Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are among the largest expat workforce in the world and their contributions account for 10% of the Philippines GDP. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, over a million of these OFWs have been displaced and unemployed. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) responded to the people’s call for help through the DOLE-AKAP (Embrace) initiative which provides a one-time financial assistance of Php10,000 or US$200 for displaced land-based and sea-based OFWs.
Since OWWA partnered with NTT DATA to start their digital transformation journey years ago, hosting their applications in Microsoft Azure, OWWA was able to optimize their existing assets across both on-premises and cloud sources, and migrate key services to cloud.
As proof of the partnership’s success and their timely and immediate response to the plight of the OFWs, NTT DATA Philippines was one of the organizations recently recognized by Microsoft, beating 3,000 entries from 100 countries, with the Community Response Award – a new global award category that recognizes partner organizations providing innovative support or services to customers and the community. This year, the award acknowledges innovative solutions to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through the technology solution provided by NTT DATA using Microsoft Azure, OWWA was able to provide fast, secure, and contactless financial assistance for displaced OFWs due to Covid-19 via the DOLE-AKAP (Embrace) portal.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has left an indelible impact in our society today, and we recognize the enormous role of technology in helping us respond and adapt. We are eager to continue collaborating with Microsoft to contribute to the success of our customers especially during these challenging times.”
Within three days of launch, OWWA received 54,000 online applications through the DOLE AKAP portal. Moreover, the OWWA IT personnel was able to configure, deploy the application, and modify updates remotely using DevOps and Azure providing flexibility at an instant with minimal downtime.
