JAKARTA, Indonesia – SAP Southeast Asia (NYSE: SAP) today announced that 10 employees from various offices across Southeast Asia have completed a two-week-long assignment where they worked with four Indonesia-based organizations as part of the company’s regional Social Sabbatical program. During this period, the SAP employees acted as consultants to help two social enterprises and two non-profit organizations solve operational challenges and propose solutions that will enable these organizations to sustain their objective of delivering social good.
This short-term assignment is part of the SAP Social Sabbatical, a unique program for SAP talents to contribute their time and expertise to assist in empowering organizations in the education or entrepreneurship sector in emerging markets, including assistance in strengthening their leadership competencies, cross industry sector know-how and intercultural sensitivity.
These 10 SAP employees leveraged their expertise in areas such as strategy, marketing, IT, HR, finance, and consulting to help the four organizations understand their business goals and the operational challenges they face to achieve these. At the end of the program, the employees delivered a business plan to each organization to solve pressing business issues and set them for sustainable growth as they continue their efforts to bring positive impact to the local communities in Indonesia.
The initiative is also part of SAP’s collaboration with ASEAN Foundation which aims to build the capacity of innovative social enterprises within Southeast Asia. Besides being the venue host of this program, the ASEAN Foundation will also document and share results with the ASEAN Secretariat as well as relevant sectoral bodies in ASEAN such as the Senior Officials Meeting on Youth (SOMY) and Senior Officials Meeting on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication (SOMRDPE), that include social entrepreneurship in their current work plans. The main aim of this sharing is to further promote social entrepreneurship in ASEAN through documentation of supportive business models.
Bridging the Education Gap
Among the four organizations selected for the programme in Indonesia this year is Mien R. Uno Foundation (MRUF), a non-profit organization that focuses on training and developing young people through entrepreneurship education. The organization has primarily been funded and supported by the Uno Family and a few other key foundations since its inception. Outside of these primary funders, MRUF has not made any impactful progress over the last three years in diversifying its funding sources.
As part of the project scope, two SAP employees acted as independent consultants to MRUF where they helped the organization identify sources to access funding and a roadmap for suggested interventions. With a structured fundraising strategy in place, MRUF would be able to ensure the sustainability of their Scholarship and Training Program for Young Entrepreneurs (ENVOY) and help more young Indonesian entrepreneurs.
Another organization that was selected was Prestasi Junior Indonesia, the national branch of Junior Achievement Worldwide based in Boston, USA. The organization focuses on improving the long-term welfare of Indonesians through the introduction of innovative, experiential learning initiatives within educational institutions at elementary through post-high school levels. These include entrepreneurship education, financial literacy and work readiness programs.
With the support of three SAP employees, the organization managed to gain an overview from a ‘one stop’ database of all potential media partners and tools to implement social media coverage of organization events and achievements. The creation of a marketing and social media strategy would assist Pretasi in its reporting efforts to its stakeholders and create overall long-term sustainability for the organization.
Helping Local Tour Agency and Farmers Create Greater Economic Impact
PT Campa Pusaka Nusantara, also known as “Campa” was another beneficiary selected for this program. Specializing in historical and cultural tours, Campa is an Indonesian tour company that partners with local operators and service providers to provide high-quality tours for individuals and larger groups. Its goal is to bring impact and increased knowledge of local communities.
In the face of high competition within the domestic market, Campa needed a business development plan to broaden its target market beyond Indonesia to ultimately grow its business and support more communities. Through the support of two SAP employees, Campa managed to formulate a viable market entry strategy and an implementation roadmap to expand their business.
The final organization selected for this project was Javara Indigenous Indonesia, a self-sustained organization working across agricultural value chains, from production to distribution, in order to maintain biodiversity and bring community-based, organic products to the broader markets. Facing an underachieving service level due to delays in delivery and un-executed purchase orders, three SAP employees helped streamline and suggest a process map. Through the program, Javara was able to identify pain points and make suggestions to improve their ERP system and its supply chain process.
“As Indonesia is a major global key producer of a wide variety of agricultural tropical products, it is imperative that the industry improve its supply chain or production process in efficiency and reliability. Working with 50,000 farmers across Indonesia selling over 600 artisanal products, Javara has managed to grow its exports to more than 18 countries across four continents. I hope that this mentorship phase has given them the stepping stone towards upscaling their supply chain capacity, shortening cycle times and increasing their customer service levels,” said Roy Wakim, Channels Director for Business One (SME), SAP Southeast Asia..
“SAP is committed to helping the world run better and improving peoples’ lives by making strategic social investments that have a lasting and sustainable impact on society. Engaging our talents in skills-based volunteering through the social sabbatical program is an important part of SAP’s social investment strategy to support emerging entrepreneurs. We are pleased that the organizations that we have collaborated in this program have gained from the knowledge and insights from our employees and we look forward to seeing these organizations excel in their respective fields as they continue to drive sustainable social progress,” said Megawaty Khie, Vice President and Managing Director of SAP Indonesia.
She added, “Through the SAP Social Sabbatical program, our aim is to help organizations and budding entrepreneurs unlock their potential, create greater economic impact on the local community and emerge as the nation’s growth engines. This is an important part of our social investment strategy, especially as we identify ASEAN as a growth frontier region. Giving back to the community to create a sustainable future is part of our focus at SAP, here in Indonesia and around the world.”
“Southeast Asia hosts a number of promising social enterprises. There are inspiring stories of how these social ventures have been able to develop effective economy and social solutions for their community both in the local and regional context. The Regional SAP Social Sabbatical Program is a great initiative to contribute to helping Social Enterprises become more self-sustaining, as social entrepreneurs are impactful catalysts to create change in an open, dynamic, and resilient ASEAN Economic Community. I hope this will inspire more similar initiatives from the private sector to harness their capabilities to develop the social entrepreneurship ecosystem towards a more sustainable ASEAN Community,” says Elaine Tan, the Executive Director of the ASEAN Foundation.
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