Innovation

INDRA along with the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, campus Cuernavaca (TEC) launched on May 2019 the platform called ENI, intended to order tasks for people with developmental disabilities such as Asperger, ADD or Autism. ENI would help the person to do tasks step-by-step with the help of multimedia files and colors that will let them focus only on what they are trying to accomplish.

ENI was created by five students (Kevin Olascoaga, Frida Valdez, Alejandro Favián Barajas, Luis Ángel GarcÍa y Uriel Díaz) from TEC with the support of three nonprofit institutions: Mosaico Down, Daunis and Incluyeme.

The objective of the company with this type of projects is to develop IT solutions convertible and applicable to services, allowing a greater degree of autonomy for people with disabilities, in terms of independent living, access to education or accessible employment, among others.

The platform has three levels of users (Administrator, Mentor and Collaborator) according to the degree of privileges to develop activities inside the platform. A mentor will be capable of managing activities, alerts and information from the collaborator; and create reports of his/her the mood and performance while doing those tasks. The collaborator will perform the activities based on the help provided by the mentor (multimedia files) and additionally he will answer a poll about his mood related to the activities being performed.

Right now, the platform is available for companies or associations to use it free but they have to reach out to INDRA to get it. Soon it will be available at Play Store or Apple Store with a low price just to cover the Cloud services and tech support costs.

Considering that in Mexico, around 7.1 million people live with some disability, which represents approximately 6% of the total population. Despite the efforts made, nationally and internationally, to eradicate discrimination, this group continues to be one of the most lagging and vulnerable in social and economic terms.

The ultimate goal of the platform is to help these people, to be more independent in their working and personal life. This innovation contributes to the SDGs 9 and 10 related to promoting full and productive employment through an innovation that will help reduce inequalities within and among countries since people with disabilities will be able to get a decent job.

This release is added to the more than 50 projects developed within the framework of the Indra Accessible Technologies (http://www.tecnologiasaccesibles.com/), an initiative launched more than 16 years ago as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility.

Inspiration

Indra firmly believes that diversity drives innovation as long as different people have different points of view and they are capable of providing different solutions to the same problem.

In order to manage in an appropriate manner their diversity approach, they have a Diversity Office, which has three objectives: promoting the integration of persons with disabilities in the company, ensuring equal opportunities for men and women and encouraging new working methods.

On top of this, “the Accessible Technologies program is the strongest pillar in terms of social and innovation linkage because it is associated with what we know how to do best: technology. It is amazing to see how though our everyday job and technology we can help other people” - Karla Ramirez said during her interview with us.

Considering that more than one billion people, or approximately 15% of the world's population, experience some form of disability, Indra’s motto is "Our dream is to be able to help disabled people through technology”.

All the projects derived from the Accessible Technologies program are nonprofit because they want to show technology could be accessible for everyone and that innovation closes the gaps that the society currently has in terms of equal employment and life opportunities for people with some sort of disability.

They are conscious that their company must deliver value to their clients and generate wealth but they also want to be loyal to their value of collaborating to the development of their communities- added Francisco Hurtado.

Overall impact

The Accessible Technologies initiative, as ENI, promotes collaboration with universities in the development of innovative technology for the integration of people with disabilities, contributing to diversity and inclusion and encouraging innovation.

This leads to equal job opportunities for everyone and contributes to social and economic benefits.

Indra, have not quantified the impact of ENI as it is still in a testing and release phase but, ENI, together with more than other 50 technological developments; tries to aid not only people with mental but also with motor disabilities. This has allowed Indra from Spain to Mexico, to help different institutions so; the overall impact from the Accessible Technologies program has been important.

Once they implement ENI with companies and other organizations, they will be able to measure with accuracy, its impact.

Nevertheless, it is important to mention that from an industry perspective, ENI is trying to tell their allies, partners, institutions and, the companies in general; not to be afraid of hiring someone with disabilities and not to think that these people will be a burden for their organization but, a new asset that will be able to perform, through technology; as well as any other collaborator.

Business benefit

Focusing on Indra’s gains Francisco told us “ENI and all the other accessible technologies programs generate membership in people because our own collaborators like to help. So that the company is not only focused on generating money, makes the work environment more attractive, inclusive and challenging for employees.

We as employees directly working on these developments, have the satisfaction of generating an impact, knowing that our technological expertise can be used for social impact.

From the marketing side, this is an altruistic effort but with this we gain a lot of diffusion and the interest of society is greater. ENI, for example, has allowed us to promote ourselves through different means of communication.

In this way Indra is not only perceived in the country as an economic entity but one that seeks to contribute to society”.

Social and environmental benefit

The commitment to diversity is a key element in the cultural transformation of Indra. The success of Indra is closely related to its professionals, whom it values for their skills, effort and talent, regardless of their race, gender, religion, political beliefs, nationality, age, sexual orientation, civil status, disabilities, social origin or any other condition.

Indra is a responsible agent in the communities in which it operates and is committed to the improvement of society. As a social benefit, Indra is committed to the integration of people with disabilities in the professional environment. Proof of this is the effort being made in innovative and social impact in the field of Accessible Technologies, as the platform ENI we are describing in this report. This is a specific measure to facilitate the integration of people with disabilities in the company.

“ENI will be our social link with clients, allies and institutions that seek to promote the labor and social inclusion of people with disabilities”, said Karla Ramirez, head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Indra in Mexico.

Indra is aware of the environmental challenges linked to the fight against climate change, this is one of the reasons they require innovative technology to provide its customers with tools to establish more efficient management models and monitor environmental impacts. Their technological solutions seek to minimize the negative effects on the environment and ENI platform supports this objective, which has no negative effect in the environment nor climate change.

Interviews

Karla Ramirez Bucio, Internal Communication and Corporate Social Responsibility

Francisco Javier Hurtado Camacho, Director of Digital Practices for MINSAIT