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SAP Social Sabbatical Empowers Vietnam Organizations to Drive Sustainable Operating Models for Social Good
[April 28, 2017]

SAP Social Sabbatical Empowers Vietnam Organizations to Drive Sustainable Operating Models for Social Good


Twelve of the company's top talents provide pro-bono consulting services to four Vietnam-based organizations as part of its global CSR program

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, April 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that 12 employees have completed a month-long assignment where they worked with four Vietnam-based organizations in Ho Chi Minh City as part of the company's global Social Sabbatical program. During this period, the SAP employees acted as consultants to help two social enterprises, a non-profit organization and a registered charity address operational challenges and propose solutions that will help these organizations to sustain their mandate to deliver social good.

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This short-term assignment is part of the SAP Social Sabbatical, a unique program for top SAP talents across the world 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.

The 12 SAP employees, representing different countries from the Americas, Europe and Asia, 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 sustainable business plan to each organization that would help them improve their operating models as they continue their mission to improve the social landscape in Vietnam.

Bridging the gap for access to education

Amongst the four organizations that had been selected for the project in Vietnam this year is Saigon Children's Charity (SCC), a UK-registered charity which operates only in Vietnam. The organization aims to eliminate poverty through education which can be realized through helping children and young adults from a disadvantaged background to access education.

As part of the scope of the project, three SAP employees acted as independent consultants to assist SCC in identifying key issues that the organization's leadership should address in its upcoming five-year strategic plan. The team conducted research and delivered a report as well as conducted a strategy workshop for SCC leaders to identify a framework that would help them achieve better efficiency./p>



Teach for Vietnam (TFV), a non-profit organization under the umbrella of Teach for All and founded in October 2015, was also another beneficiary of this program. Established with the aim of bringing equitable, relevant and excellent education to all children in Vietnam by inspiring leadership skills and mindset in both teachers and students, the organization benefited from a Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) framework developed by three SAP employees dedicated to the organization.

The third organization that was part of this program is G.A.P Institute, a social enterprise founded by a group of recognized trainers who have over 10 years of experience in youth development. The organization was founded to bridge the gap between Vietnamese students and their global counterparts, and break the barriers between academics and the skills demand from the real world. With an operation model that relies heavily on part-time teachers who are professionals in various industries devoting 5 -10 hours per week to teach, the Institute was facing various challenges, including teacher coordinating, training, quality control, staff allocation and customer success tracking. By the end of the program, the SAP team dedicated to the organization delivered a business plan to help GAP Institute harness better operating processes to be more efficient.


"As a company, SAP understands the value of education in supporting the advancement of society and we are constantly looking for opportunities to partner with organizations that has this mission at the core of its purpose. We hope that the mentorship that we have provided to these organizations have enabled them to sustain their operations as they continue to bridge the gap and provide youths in Vietnam with access to education," said Nadine Elsham, Customer Engagement Executive, SAP UK, one of the SAP employee participants to the Social Sabbatical program.

Helping farmers and their ecosystem through digital transformation

The final beneficiary to the SAP Global Social Sabbatical program in Vietnam is XanhShop, a social enterprise that helps farmers/producers develop eco-friendly products and encourages them to practice natural farming; to bring clean and chemical-free local products to every household to enhance their health and quality of life.

Faced with the main challenge of managing a perishable food supply chain, including perishable foods can decay quickly, especially in warm, tropical weather in Saigon and highly fluctuated supplies due to season, weather, and miscommunication about the growing schedule, XanhShop looked at the SAP team to deliver recommendations on how they can better manage their limited resources to optimize their supply chain.

"With agriculture being one of the key sectors driving the Vietnamese economy, there is a pressing need for the industry to transform and give farmers the means to access technology that can help manage their trade and harvests; and also predict in terms of products and income. XanhShop delivers an innovative business model for farmers to connect with their ecosystem, and with SAP solutions, the organization is better in improving its operations, processes and communication with the supplier farms to cope with the demands of the local market," said Maria Soledad Petracci, Finance Specialist, SAP Argentina.

"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. We are pleased to see the organizations that we have collaborated in this program benefiting from the knowledge and insights shared by our top talents. With this program, SAP wants to help social entrepreneurs and expanding educational organisations unlock their potential to create sustainable economic growth and social impact," explains Liher Urbizu, Managing Director, SAP Indochina.

He continued, "Through this SAP Social Sabbatical program, our aim is to empower our best talents in skills-based volunteering. SAP is a place where the next generation of leaders can apply their talents to make people's lives simpler and improve their future well-being. This is an important part of our social investment strategy, especially as we identify ASEAN as a growth frontier region. Giving back to our community to make this a better place to live, work and play is part of our SAP focus, here in Vietnam and around the world." 

For more information, visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device -- SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 345,000 business and public sector customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com .

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