Govt Operations Stand SAP-ed

Deb Deep Sengupta, Managing Director, SAP India

Over the years, SAP has facilitated smooth operation of lot many government establishments, and with the launch of ICT-enabled programmes, like Digital India and Smart Cities, we look forward to playing a greater role in these initiatives, says Deb Deep Sengupta, Managing Director, SAP India, in an interaction with Elets News Network (ENN)

What is your vision about SAP©s contribution to flagship schemes of the incumbent government, viz. Digital India, Make in India and Smart Cities?

SAP strongly supports emergence of India as a ‘Digital Economy’. The initiatives like Digital India, Smart Cities and Make in India are the building blocks to achieve this. These flagship schemes o“ffer tremendous transformational potential through enhanced collaboration across multiple stakeholder groups. The key to success of these initiatives would be integration of various aspects of these programmes, like objectives, programme management structures, ICT solutions and outcomes. And, this is precisely where the strength of SAP lies as a technology partner.

Our experiences with the Indian Government organisations have really been encouraging. We have been able to showcase the strength of our technology and soware applications in manufacturing as well as services industries.

We foresee an increasing role for us in improvement of G2C, G2B, G2G and G2E (government-to-employee) service delivery. We aim to effectively address the issues of complexity and integration of disparate government ICT initiatives.

What do you feel are the key enablers for government industry collaboration for success of ICT initiatives in government?

The industry-government collaboration can denitely play a very effective role to ensure the success of government’s ICT initiatives and flagship programmes. One of the key enablers for this can be early involvement of different industry segments like OEMs, system integration partners and others, preferably at the stage of project conceptualisation itself. Industry involvement at the stage of preparation of detailed project reports can defi“nitely help in ensuring optimal redesign of business processes for government organisations. This can also help industry stakeholders understand the process requirements well in advance.

The other key enabler can be improvement in procurement processes for ICT products and services. It is heartening to learn that many states have already initiated the process of developing separate procurement guidelines for ICT products and services. Industry can also collaborate with the Indian Government in the larger capacity building programmes on ICT.

Which are the current government ICT initiatives being supported by SAP in India?

SAP is supporting numerous initiatives covering sectors like municipalities, railways, defence, and utilities, etc. Many PSUs use SAP solutions as their enterprise application and decision support backbone — SAP systems are integral to their functioning. Our solutions have been deployed and used by the central and state governments for delivering practically all types of services.

To illustrate the scale of government operations being supported by SAP, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has deployed SAP enterprise resource planning solution as their technology platform. SAP touches millions of citizens and covers more than a lakh of MCGM employees.

SAP software generates millions of unreserved railway tickets per day and drives efficiencies across rail coach production every year for the Indian Railways. Then, we are powering the cooperative milk-marketing revolution in India, supporting the production of millions of litres of milk each day and connect lakhs of farmers.

Major public ports and government-owned ship-building yards have reposed their faith in SAP solutions to drive operational efficiencies. PSU organisations in the oil and gas sector have chosen SAP to enable exploration and re“fining processes. SAP helps generate competitive advantage for these organisations.

What will be your recommendation for infusion of new technologies like IoT, analytics and mobile into the government functioning and delivery of services?

Technology-driven innovation can facilitate huge performance improvements by ensuring real-time availability of quality information for optimal delivery of government services. We are witnessing rapid adoption of analytics-based ICT solutions in the government ecosystem in fiscal, social and other sectors. IoT has been identied as a focus area for the government’s ambitious Digital India programme.

I see an increasing appreciation of the role that these technologies can play in reforming the government service delivery processes in India. Many states have rolled out innovative mobile applications for citizen usage.

I feel that this is the right time for state and Central Government departments to pursue the adoption of these technologies through structured plans and ICT adoption roadmaps. Industry collaboration at this stage can support the government organisations to take the right path for adoption of these technologies.

How is SAP contributing to the skill building initiatives in the country? What is your strategy for helping the larger Skill India initiative?

SAP’s University Alliance programme aims to contribute to skill development through linkages with academia. Globally ,SAP is involved in various innovative skill-building programmes, which assist a country’s youth by providing them a platform for skill development as well as employment. The recently concluded ‘Africa Code-Week’ is an excellent example of such an initiative.

SAP’s focus on skill and capacity building in India is also reflected through our involvement in the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) as a part of our CSR charter. We recently partnered with NASSCOM Foundation to run centers as a support to the NDLM. We are supporting more than 40 labs in urban slums and rural areas. Around 10,000 youth have been trained on computer literacy. We have trained close to 3,000 tribal youth on vocational skills and computer literacy. We have also trained 90 children with autism spectrum disorder.

Our experiences with the Indian Government organisations have really been encouraging. We have also been able to showcase the strength of our technology and software applications in manufacturing as well as services industries

SAP is also involved in empowering the startup ecosystem through our entrepreneurship building and startup accelerator programme exclusive to India.

SAP©s growth story in India has really been impressive. Can you take us through the strategic elements of your growth strategy in India?

SAP has an amazing story of driving growth through innovation in India. We are the second largest, young, talented and dynamic subsidiary for SAP worldwide. SAP India’s diverse employee base is a catalyst for innovation.

With over 400 partners, SAP in India has a strong ecosystem that is working towards strengthening the economy with digital-prowess.

SAP’s Cloud and platform business verticals are at the centre of our growth story. e digital transformation of Indian businesses is well supported by SAP’s rich and diverse solution portfolio. I am proud to state that SAP’s solution portfolio is the most complete in terms of supporting the digital transformation journeys of organisations and governments.

We are fast progressing on our strategy to become the Cloud company powered by SAP HANA. We will transition our software consumption model to the Cloud through which we will be able to deliver end-to-end solutions and own the business outcomes for the customers.

With government investments centred on building countrywide IT infrastructure and Make in India initiatives, SAP solutions for sustainability, manufacturing, public services, supply chain, renewable energy, healthcare, etc., are poised to address a broader range of customer requirements.

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