How technical solutions can help the entire country—Andon Simeonov, VP, Country Manager, shares his experience with CSR projects.

Little energy, but a great impact

Many of the impactful CSR projects that have recently emerged in various SoftServe offices have been linked in one way or another to the COVID-19 pandemic. And the reason is quite obvious—when society faces global challenges, businesses want to contribute to help adapt to them and even manage their negative outcomes.

Andon Simeonov says that when the pandemic struck, the company immediately decided to support the country in the current situation. In Bulgaria, SoftServe is a member of IT community and AIBEST association (Association for Innovation, Business Excellence, Services and Technology). This meant that they had resources and support sufficient for any proposal, but also a heightened sense of responsibility.

So the idea emerged to create a chatbot together with Viber and government that would contain all important information about the fight against COVID-19 to make it easier for people to communicate with government bodies (and vice versa). SoftServe decided to implement the project in scope of corporate crowdsourcing platform Open Tech engaging the company’s associates as volunteers.

“We worked with the government to help inform the whole country about the decisions being made, the current state of the situation, and the government’s response to the pandemic. To do this, we developed a chatbot in cooperation with Viber, which is linked to the governmental informational website with news related to the pandemic,” says Andon Simeonov.

Viber has about 3 million users in Bulgaria, so this chatbot has proved to be a very important media platform covering the most important news.

“We created the bot in three weeks. We worked closely with every stakeholder involved – the company volunteers, Bulgarian government, and the informational platform. This is the example of CSR initiative we implement together with our people to benefit society,” Andon Simeonov explains.

/uploads/stories/csr-direction-does-not-necessarily-require-a-big-budget-to-benefit-society-dot-experience-of-the-softserve-sofia-office/web-2022-06-16-softserve-20725.jpg?1658319394308

The experience of CSR projects in Bulgaria

The Viber chatbot, which disseminated verified information about COVID-19 from the government, is the example of how CSR projects work in SoftServe offices.

“We had an idea and were ready to dedicate time and resources to offer a solution beneficial for the whole country. This bot is still in active use. In fact, we have expanded its functionality and now everyone can use it to check their COVID-19 Vaccine Certificate. This bot is used by numerous institutions,” says Andon Simeonov.

According to Andon, this project proves that initiatives in the area of corporate social responsibility do not necessarily require a big budget to benefit society.

“We have implemented a lot of CSR projects, but most of them related to charity, like providing financial support to hospitals, helping children, etc. Before the pandemic, we never worked with such an impactful project,” he added.

For the Bulgarian IT market, the bot developed by SoftServe is a truly unique product and SoftServe got several recognitions for this case. However, Andon Simeonov stresses that it was not about awards or competition, but about helping society.

How to maintain a balance between work and volunteering

“If you believe in CSR projects, the work is not tiring; on the contrary, it gives you energy,” says Andon Simeonov.

In his opinion, there is no problem combining work and volunteering, since CSR projects can help the company’s employees perform their job better—“when you work on CSR projects, you get that refreshing sense of accomplishment. And if you feel better, you work better.”

At SoftServe, charitable projects are a natural part of the work routine for many employees, as they are part of the company’s DNA. “We do it because we like it,” Andon Simeonov adds.

He emphasizes that all company associates who contribute to CSR projects, do it exclusively on a volunteer basis. No one will ask you whether you joined an initiative or not.

“We help to develop not only IT industry, but also the communities we live and work in. All SoftServe offices contribute to corporate environmental strategic goals. The environment supports us and we respond by empowering IT education, implementing volunteering and charitable initiatives,” says Andon Simeonov.

Some projects go on for years in several iterations; they are repeated in various cities with different numbers of participants.

Furthermore, by contributing to CSR projects, associates feel more involved in the company’s work. After all, every employee can create a project and make a big contribution. That said, the power of an individual project cannot be compared to the power of a project that a large community is working on.