On December 2, and 3, 2013 the SAP Labs Latin America celebrated the Grand Opening of the new building in Sao Leopoldo, Brazil. Many national and international guests, SAP executives, university and government representatives joined the celebration.
The new facilities provide many highlights:
The brand new Innovation Center, where customers, partners and university representatives are invited to learn more about SAP breakthrough technologies and how these make the world run better. It includes a showcase area to demonstrate the potential of SAP technologies and solutions, a Co-Innovation Lab, featuring a data center with the sponsoring of our Partner Net App, and an executive briefing center for individual customer and partner meetings.
To quote Stefan Wagner: “We want to demonstrate that we are an open Lab for everybody: customers, partners, students and entrepreneurs are always invited to our Innovation Center to create new solutions based on SAP’s latest technologies together with the network of SAP experts.”
Close by, a new Design Thinking room with a lovely terrace now invites creative minds to work on new solutions and foster teamwork:
The Labs experience tour invited the guests to learn more about “Brazilians in the German Bundesleage”, SAP being an “Employer of Choice”, the “SAP for Sports & Entertainment” exhibition and many more. By follow these stations through the building, they could earn points and were handed a goody bag with gifts as a reward.
Supporting the local youth
Though the SAP Labs Latin America is based in a region with many young talents and skilled professionals, it is the close collaboration with the partner universities that makes the strategy work. 85% of the working students have been hired as full time employees, which results in a very young workforce with an average age of 28 years. A large part of the investments every year is reserved for training and qualification. Alone in 2013, more than 14.000 hours of training were provided to the employees. This might explain the very high employee satisfaction amongst all 14 SAP Labs worldwide.
In addition, the SAP Labs Latin America is again, among the winners of this year’s Great Place to Work and Época magazine evaluation, and is the fifth best IT employer in Brazil, according to Você S/A magazine. Well done!
Sustainable principles
Being “sustainable” isn’t really easy and one often brags about “doing good”, but this Lab is the first LEED certified Lab within SAP’s lab network worldwide which closely follows sustainable principles: The water is recycled and all the wood used for the building is certified, means no wild forests were destroyed! The building has special LED lighting and sensors in order to adjust the interior lighting to the light outside. In addition, CO2 sensors maintain the fresh air inside (so that the brains can work) and temperature sensors regulate the interior temperature (to make sure we don’t get too hot). All the on-site-guides for the grand opening were also printed on recycled paper!
Work-life balance
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is one of the main focus points of the Labs Latin America. There is a library, a recreation area with TV-screens for group events (the FIFA Soccer World Cup is a huge upcoming event!); a lovely outside area, a games room, and there are plans for more! They even opened their own Churrascaria and barbeque area for after-work events! You don’t know what a churrascaria is? Keep on reading!
Run your health better
One thing that caught my eye: Coffee, tea, water, fresh fruit and snacks are available at every coffee corner with a strict waste separation. I love the idea of offering fruit for free!
I know one shouldn’t sneak into private areas, and especially the ladies’ restroom and ‘weight’ is something one usually doesn’t like talking about – but see how the Labs encourages its employees to stay healthy! A “how to keep an eye on your body-mass-index”… a tape measure and a scale!
One SAP
Football is something that makes many hearts beat faster. Certainly in Germany, you can feel the close connection between SAP employees and the soccer team TSG 1899 Hoffenheim which SAP sponsors. But we are not alone anymore… The Labs Latin America is proud to announce the first TSG 1899 Hoffenheim Fan Club in Brazil! The first 20 employees who joined received an official Hoffenheim scarf and got together for a picture:
Don’t they look smart? From now on, the members will participate in many activities, such as barbecues to watch soccer matches and soap box races. They even have a Facebook fan page!
Stay on track!
Follow the Labs Latin America on Facebook or Twitter and stay up-to-date with all the relevant news! Join the SAP Labs Group!
Read Stefan Wagner’s (Managing Director of the SAP Labs Latin America) first blog on SCN: Millennials Change the World with Next Practices from Latin America.
Have a look at My Brazil experience (Part 1) and the Grand Opening ceremony of the SAP Labs Latin America!
- SAP Managed Tags:
5 Comments
