SAP has been hard at work deploying specialists to assist a €50 billion emergency coronavirus grant programme in Germany, the ERP vendor reports.
“Germany’s federal government has produced an impressive aid package, which will be supplemented by extra budgetary funds in certain states, such as Hamburg,” said Nikolaus Hagl, head of public services and energy at SAP.
“Handling what is sure to be a flood of applications for financial assistance is just not possible without the right IT processes.”
SAP’s team is working to create a secure digital application process for the city of Hamburg and its development bank, the Hamburgische Investitions und Förderbank (IFB Hamburg). To slash processing times, SAP has developed a cloud application, using SAP Cloud Platform (PaaS), that lets users apply for emergency aid online while complying with data privacy laws and cybersecurity requirements.
The next step involves integrating the back-end processes into the system to provide digital support for checks on data validity and on whether applications meet the funding criteria.
Smaller businesses and the self-employed are expected to be hit particularly hard in terms of revenue, with Hamburg alone expecting some 100,000 applications in the first week of the programme, which came into effect 30 March. The challenge is to ensure that money can be paid out quickly and accurately, reducing the hit to the Germany economy from COVID-19, according to SAP.
“Within hours of financial aid coming online, nearly 38,000 users had registered on the portal and 16,500 applications had been filed — with portal traffic reaching as much as 200,000 visits per hour,” SAP reported. “IFB Hamburg was able to approve the first batch of applications within 24 hours and provide financial support.”
SAP produces an end-to-end suite of applications and services that can help customers boost profits and decision-making through intelligent processes and enterprise applications, for example by connecting all departments and functions within one integrated system.
Learn about SAP’s ability to smarten up financial management via the SAP content hub, with this online presentation.
The vendor also recently announced that many of its partners are working to help businesses survive COVID-19 by making a range of solutions and offerings free – more details here.
