This use case is developed as part of AI & Automation SAP Community Tutorial Challenge 2022.

Co-innovators: Kannan P Nair , Ramana Mohanbabu

This use case involves the following products:

1. SAP Process Automation

2. SAP Conversational AI

3. SAP WorkZone

4.SAP AI Business Services

Problem:

With the growing demand of investors to understand a company’s performance in non-financial data, a deep understanding of a company’s commercial, ecological and social impacts, caused by routine business operations & endeavors is needed. However, in many developed economies this led to the penetration of several sustainability reporting instruments some being voluntary and some mandatory leading to non-comparable sustainability performance reporting. Also, capital market regulators had less direct information from the listed companies where a materiality assessment is performed, and an audited quantitative measure was shared by the legal entity enabling to create a sustainability index which is comparable across different market segments.

With different corporates at different maturity level in their sustainability journey a common scoring model independent of the company’s current stage in sustainability journey was lacking.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has enhanced the existing Business Responsibility Report (BRR) to cover the new dimensions around sustainability and this has led to the new reporting namely Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting. BRSR would be applicable for top 1000 listed entities by market capitalization in India, the BRSR lite is for the unlisted companies.

In order to have a quantitative measurement the BRSR standard raises several data points which are broadly classified under 9 principles of the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC). Now the challenge lies in the systematic data collection needed under each principle of NGRBC to prepare a final report which can then be fed to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs MCA21 portal for a standard scoring and evaluation.

In this SAP Community challenge, we would like to address the problem of systematic process automation to ensure the new BRSR reporting can be done by existing ESG department in a company with minimal IT support as large part of the quantified measures collected in the BRSR report lies distributed in the disparate IT silos of a company

Solution:

For this community challenge, we have picked a small part of the BRSR reporting covering Section B and Principle 2 and Principle 6 of Section C. The solution covers process automation with simple forms being generated for covering some generic questions that require a human actor input(a ESG Manager for example) and using SAP ERP data and SAP Environment Health, Safety and Emission Management data. The idea is to supplement the process automation in places where the standard SAP processes do not cover the data collection in its core business processes.

Solution Deep Dive:

Persona:

1. Head of Sustainability: Having a dedicated “head” is necessary to ensure there is focus on driving sustainability strategy and advancing the company’s program—it can also signal the company’s commitment. A majority of top global corporations with which BSR works have dedicated sustainability leaders with varying levels and titles, like Chief Sustainability Officer. These people can be the internal and external “face” for sustainability for the company.​ 
2. Sustainability Teams: Having a core team can help coordinate daily activities and implement companywide initiatives. While a dedicated team is very common, it’s important for it is not siloed, but rather integrated and engaged with business units and functions.  
   • • ESG Lead part of Sustainability Core team reporting to Head of Sustainability/CSO 
3. Sustainability Supporting Structures: Working groups or committees, which may have a dotted-line reporting relationship to the head of sustainability, can assist integration of strategy and goals by supporting and even substituting sustainability teams. Individuals in these support structures may be the “owners” of priority sustainability topics and are responsible for implementing strategies, tracking performance, and engaging employees. Representatives may come from real estate and facilities, communications, human resources, risk management, supply chain, and other groups. 

1. 1. • ESG Procurement Manager  

• • • ESG Admin & Facility Manager  

For this prototype, we have assumed an organizational structure as above where a BRSR report which is sub dived by different sections and principles would require a lot of back and forth collaboration between different departments in the reporting company.  

A pain point of data collection also lies in the ownership and responsibility in the company for precise ESG information which is spread across multiple people. Hence this justifies structured process automation to streamline this report preparation. 

Process Flow

For this prototype, we have started with Section B where the ESG lead part of the sustainability core team initiates overall management and process disclosure across the 9 principles. Based on the principles which are relevant for the reporting company there are different process steps initiated for the sustainability support structures that are embedded in a different line of business departments in the company. We have shown in the prototype how the below principles related to climate action can be covered with the support of SAP Process Automation and other SAP systems as backends ( SAP ERP, SAP Environment Health Safety and Environment Management, SAP Responsible Design & Production, SAP Product Compliance, SAP Product Footprint Management, etc.) 

• Principle 2 – BUSINESSES SHOULD PROVIDE GOODS AND SERVICES IN A MANNER THAT IS SUSTAINABLE AND SAFE  
• Principle 6 – BUSINESSES SHOULD RESPECT AND MAKE EFFORTS TO PROTECT AND RESTORE THE ENVIRONMENT 

Business Architecture

Implementation:

1. SAP Conversational AI

Chatbot 3 basic skills.

1. Greetings
2. Sustainability
3. brsr

When the chatbot is greeted with a greetings message following options are provided for further selection.

As it is a sustainability topic user clicks on the sustainability and the following skills are triggered.

Users choose BRSR reports and respective Business Process forms are triggered which is automated with SAP Process Automation.

2. Integrate SAP Conversational AI and  SAP Workzone.

Integrate SAP Conversational AI and SAP Workzone using SAP Jam Collaboration

3.Workzone Configurations.

Open the Chatbot configuration and enter a name.

Register an OAUTH Client

Enable API access

Enable push notification.

For detailed steps please refer here.

3.Microsoft Teams Integration with SAP Work Zone

Microsoft Teams Integration.

Choose External Integrations and Microsoft Teams and download the ZIP.

Follow the specific steps defined.

4.SAP Process Automation .

Create a Business Process as below:

1.Section B form:

2. Determining Working Group

Role collection created in BTP Cockpit

3. BOT would automate the below process of

•  Calculating the Electricity Consumption and Fuel Consumption for the entire year with Dox capabilities of SAP AI Business Services
• Greenhouse gas emissions are retrieved from S/4 HANA EHSM Module and PFM Module

4. Section C -Principle 6 Form which is auto-filled with values retrieved Form the BOT(read-only fields) and other editable fields.

5. Section C -Principle 6 Approval Form which has to be approved by Sustainability Lead

Demo:

Key Take-aways

1. BRSR takes a wholistic approach to sustainability reporting via the 9 principles. It consists of quantifiable metrics which can be collected from primary data sources like SAP ERP, SAP Environment Health Safety & Emission Management, SAP Responsible Design & Production, SAP Product Footprint Management, Everloop by SAP IO etc. While the information resides in different departmental IT systems, SAP Process Automation helps to streamline the process of data collection and assurance by providing the ESG Managers a structured business process.
2. The automation can mask the transition from automated bots for reading Energy/Electricity bills across different facilities operated by the legal entity to seamlessly integrate with SAP backend connected forms which can take descriptive answers for the different BRSR principles needed from knowledge experts who are working closely with Sustainability Core team in alignment to the company’s materiality assessment.
3. The flexibility offered by SAP Process Automation enables knowledge workers to enhance the standard automations with very limited IT support there by ensuring a faster roll out to the changing legislations from different government policies as a company transition from an intelligent enterprise to a sustainable intelligent enterprise.