When Rohit, a Senior Software Architect at SAP, first heard about the opportunity to volunteer his skills through his company, he wasn’t sure it was for him.
“Being a software developer, I was never so keen to clean lakes, streets, or teach in schools as part of CSR,” Rohit admits. “I know I’m not good at that.”
But this opportunity was different. Instead of asking him to do something outside his skill set, it invited him to apply what he does best—and that’s what inspired him to take the leap.
“This CSR initiative was unique because it allowed me to contribute to society with the skills that I am good at,” Rohit explained.
Rohit and four of his colleagues were matched with an early-stage startup that had grown quickly—but its software systems hadn’t kept up.
“The host organization was a true startup. They started from scratch, did a good job, and were able to scale. But in the process, their software landscape ended up as a collection of multiple third-party tools that don’t interact with each other—and that cost the company too much individually.”
The startup was spending heavily on these tools, yet they were still struggling to achieve critical use cases like integrating data from multiple sources and generating insights.
That’s where Rohit’s expertise came in. Drawing on his deep experience developing side-by-side extensions for SAP products, Rohit and his colleagues suggested an innovative solution: “We proposed building a side-by-side extension to the Salesforce system. This application would fetch data from Salesforce and other third-party apps, process the data using their preferred technology, and give them flexibility to create new features—without paying more to third-party software vendors.”
Rohit and his team didn’t just deliver a solution—they worked alongside the startup’s team to build their capacity for the future.
“We gave them a plan for multiple stages. The first stage was something we helped with directly, and we shared a roadmap for the later stages. Most importantly, we also made them aware of the consequences and effort required for this approach. That helped them gain conviction and confidence to implement it.”
For Rohit, the long-term impact of this project is clear: “With their existing setup, they were already facing challenges implementing new features—it was costly and inefficient. I believe, with our plan, they’ll be able to make their landscape more homogeneous, and develop new features like analytics without spending too much money.”
Rohit found that this project wasn’t just an opportunity to give back—it was a chance to grow professionally.
“Until now, I’ve been working with big, well-established companies. The problems and solutions in such companies are far different from startups,” he reflected. “In large companies, things like licenses and infrastructure are often taken for granted. But in startups, with limited finances, every decision needs to be thought through carefully.”
This experience reshaped how Rohit thinks about his work. “It’s made me more thoughtful in my design choices, and inclined toward solutions that are less expensive—and in turn consume less money and less carbon.”
Rohit’s advice for colleagues considering skills-based volunteering? “If you want to get a flavor of how working in startups is, this is the right place to try. And to understand how, even with a handful of resources, you can still make an impact in society.”
His story is a powerful reminder that when professionals step out of their day-to-day roles and into cross-sector collaboration, they unlock new insights, create lasting impact for social enterprises—and grow as changemakers themselves.
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