WALLDORF — Germany’s central and federal state governments have put together an emergency coronavirus grant program worth €50 billion. To deal with the anticipated flood of applications for aid, which are being handled at federal state level, SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced it has deployed a legion of specialists to create a digital application process for the city of Hamburg and its development bank, the Hamburgische Investitions- und Förderbank (IFB Hamburg) — delivering in double-quick time.

With the coronavirus pandemic hitting small businesses, the self-employed and freelancers particularly hard, demand for financial assistance is immense: Hamburg alone expected to receive around 100,000 applications in the first week of the program, which came into effect on March 30. The challenge for the federal states right now is to process applications quickly, securely and accurately — to ensure that money can be paid out and Germany’s economy protected.