Partnering for Social Good

So when Deloitte decided to focus their annual Qlik haQathon on supporting the Syrian refugee crisis, we turned to MedAir, a non-profit that provides humanitarian aid and disaster relief to vulnerable people around the globe.

MedAir is heavily involved in Lebanon, supporting both the refugees and their Lebanese hosts by providing healthcare and safe places to live. Specifically, they needed better insight into the demographic makeup and needs of the community.

MedAir provided Deloitte and Qlik with a number of datasets gathered in the field around health and nutrition metrics, demographics, and immediate needs. This data served as the foundation of the haQathon; the output will be used by MedAir to help them better serve the refugees in Lebanon.

I interviewed Adi Padha, Partner and Practice Leader at Deloitte, to learn more.

How did the idea to pair learning with social good first come about?

The Deloitte team attended Qlik’s user conference, Qonnections, this past May, and we were inspired by several organizations that spoke about using data for social good. The timing was great. We were in the early phases of planning this year’s 2nd Annual Deloitte/Qlik HaQathon, and thought it’d be wonderful to focus on social good. That way, we’re not only helping practitioners develop their skills, but also we’re creating products that can have a global impact. We were fortunate to be able to work with Qlik to identify MedAir as a collaborator for such an endeavor.

Qlik and Deloitte share the belief of the importance of corporate social responsibility. How does Deloitte put that belief into practice, and how might activities like this haQathon play a role going forward?

Deloitte is strongly committed to supporting non-profit work around the globe and in our local communities. We support numerous volunteer groups and provide pro bono consulting support to numerous organizations. Additionally, for nearly 20 years we have hosted an annual IMPACT Day, where Deloitte professionals around the world spend the day volunteering.

We traditionally use haQathons as a means of strengthening our federal practice and client delivery capabilities. But through our work/collaboration with Qlik and MedAir, we’ve been able to turn a training activity into something much bigger—an opportunity to make a tangible difference in the lives of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Deloitte’s Qlik Community of Practice invested a lot of time in this haQathon. Did it accomplish your training goals?

Absolutely. From a training perspective, its purpose is twofold: 1) to increase awareness across our organization of Qlik’s products and their ability to help address our clients’ wide range of challenges; and 2) to train our practitioners on these products so that we’re able to effectively deliver.

During the haQathon, Deloitte practitioners engage in hundreds of hours of training with Qlik’s enablement team. These learnings are invaluable. It’s also worth noting that Deloitte was Qlik’s #1 Systems Integrator Partner of the Year for Qlik in 2016, and as Qlik’s customer base continues to grow, it’s important that we are prepared to grow with them and continue to provide service excellence.

Participation required a significant time investment. How did you encourage practitioners to participate?

We had more than 80 practitioners sign up, so engagement wasn’t an issue. I believe that’s because practitioners understood what they’d take away from the experience (new skills in the highly-sought-after field of data analytics), as well as their direct impact on others. They had fun learning, and walked away knowing that what they built is going to have an impact on people’s lives.