Using business technology to help Ukrainians in need

War has come to your home. You’re forced to leave all you know and travel to a foreign land. You need food, water, clothing, and other life essentials right now. 

But you’re not sure where to turn in the new land. And even if you’ve heard about distribution centers, there could be challenges ahead, including the need to visit multiple centers and stand in long queues for those essentials—wasting time you don’t have.

And then there are the organizations trying to help. They’re also facing challenges such as identifying and reaching those in need and knowing what to provide, which can lead to wasting donated items, especially perishable goods. 

Those are just some of the challenges that the millions of displaced Ukrainians and the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) committed to supporting those refugees have faced since the war began.

A free solution on the go

EY, the multinational professional services enterprise, has created an application that provides assistance in the event of disasters and conflicts worldwide. Known as the Emergency Response Application (ERA), the free mobile solution was built using the SAP Business Technology Platform and acts as a conduit to match people with resources.

Making the connection 

Before the application’s deployment, there was no collective database of NGOs working in Poland. That made it difficult, as mentioned earlier, for refugees to locate what they needed and for NGOs to deliver. 

With EY ERA, NGOs enter data into the application about their products and services, including food, hygiene items, and clothes currently available in their warehouses, as well as the locations of their distribution centers. Based on that information, a consolidated list of NGOs has been created, which has been automatically translated into Ukrainian and can be sorted based on the application users’ (the refugees’) location.

Help at their fingertips

EY ERA has an intuitive interface that makes the application simple to use. Refugees can quickly and easily access the application on their cell phones, sort by NGO in their locations, and use Google Maps to get directions to the local distribution centers. 

By knowing what each center offers at any given time, where the center is located, and its hours of operation, the refugees can pinpoint their most convenient and appropriate donation area to obtain the material or assistance they need. They can do that before they head out, saving them precious time and helping them to avoid the frustration of leaving a center empty-handed. 

“Thank you for the application. I was able to find centers that offer all that I need during such a difficult time for my family and me. It is easy to use and helpful, especially the map locator. You don’t have to waste time visiting all the centers,” says Kateryna Karpenko, an EY ERA user.

EY ERA also helps NGOs by providing a vehicle to get the word out about their products and services and keeping track of warehouse stock—what’s in demand—as it’s being distributed.

Going viral

To promote the application, a social media and web campaign was created in Ukrainian and Polish, generating more than 1.8 million views. The first phase of the application was launched in Poland in April 2022, in less than six weeks. Currently, 114 distribution centers are using EY ERA.

 “The war in Ukraine changed everything,” says Axel Janz, director at EY Technology and the leader of the EY ERA project. “Almost every NGO in the countries bordering Ukraine has expanded or modified its profile to effectively support those affected by the war. EY ERA helps NGOs and refugees to distribute material support more efficiently. In the beginning, we launched it in Poland. In the next period, we plan to extend its operation to other countries.”

Based on its success and purpose of uplifting people in need, EY won the SAP Innovation Award for EY Emergency Response Application – Contributing to the humanitarian aid for Ukraine. The 2023 SAP Innovation Awards are now celebrating its 10^th anniversary. To learn more about EY ERA, see their Innovation Awards pitch deck and LinkedIn article.