How SAP’s Autism at Work Program Impacts Our Ability to Innovate

Today, I am incredibly excited to share that Nicolas (Nico) Neumann has been announced as the winner of this year’s Hasso Plattner Founders’ Award for developing a tool that automates the posting of complex invoices with multiple cost allocations! Why am I so excited about this award and achievement? Because Nico joined SAP’s Finance organization in Buenos Aires, Argentina through the Autism at Work program in 2016.

Before Nico’s innovation, the accounts payable team needed two to three days to manually process large credit card statements such as American Express and FedEx with over 20,000 accounting lines. Thanks to his ingenuity, the processing time has been reduced to just 20 minutes! Nico’s tool solves a major challenge and contributes to simplifying the process overall by automating the invoices into ERP. This solution can also be replicated globally in other accounting departments with minimum costs involved. The impact is clear: data accuracy, time optimization, and outstanding resource efficiency.

SAP paves the path to innovation by recognizing the importance of diversity and ensuring a culture of inclusion. Our ever-growing global Autism at Work program shines a bright light on the power of neurodiversity to change the status quo. Every now and then, we’re asked why SAP has an autism inclusion program. For me, there is no question as to why – talented individuals, like Nico and many colleagues around the world who have joined SAP through Autism at Work, can fully activate their potential with the right conditions and acceptance of their different abilities. The integration of people with autism at SAP combined with our culture of inclusion allows people to be their authentic selves, be successful in our environment, and innovate on behalf of our customers. Nicolas’ story serves as an amazing example of this combination of opportunity, integration, and inclusion and the impact it can have on a company. 

Nico’s story

In 2016, Nicolas had yet to complete high school and pictured himself working as a delivery boy until he found Autism at Work and became one of the program’s first hires in Argentina. Within four years, Nicolas went from future courier to Hasso Plattner Founder’s Award winner in 2020 at only 21 years old. You can learn more about Nico’s innovation on YouTube here.

Nico’s team was overjoyed that he earned a spot as a finalist and held a “Good Luck Nico!” party in Buenos Aires before Nico travelled to Walldorf for the awards ceremony.

Continued Growth for Autism at Work

SAP Autism at Work is focused on expanding the inclusion footprint globally by welcoming more colleagues, identifying new opportunities for inclusion, and being a force multiplier externally for autism inclusion. SAP teams integrating employees with autism realize many core business benefits as well including the creation of patent applications, innovations in products and an increase in management skills and empathy. We encourage all managers at SAP to consider the advantages of neurodiversity and we look forward to integrating more colleagues with autism across SAP.

Judith Williams, SAP Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, announced a new partnership with Daivergent in 2019. The start-up connects companies with candidates on the autism spectrum and SAP Fieldglass customers can access neurodiverse talent through Daivergent’s platform. In 2020 and beyond, Autism at Work is thrilled to be collaborating with Daivergent to create a new channel for SAP managers in North America to be autism-inclusive when selecting talent for temp staff and contract roles.

SAP’s goals for Autism at Work include encouraging all organizations to consider candidates with autism for employment opportunities. We make this possible with our new SAP Autism Inclusion Pledge and customer engagements. The Pledge aims to re-shape thinking about employment possibilities for individuals with autism by sharing SAP’s best practices to accelerate the autism inclusion journey of employers worldwide. My colleague José Velasco, SAP’s Autism at Work Ambassador, has been working with the SAP community to ensure that SAP is a force-multiplier around the topic of autism inclusion.

Congratulations to Nico, the Autism at Work Argentina team and everyone who supported and encouraged him throughout his journey!