them access to innovative sourcing solutions, as well as tools to enhance the workforce’s digital, financial, and soft skills.

Sindhu Gangadharan, Senior Vice President and Managing Director at SAP Labs India, said that technology has enabled everyone to stay connected, especially during the pandemic. She believes the demand for digital skills will rise and an abundance of entrepreneurial opportunities will emerge.

“Our mission of making the world run better and improving people’s lives well aligns with UNDP’s global goals. We are happy to see ourselves in the role of equipping women and youth in Karnataka to make them future-ready, and thus ensuring diversity and inclusion,” Gangadharan stressed.

Furthermore, SAP will directly lead the strategic mentorship for all of the Code Unnati initiatives in Karnataka. In the target districts, it will also provide 15,000 students with 21st-century skills training as well as Entrepreneurship Development Programs. 

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As a major contributor to the socio-economic development of India, the MSME sector has gained significant importance in recent years. According to a report published by IBEF in February, MSMEs have the potential to serve as a key employment generator as new career opportunities for the young population are being created.

Tanya Srivastava, Senior Account Director at SAP India, said that MSMEs play a key role in the government’s vision of a “self-reliant India” as the industry contributes 29{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} to India’s GDP and is steadily increasing. She stressed that Global Bharat is SAP’s initiative to enable MSMEs to become globally competitive, considering that 80{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of the tech giant’s customers in India are from this sector.

Launched in association with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), NASSCOM Foundation, and Pratham InfoTech Foundation, SAP’s Global Bharat Movement also reinforces the Indian government’s goal to empower the MSME industry by equipping them with the latest digital technologies and making significant investments to help them establish their businesses.

In a statement, FTCCI President Ramakanth Inani said that this initiative will enable the members of the MSME sector in India to take their businesses globally. He maintained:

“Our purpose of collaborating with SAP and bringing in a Global Bharat program for our members is to find a solid footing during these unprecedented times.”

Empowering the MSME Sector in India with SAP Technologies

Over the years, FTCCI has gradually evolved into a peak-level organisation representing large, medium, and small-scale industries in India. It has also been established as an important forum for proactive interaction between the government and businesses from a global perspective. FTCCI has been conducting conferences, workshops, seminars, and online events recently to help keep its members up-to-date with the latest trends and developments amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The organisation’s collaboration with SAP aims to help its members become globally competitive by creating world-class products and offering them at competitive rates to global customers.

Through the Global Bharat Movement, Indian MSMEs can take advantage of the following SAP partner networks and technologies:

• Access to SAP Ariba Discovery where members can register themselves as suppliers, get sales enquiries, and sell their products worldwide through the SAP Ariba Network — the largest digital B2B marketplace.
• Opportunities to digitally upskill their workforce with more than 240 courses on Digital Financial, Soft Skills, and Productivity Technologies through SAP India’s Code Unnati — a Golden Peacock Award-winning digital skilling initiative.
• Access to affordable, world-class ERP software solution, SAP’s Business One Starter Pack on the cloud, that aims to support businesses in providing reliable services and products to their clients.

Moreover, FTCCI’s webinar on “Global Bharat Digital Transformation” in partnership with SAP and YASH Technologies last March 18 gave information on the benefits of the Global Bharat Program and provided an interesting discussion on the current MSME segment in India.

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Over the past decade, India’s technology and IT infrastructure have been expanding at a steady rate, contributing to the nation’s status of being the 2019’s fifth-largest economy in the world. In parallel with the country’s tremendous digital development, SAP India is the fastest growing subsidiary of SAP SE, the world’s leading provider of business software solutions. 

SAP India has launched several initiatives in partnership with the Indian government in support of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, which is the vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi of making India a self-reliant nation through reforms in the economy, infrastructure, and system. 

In June 2020, Global Bharat was launched in association with NASSCOM Foundation, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Pratham InfoTech Foundation to enable Indian MSMEs to become globally competitive by equipping them with digital technologies. A month after the announcement of Global Bharat, SAP has enabled open access to SAP India’s Code Unnati, a Golden Peacock Award-winning digital literacy initiative. In November, SAP also signed up with the Directorate General of Training (DGT) to lead tech-training programmes for the youth across the country.

Fast-forward to 2021, SAP’s commitment to India proves to be relentless as the German tech giant has pledged an investment of Rs 500 crore to localise and offer customers a multi-cloud choice, once again advancing the vision of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.

SAP and India in 2021 and Onwards

The software global enterprise commits to accelerating the country’s digitalisation by leveraging agile and scalable cloud technology. 

Scott Russell, President, SAP Asia Pacific Japan, stated:

“SAP’s commitment to support India’s growth vision remains a top priority, and we are determined to achieve this with deeper collaboration with our customers, ecosystem, and the government.”

According to the statement released, SAP India, being one of the largest and most diverse business-to-business cloud portfolio providers, is aggressively working toward addressing local customer demands.

”SAP further fortified its commitment to enterprises with the benefits of integrated cloud technologies to deliver the greatest flexibility and be data compliant under the upcoming Personal Data Protection Bill,” it said.

Speaking about SAP’s latest investment in India, Kulmeet Bawa, SAP Indian Subcontinent President and Managing Director, said:

”Today, customers are seeking scalability, faster deployment, data compliancy, and cost-effective solutions to enable innovation and achieve prompt business outcomes.” 

The SAP MD also shared his excitement on the latest SAP initiative in his LinkedIn post. He said:

“Digital has been a top priority for every enterprise this past year. There has never been a more crucial time for businesses to be more agile and adaptable.”

“With scalable cloud technology being the need of the hour, we are proud to announce the availability of our cloud solutions on data centres in India. The investment is in line with our commitment and compliance to the country’s growth vision and will help drive more vertical, industry-specific processes in the cloud. Upwards and onwards for SAP India as we work towards an #aatmanirbharbharat!” he exclaimed.

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