COVID -19 IMPACT
Digital Transformation is the Need of the Hour Zakaria Haltout, the Managing Director for SAP UAE, speaks about how COVID-19 has impacted business and the contingency plans the company has put in place in case the crisis persists or gets escalated During this COVID-19 crisis, what measures have you undertaken to continue your own business without disruption? We are committed to maintaining visibility with our customers and partners, and across MENA we have moved completely to remote working to support our customers’ digital transformation journeys in this time of need. Supporting the health, safety, and well-being of our employees, we are neither hosting nor participating in any in-person events scheduled to occur in the affected months. In particular, our 2020 SAPPHIRE NOW and ASUG Annual Conference are moving from an in-person event to an online experience for customers, partners, and guests. In order to support students, professionals and anyone wishing to continue to learn during this challenging time, we recently announced a new digital learning initiative offering innovative, interactive educational content. What measures and initiatives have been taken to provide uninterrupted service to customers? The Middle East is a global leader in managing coronavirus, with organizations using real-time insights solutions to re-design supply chain, procurement, and travel, pre-screen for health issues, and enhance remote working
and staffing. Frontline industries of healthcare, pharmaceuticals, research, and public security need to access information, address citizen sentiment, and accelerate reaction time. Retail, banking, education, insurance, and entertainment need to enable digital channels. Wholesale distribution, retail, consumer, and oil and gas need to provide supply chain flexibility, ensure last mile delivery, and access to sources of supply and finance. For fields directly hit, such as sports, entertainment, travel, transportation, evens, and construction, and for companies experiencing demand spikes, such as telco and gaming, they need to evaluate viability. To help manage the impact of the pandemic, EY, SAP, and Qualtrics have collaborated on providing agencies with a comprehensive set of services and solutions to meet the initial urgent and critical needs of governments, globally. The services and solutions are provided in 8 languages – English, Arabic, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, French, German, and Greek – through EY implementation and enablement services. These solutions include: •
Qualtrics COVID-19 Pre-Screening and Routing, an online, guided pre-screening
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questionnaire. Qualtrics COVID-19 Dynamic Call Center Script to help local governments set up call centers. Qualtrics Healthcare Workforce Pulse to monitor healthcare providers and frontline healthcare workers. Critical care protocol solution: for governments and ministries of health to early identify critical care and highrisk patients.
SAP is currently exploring investment in TrackYourBed, a responsive, Web-based solution that indicates hospital bed availability in real time, as well as many other ideas that have emerged through COVID-19 sprint in the SAP One Billion Lives initiative, the company’s social intrapreneurship program. The SAP Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team is providing infrastructure and accelerating new ways to engage through virtual volunteering and pro-bono consulting, offering more than 50 projects to date. SAP has also established a €3 million COVID-19 Emergency Fund to support the urgent needs of the World Health Organization (WHO), the CDC Foundation, and smaller nonprofits and social enterprises that work on the front lines serving local communities in crisis.
