ASTANA – SAP announced plans to open the first Next-Gen Lab in Kazakhstan in cooperation with Nazarbayev University and the International University of Information Technologies at the May 24 SAP Forum.
The labs will be created within both of those universities, and in them, students, under the guidance of SAP experts and using SAP technologies, will solve specific business tasks set by clients.
“This educational technology was first tested with Stanford University and gave astounding results. The programme allows [users] not only to teach students practical work with digital technologies, but also to involve universities in creating real innovations to solve specific business problems of our customers,” said SAP Kazakhstan Director Maksim Lamskov.
The company aims to bring their customers, IT companies and universities in the country together to jointly develop innovative solutions for specific problems.
Maksim Lamskov. Photo credit: forbes.kz.
“Our role is unifying. We acquired great experience in the global market and this year we plan to apply this experience as part of the SAP University Alliances. This is a strong driver that will help push forward innovative business solutions, solving specific problems using digital technologies,” he said.
The company has also been successfully implementing a joint training programme for members of the University Alliances in cooperation with the Samruk Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund. Ten leading Kazakh universities are participating in programmes launched by SAP University Alliances.
Photo credit: forbes.kz.
SAP entered the Kazakh market with the ESP concept in oil and gas, transport and telecommunications.
“At that time, this concept was innovative, and changed approaches to corporate governance. Today, we see the ESP platform as a standard element of real sector management,” Lamskov said.
The company began cooperating with Kazakhstan’s public sector six years ago and proposed a completely new approach to public finance management. The E-Minfin innovative project resulted from that cooperation, and today, more than 20,000 employees and the whole management work on the same standard rules following the same strategic goals. This project is unique within the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Last year, SAP launched the SAP Institute of Digital Government, a global initiative to exchange experience in public administration.
“We managed to bring innovative public administration practices to Kazakhstan. Our ideas and concepts were in demand when the Digital Kazakhstan programme was developed,” he said.
This year, SAP also announced that it was investing in the development of the SAP Leonardo Internet of Things.
SAP signed a cooperation agreement with the Finance Academy under the Ministry of Finance and Nazarbayev University as part of the event.
“We developed a special programme and we will launch in the next academic year. Our professional development centre will be transformed into the academy of additional education. We will offer various training programmes and students can undergo additional training, receiving not only a diploma, but also a certificate of qualification for future careers. For example, we will prepare IT professionals for the financial and banking sectors. So, we need to teach them according to the SAP programme because it is widely used. And this agreement will give us the opportunity to provide free education,” said Financial Academy Innovative Development and Distance Learning Vice Rector Bakhyt Sharipov.
