SAP Next-Gen Centre of Expertise Opens at HSE
The centre provides training for specialists in the field of digital marketing and e-commerce. Students of the centre will have the opportunity to participate in real business projects and complete an internship at companies that use SAP technologies.
SAP Next-Gen centres of expertise opened in September 2018 at 29 educational establishments across Europe and the Middle East. In Russia, this includes HSE, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, MGIMO, and Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas. The centre of expertise within each of these universities concentrates on developing innovative technological services in specific areas. According to SAP CIS General Director Natalia Parmenova, the new centres will help quickly train professionals who are at the forefront of creating innovations with well-developed digital competencies. They will also help build an ecosystem for the creation of joint products between Russian companies – products that are in demand not just on the Russian market, but on the global market as well.
The SAP Next-Gen Centre of Expertise at HSE will focus on issues in digital marketing and e-commerce. This topic was not chosen by accident. The E-Business programme has already existed within the School of Business Informatics for over ten years, there is a student club called StyleRU Business, and the conference ‘E-Business. Innovations. Internet Project Management’ takes place every year.
Additionally, during the 2017-2018 academic year HSE was the first university in the CIS to use SAP Hybris solutions in its academic process to train e-commerce specialists. Instructors and students went through a 16-hour intensive course prepared and carried out by an SAP expert. This field will continue developing in the future as well, with training set to take place for students and instructors from HSE regional campuses, as well as other universities.
SAP experts will also lead a three-day intensive course for students and teachers from the School of Business Informatics with the goal of further integrating SAP technologies into the academic process of the master’s programmes in Business Informatics and Big Data Systems. Students will also be able to take part in internships at SAP partner companies: Deloitte, PWC, Accenture, IBS, BDO Consulting, ASAP Consulting, and more.
The head of the School of Business Informatics, Svetlana Maltseva, says that the first step is for the SAP Next-Gen Centre of Expertise to be integrated with the already existing SAP Next-Gen Lab Innovation Centre. Project seminars are expected to take place in partnership with SAP clients and partners as well. The cooperation also allows for a real organisation from the business sector to set objectives, while also fostering close collaboration with students in carrying out projects.