Since COVID-19 became a global concern, SAP has always been at the forefront of the battle offering solutions not only to its partners and customers but also to governments around the world. From freeing up access to select SAP offerings like COVID-19 Pre-Screen & Routing by Qualtrics to creating new digital platform BacktoBest.com and hosting virtual events like SAP Forward Together, the German software company has been filling the gaps and helping organisations continue to become intelligent enterprises.

In India, 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. SAP’s COVID-19 efforts in the country did not come unnoticed by the ASSOCHAM recognising the software company as one of the companies that have been supporting the fight against the pandemic, specifically, in the State of Karnataka.

Recognising COVID-19 Relief Work

On the 14th October 2020, the ASSOCHAM Southern Region office, in partnership with DCTE – Government of Karnataka, SAP India, Smile Foundation, and STEM Learning, organised the CSR and NGO Awards that recognise the COVID-19 efforts of corporates, institutions, and NGO’s in Karnataka. SAP India and Dell India were given the “Excellence in Community Support for COVID Relief” award.

According to the Karnataka ASSOCHAM State Head B V Naidu, the objective of the awarding event is to acknowledge, motivate, and incentivise corporate members and non-profits to contribute towards social and environmental goals. The award also aims to give the CSR mandate a different outlook beyond just being part of compliance and more of as an opportunity to move towards strategic social impact.

Gunjan C. Patel, Head, CSR, APJ & India at SAP India, joined the event along with other CSR leaders, NGOs, civil society, and the government officials who have shared how they are making a difference in people’s lives in the State of Karnataka.

Extending Hand to Karnataka

SAP’s COVID-19 initiatives in the south region can be traced back to May 2020 when the Karnataka State Government launched a pandemic response platform. 

The COVID-19 data-tracking platform to Karnataka was developed by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) taskforce including SAP Labs, Microsoft, Intel, Infosys, Fractal Analytics, Mindtree, Accenture, Wipro, and many other member companies. The data analysis tool is designed to help the state take data-driven measures to contain and manage the pandemic.

Based on a plug and play concept, the platform has user-friendly features that can integrate with their existing platform. It has dashboards that include: 

• COVID-19 summary– shows useful information for officials about the state and district level numbers
• COVID-19 source analysis­– cases in the last 24 hours and their origin & spread analysis
• Testing summary– COVID+ rates by number of tests
• Tests by category– information about the source of infection
• Hospital capacity– bed occupancy and availability by district
• India Summary– state-level summary of COVID

C N Ashwath Narayan, Deputy Chief Minister of the Government of Karnataka, shared last May:

“We have been driving all our efforts tirelessly to fight this ongoing crisis and it has been great to witness the industry joining their hands against our war on COVID-19. In these testing times, technology innovation has been our greatest ally. Using innovative technology solutions to fight the pandemic, we are taking a huge step towards showcasing the country’s capacity to solve real-time issues in any environment.”

The post SAP’s COVID-19 Relief Work in India Gains Recognition appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

In an interview with IANS, Amit Aggarwal, CEO of NASSCOM India, said:

“There has to be a big change that has to happen. We want at least 2 million people from the industry, which is half of our workforce, to be ready by 2021-2022. To think of it from India’s perspective, there are about 50 lakh (5,000,000) engineering seats, and we need to ensure that students coming out are ready to join the workforce of the future. For that, there has to be a massive change. There cannot just be the government doing things on its own.”

According to the report “Digital Empowerment Foundation-2018” report, out of India’s 1.18 billion population, 90{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} are digitally illiterate.

Meanwhile, 94{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of households are excluded from digital literacy and IT-led growth.

The IT industry’s FutureSkills programme, which was launched in February 2018 had goals to reskill 2 million students, potential employees, and professionals within the next five years.

Sindhu Gangadharan, SAP Labs India’s Senior Vice President and MD, shared:

“There is so much work to be done to get the current workforce abreast with latest technologies. This is also part of our joint collaboration. We have identified eight future skills that we would like to focus on.”

She added:

“AI, Blockchain, data analytics, Big data, cybersecurity, Cloud computing, robotic process automation (RPA) and mobile technology space — these are 8 of the future skills that we want to help drive forward together with NASSCOM. It is not only about upskilling or reskilling. It is also about making people abreast with these technologies.”

SAP expressed support for NASSCOM India’s FutureSkills using its expertise in technology and providing select SAP experts to become mentors for the said programme.

When asked about the potential impact of the collaboration, Gangadharan answered:

“This will firmly establish SAP as a thought leader in 8 out of the ten technology domains. Impact of the collaboration will be multi-fold. We are looking at close to 2 million people being going through this process by the end of 2020, and it would go beyond that. We’ve been operating in India for the past 20 years, and close to 13,000 people at SAP are operating out of India at different locations.”

A zero-cost subscription model will be created, which is expected to benefit college students, potential workforce and current IT-enabled services industry workforce.

The post NASSCOM India and SAP Signs MoU appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.