‘We want to take SAP to people; touch their lives’

KRABI, THAILAND: When SAP Labs India decided to extend its services to society, as a part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme and otherwise, it wasn’t that difficult. At least, seemingly so.

This time around, it was all about a charitable initiative, which, its managing director (India) V.R. Ferose, categorically puts across as ‘not a part of CSR’. It was ChariTra - Charity Transformation - a platform to reach out to deserving people and to bring together volunteers from different sections of society to get their needs fulfilled.

As it turned out, the framework was already in place, in the form of their earlier-conceived Lakshya, a programme to provide basic computer literacy to underprivileged youth from across the length and breadth of the country, by setting up labs for them. It really wasn't that difficult now.

Only that it was to be something desirable, viable and feasible. A mantra, SAP Labs India’s young vice-president, Design & New Applications, Ganapathy Subramanian, swears by. “Technology is not a consumable; you have to build a radically different platform on it to suit your needs. We want to make ChariTra the Facebook of charity,” he asserts.

So, basically it was about how they could put it all together on one platform and to ensure that skillsets are enhanced. “On ChariTra, volunteers can go, register and then the system aggregates and connects them with the rightful, deserving people. It’s like a marketplace,” says Subramanian.

Here, there is no money involved, but resources are. “We thought that let us start ChariTra without (involving) any monetary transactions and that we make use of technology to touch lives of people.”

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Currently, there are about 150 non-profits involved in the programme and countless are its beneficiaries. During SAP’s Joy of Giving Week in October, he says that they distribute about 100 kg of rice and other grains. “The intent was to take SAP to people.”

As for ChariTra, Subramanian clarifies that it’s not a program like Lakshya, but a software platform. “In fact, you can decide whether you want to run it on SAP or outside. It’s a proper product, on which all our CSR activities can run.”

If their 200,000 customers start using ChariTra, then SAP Labs India thinks that there might be a way to monetize it. “It might become the process to track what one is giving, including corporate, who are mandated to earmark about 2 per cent of their revenues for CSR. It adds social capital and brand credibility to SAP. This product is more about the mindset.”

On another recent solution by them for the U.S. market, Recalls Plus, he says that in case of any technical or mechanical failure in supply chain management, the government can recall the product, as the system reads the product code, connects to the government’s database and pings the authorities once it is recalled. Now, they have plans to take it to other markets other than the U.S.

Hana, a platform for real-time big data analytics and applications, is one more that Subramanian is betting big on. “We want to build all our new applications on Hana, as it is a beautiful working software. You fire a query and the response comes in a matter of sub-seconds.”

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Pre-Hana phase, he says that they were focusing more on traditional business suites. Hana, he says, “is a game-changer. It’s not just about speed. When you have a combination of business know-how and the technology to deliver, it makes it deadly” .

One bank, which had one business process, was eventually powered by Hana to enable eight more that were not possible earlier, he adds.

He says that they sit down with the customers to know their requirements and deliver suitable solutions. But, how feasible is it? “Most of the things might start with CIOs, but ultimately deals with the end user as it drills down. It’s about the entire installation experience as well.”

According to him, the fundamental aspect of design thinking is to go back to the drawing board and correct the mistakes and deliver the product back. “Now, we are not afraid to put our products out in the markets, while we are sitting with our clients and testing it out. We build in short cycles and even if the product fails, let it fail early,” he says confidently.

(The writer was in Krabi, Thailand, on the invitation of SAP Labs India)