The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Riza Lozada
Enterprise application software provider SAP volunteered 74,500 service hours in over 36 countries for social engagement and leadership development for 2015, said Scott Russel, interim president and managing director for SAP Southeast Asia.
As of last year, 74,500 pro-bono service hours “have been activated by 221 SAP employees (who) have provided pro-bono service hours for 36 nations to serve 71 organizations worldwide.”
Russel described pro-bono service as a pillar of SAP’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, the SAP Social Sabbatical, with the top talents of SAP working in international cross-functional teams to solve business challenges for the social entrepreneurial or education sector in emerging markets.
“With the SAP team’s support, we were able to design a framework that enabled us to create and jumpstart a sustainable export channel,” said Krie Lopez, founder of Messy Bessy Cleaners Inc., which was established to provide livelihood and education to disadvantaged young adults.
Messy Bessy is a local manufacturer and exporter of natural household and personal-care products. SAP has completed giving marketing development, strategy expansion, infrastructure design, and expansion planning to four social enterprises and non-profit organizations to beneficiaries Messy Bessy, Teach for the Philippines (TFP), Silid Aralan Inc., and GKonomiks.
“Before our partnership with SAP Social Sabbatical, we lacked the technical know-how to develop a sound and feasible operation manual,” said Arcie Mallari, founder of Silid Aralan, which helps low-performing students to improve academic performance.“With the team of SAP, they helped us developed a marketing tool that shows the Social Return on Investment, or SROI, when we receive donations, as well as a road map for an online infrastructure design for (the) Silid Aralan database system,” Mallari added.
Award-winning TFP, which trains qualified Filipinos to teach for two years in public schools as teacher-fellows, recognized the service hours committed by the SAP Social Sabbatical volunteers in producing “concrete synthesis of how the TFP brand is perceived and should be expressed to our different stakeholders.”
“This is crucial, because we want to be able to increase our effect on the various sectors we are working with in the next five years,” TFP Events Manager Angel Ramos said.
Russel said that, “in SAP, we have a vision for many years to truly run the world better.” He also said technology helps improve processes, such as in banking, manufacturing, and retail efficiency, adding that the SAP Social Sabbatical intends to “give back to the communities where SAP operates in 190 countries.”