Power Apps helps NTT DATA Business Solutions bring speedy relief to earthquake victims

In the early morning of February 6, 2023, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the Türkiye Gaziantep province, just north of the border with Syria. It was the biggest earthquake in Türkiye since 1668, reducing homes, high-rises, and even hospitals in cities and villages to rubble. More than 50,000 people were killed and the UN estimates that 1.5 million were left homeless — in the middle of winter. The massive natural disaster had created an even bigger humanitarian crisis.

Among those affected were scores of NTT DATA Business Solutions Türkiye’s 2,400 employees and their families. The company has a history of responding to crises with swift and effective fundraising efforts — organizing donation drives and matching employee contributions. In this case, the job was made more difficult by severely damaged infrastructure. “For the first two weeks, it was chaos,” says Serhat Gezgin, Managing Director of Business services at NTT DATA Business Solutions Türkiye. “Roads had collapsed or been closed, communications were very limited, and survivors were being moved to safety during all of that.” 

While it was very difficult to get a fix on the specific status and needs of individual people in the immediate aftermath, one thing was certain — shelter would be the most urgent need for those who had run empty-handed from their homes during the quake. “The most urgent requirement from their side was accommodation,” says Gezgin, “but very soon after that they needed beds, blankets, baby supplies, everything. They had lost everything.”

Developing a low-code app in a hurry

Within hours of the quake, NTT DATA Business Solutions Türkiye formed a crisis team to monitor and manage the situation. The team included members of OneHeart, the company’s social responsibility group, who began cataloging incoming requests for emergency supplies. “As in past crises, we had to rely mainly on email and spreadsheets to build the catalog,” Gezgin explains, “but we wanted a more effective solution as quickly as possible.”

Within the crisis team, a group of eight people began conceiving an application that would catalog and track incoming requests, expose them to the broader employee population — engaging them while protecting victims’ privacy. The application would easily integrate with the company’s existing systems including security, communications, and human resources management. “After careful assessment, Microsoft Power Apps emerged as the ideal choice for developing our application,” Gezgin says, “due to its user-friendly interface, seamless integration with our existing technology stack, built-in security, and its potential to empower our employees to actively participate in fundraising efforts.”

Within two weeks of the quake, the company launched OneHeart Solidarity, an application that serves as a clearinghouse for incoming requests and donations. “With OneHeart Solidarity we can more easily manage the dynamic nature of our fundraising,” explains Gezgin, “tailoring them to the specific needs we were hearing from victims, while protecting the identities of people on both sides of the effort. We were also able to record the data and build a digital archive of the entire cooperation process.” 

The team of eight included four technical people and four from the business side who were in regular contact with the victims. The app was created using Power Apps and embedded into Microsoft Teams. This also enabled easy integration with the company’s Microsoft Entra ID. 

“The low-code approach enabled us to move quickly without worrying so much about issues like security and user interface design,” Gezgin explains. “Power Apps handled all of that easily for us, which was a huge advantage in this situation, as time was very critical.”

Engaging employees and making an impact

The mechanics of OneHeart Solidarity are straightforward. A specific need is identified, either by a victim or by someone in contact with the victim. Once the request is approved by an HR member of the project team, it is published in the app, which is available via Microsoft Teams to everyone in the company with Azure Active Directory credentials. People then contribute at whatever level is comfortable toward any of the specific requests listed, right inside the app. Contributions go toward e-commerce gift cards or coupons which, once fully funded, are redeemed and the items shipped directly to the victims. The number of victims, donors, open requests, and closed requests are all captured in Microsoft Dataverse and the analytics are exposed to the project team through Microsoft Power BI.

“Employees responded very enthusiastically during the pilot and implementation phases,” recalls Gezgin. “We invested in some training to ensure that all employees could make the most of the platform, and they embraced the platform with eagerness and creativity, providing essential relief items such as food, clothing, shelter, and medical assistance. Moreover, they have helped alleviate the financial burdens faced by families affected by disasters, providing them with a sense of security and hope during challenging times.”

Around 40 percent of NTT DATA Business Solutions Türkiye employees donated through the app to date, raising more than €50,000 for their colleagues and their families. That amount has been matched by the company, doubling the potential impact of the effort. While those numbers and the speed to reaching them are impressive, they aren’t the most important success metrics to Gezgin. 

“We get so many phone calls from the people we have helped,” he concludes. “Many of them lost loved ones in the earthquake or are far away from their core families. In times like that, support from colleagues really means a lot, and they really thank us from the heart.”

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