My Parent Works at SAP: A Children's Book by Andrea Woolley

My Parent Works at SAP

Anne hung up the phone in her home office. Her son Paul burst in. “Mom! Mom! Guess what! We’re doing a new project in school! We’re learning about jobs and careers. I chose you!” Paul danced around Anne’s office. “That’s great, honey. I just finished a meeting. Do you want to start now?” Anne said. “Sure!” “Great. What do you want to know?” asked Anne.

He pulled out his notebook from his backpack and turned to the right page. “Mr. Jacobs gave us some questions. Number one: what company do you work for?” “SAP,” Anne said. “Number two: what does SAP do?” Paul asked. “We write computer programs, or ‘software,’ to help companies run better,” Anne said.

“What’s a program?” “A program is a set of instructions that tell the computer what to do. It’s like the computer’s brain. The games you play on the TV are programs. The machine we connect to the TV is called the gaming system. Our main product, HANA, is like the gaming system,” said Anne. “So you write games for businesses?” Paul asked. “Sort of. The programs help companies do things like count how many items they sell.”

SAP HANA

“OK, next question: how did SAP start?” “Ah! That’s a good story,” said Anne. “It was 1972 …” “Was that when the dinosaurs were alive?” Paul teased. “Not quite!” Anne responded playfully. “In 1972, computers were new and very expensive. Not many companies had them. No one had them at home. IBM was one of the ﬁrst companies to make computers and computer programs. Five employees had an idea for a new program. They couldn’t make it work at IBM, though. So they started their own company: SAP. And they wrote a program no one had seen before. Now SAP has oﬃces all over the world and has thousands of employees.”

“Why do you work for them?” Paul asked. “Do you mean besides earning money to pay for all your football equipment and jerseys?” Anne teased. Paul groaned. “Mom, be serious. This is for school!” “OK, OK. I like working for SAP because it’s known for creating helpful programs. We get to write programs that no one else has written before.” “And those programs help companies do things?” Paul asked. “Yes, but we also help the world run better and improve people’s lives. Our programs help keep the earth clean and keep people safe. We even helped build a school in Africa,” Anne said. “You built a school? That’s awesome!” said Paul.

Buenos Aires

Paul chewed his pencil while he thought. “SAP is a big company and it helps a lot of businesses,” he said. “But how does it help people?” “One way is how our customers use our programs. Remember that report you did on Buenos Aires?” Anne replied. “Sure. Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina. It sits on nine creeks, and over two million people live there,” Paul said.

“That’s right! Buenos Aires wants to prevent those creeks from overﬂowing. So it uses SAP HANA to monitor the pipes that carry the water away from the city. They know when pipes get clogged and can clean them sooner.”

Melbourne

“Is Buenos Aires the only city SAP helps?” Paul asked.

“No, SAP helps lots of cities,” Anne said. “We help keep the air conditioners running in Melbourne, Australia, too.”

“How do you do that?”

“Melbourne can get really hot, and air conditioners use a lot of energy,” said Anne. “United Energy wants to make sure there’s enough energy for everyone. So it uses SAP HANA to study all the data on how people use energy.”

“How does that help?” asked Paul.

“United Energy knows when people have used more energy in the past. That helps them guess when people will want more energy in the future,” Anne said.

“So everyone stays cool!” Paul said.

“You got it,” said Anne.

Uganda

“What about the school in Africa, Mom?” Paul asked. “Was that when you took your big trip?” “It was,” Anne said. “I traveled to Uganda, a country in East Africa. It was one of my favorite projects.” “Why?”

“No one hired SAP to build this school. We did it because we wanted to help kids who didn’t have a school.” Paul looked surprised. “No school at all?” “Nope. They live in a remote village, and they don’t have electricity,” said Anne. “Our team built a school with a computer room for orphans and village children. We put programs on the computers that the children use to learn.” “But without electricity, how do the computers run?” asked Paul. “With solar energy. That way, the school will always have power,” Anne explained. “I can’t believe you built a school!” Paul said. He looked at his notebook. “I think that’s all my questions for now.” “Great,” said Anne. “How about some supper?”

The next morning Paul and Anne are having breakfast at Sunny Side Café before school. “Mom, there’s something I still don’t get about SAP,” Paul said. “What’s that?” asked Anne. “You told me how SAP helps people. But I still don’t understand how they help other companies,” Paul said. “Maybe a couple of examples would help,” Anne said. “You know who one of our customers is? Your favorite football team, Bayern Munich!” “Really? Do you know Robert Lewandowski? He scored ﬁve times in nine minutes last year!”

Anne laughed. “I wish I did! But we do help fans get to know the team better. How’s Lewandowski doing this year?” “He scored 17 goals in 22 games! I read that on the team website,” Paul replied. “Did SAP create the website?” “Not exactly,” said Anne. “SAP helps the team collect those numbers. Then we give the team a way to put the information on the site. And remember how you got a Lewandowski jersey for your last birthday?” “Sure, that’s my favorite shirt!” “Well, I bought that shirt from the online store,” Anne said. “It was fast and easy because Bayern Munich uses SAP to help run the store.” “So SAP helped me get my favorite shirt?” “That’s right!”

PAUL

“We also help adidas” said Anne. “They sponsor Bayern Munich! The logo is on the team’s shirts,” said Paul. “How does SAP help adidas?” “In a lot of ways. We help make sure stores have the adidas shoes customers want. One program tracks what shoes the factories are making and what shoes people are buying. If a store runs out of a style, adidas can make more shoes and ship them to the store.” “So the shoes I want are on the shelf when we go to the store?” Paul asked. Anne nodded. “Yes. adidas also uses an SAP program to let customers put their names on shoes and jerseys.” Paul stared at Anne. “I can get my name on my sneakers? That’s so cool! Can I get a pair?” Anne laughed. “Maybe if you do well on this project.”

Anne checked the time on her phone. “We’ll have to leave for school soon, Paul. Do you have any more questions?” Paul thought for a moment. “What about mobile phones? Does SAP create anything for phones?” “We do. We created an app for Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Toruk: First Flight’ show. In the app, you can look for hidden treasures on Pandora, the moon where Toruk takes place. During the show, you can use the app to play with the ﬁreﬂies on stage.” “That sounds like fun!” said Paul.

“Do you think you have enough for your project, Paul?” asked Anne. “I think so. SAP sounds like a good place to work, Mom. It does some cool things with computer programs. It helps people live better by saving energy and preventing ﬂoods. It even has volunteer projects to make the world better,” said Paul. “And it lets me spend time with you.” “Because you can work from home sometimes?” Paul asked. “Yes. And I have time to take you to school before I go to my oﬃce,” said Anne. “I really like that. It’s fun having breakfast at the Sunny Side!” “I think so too. But now it’s time to go to school and work. Ready?” said Anne. “You bet! I can’t wait to tell my friends what I learned about your job!” Paul replied.