India is widely recognized as a key battleground for big IT firms due to its outsourcing potential and its cutting edge software technologies.
With 47.2% market share for resource management software in the country, SAP could be seen as having an advantage. Its Indian branch is the fastest-growing in the world, with 60% revenue growth registered in the first quarter of 2012.
The Great Place to Work (GPW) survey, which included 500 companies from 21 industries, ranked SAP Labs India 24th on a list of the best working environments in the world. This is after having already named it amongst India's top ten companies earlier in the year.
The research division of SAP Labs India focuses on discovering technologies for the future, while the core division develops popular software solutions that are used by customers all over the globe. Factors that make for a high-energy working environment include:
- Employees at SAP labs are generally young and ambitious. President of SAP Labs India, Clas Neumann, said that the average age for their employees is 27.5, compared to 40 for their labs in Walldorf, Germany.
- The lab hires talent from all over the world as well as from India, creating a culture of diversity that serves innovation.
- Managing Director VR Ferose encourages employees at SAP Labs India to join interest groups, believing that such groups contribute to morale. One such interest group is a Literati club founded by Ferose himself, which regularly invites famous authors to speak at the labs.
The kinds of projects undertaken at SAP Labs India go well beyond software coding, distinguishing them from your usual Information Technology center.
Working with Autistic Children
Inspired by the example of Thorkil Sonne, the Danish entrepreneur who established Specialisterne, Ferose decided to create working opportunities for autistic people.
Thorkil Sonne's efforts arose out of concern for his autistic son's ability to become self-sufficient. He realized that while his son may have been lacking in social areas, in others he possessed exceptional capabilities, and if these abilities were harnessed correctly, he could a great asset to a company. His success in that led him to establish Specialisterne, an organization where 80% of the workforce is autistic.
SAP Labs India currently has three autistic employees, and according to Ferose, each one of them is as good as three engineers. In addition, Forbes India reports that the labs have worked to improve methods for diagnosing children with special needs in India, and to develop methods of educating them, such as specially designed mobile apps.
Working with Social Entrepreneurs
An SAP team gathered in Mumbai with the intention of learning about leadership, innovation and sustainability from 'social entrepreneurs'. Many of these social entrepreneurs have left successful careers to establish their organizations dedicated to meeting social needs.
The team's experience included a meeting with leaders of Childline – a toll-free helpline for street children. The service wanted to analyze the data from its millions of calls to see which issues were most prevalent. With experience in helping customers deal with similar issues, SAP was inspired by to initiate efforts towards empowering social entrepreneurs with technology, as they've spent so long doing for profit-oriented businesses.
With unique projects such as these underway, it’s easy to see why SAP Labs India has established itself as an innovative and vibrant working environment.
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License: Creative Commons image source
Written by Matthew Flax for a niche job board that specialises in SAP software development and related jobs in Asia and North America.
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