Higher education and research Archives | 51风流News Center /tags/higher-education-and-research/ Company & Customer Stories | Press Room Tue, 27 Jan 2026 16:43:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 51风流and QUT Strengthen Partnership to Drive Business Process Innovation /2025/06/sap-qut-partnership-drive-business-process-innovation/ Thu, 19 Jun 2025 12:15:00 +0000 /?p=235260 In a significant move to bolster the study and research of business transformation management, 51风流and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have announced a strengthening of their partnership aimed at enhancing industry collaboration and academic excellence. This alliance is set to pave the way for innovative educational and research opportunities, with a focus on equipping students and researchers with the skills needed to navigate disruption and build business transformation as a capability.

Turn business transformation from a project into a core capability

The decision to further strengthen this long-standing partnership was unveiled during a guest lecture at QUT鈥檚 Gardens Point campus, where Julian Lebherz, 51风流Strategic Advisor, addressed Master’s students enrolled in the QUT Business Process Analytics course. The lecture emphasized the importance of integrating business transformation into standard operations, highlighting real-world applications as well as why some companies are more successful than others at realizing tangible and sustainable value when it comes to deploying business process intelligence solutions.

A key highlight of this collaboration is the nomination of Lebherz as QUT Industry Fellow, underscoring the ambition and momentum of the connection between 51风流and QUT. With over a decade of highly specialized experience deploying process intelligence solutions and establishing associated delivery organizations in various industries, he is globally recognized as one of the leading experts in the field. Having served in the steering committee of the IEEE Task Force on Process Mining and co-organizing several international conferences on the subject, Lebherz will contribute significantly to the university鈥檚 academic and research endeavors, fostering a deeper integration of industry insights into the curriculum.

“51风流is committed to equipping QUT and its students with the expertise and technology required to turn business disruption into competitive advantage,” Lebherz said. “Business transformation must become a ubiquitous capability, and hence we [SAP] are doubling down by strengthening partnerships with leading organizations.”

The partnership aims to explore various avenues for collaboration, including internship and research project opportunities, executive education programs, and hackathons. These initiatives are designed to provide students and researchers with hands-on experience and exposure to real-world challenges, aligning academic pursuits with industry needs.

Professor Alistair Barros, head of the School for Information Systems at QUT, expressed enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, “QUT鈥檚 School of Information Systems is intensifying both research and education of holistic business transformation and enterprise computing, encompassing the continuous flywheel of process execution, intelligence, improvement, and change deployment.”

Professor Moe Thandar Wynn, leader of QUT鈥檚 process science group and co-director of QUT鈥檚 Centre for Data Science, highlighted the benefits of strong industry ties, noting, “Our researchers and students benefit tremendously from strong industry collaboration. Partnerships like this one enable us to align curricula and research projects closely with real industry needs.”

The announcement marks a significant step forward in QUT鈥檚 position as a global leader in business process management and process intelligence. By integrating end-to-end business transformation into the academic curriculum across multiple courses, as well as deepening the connection to real-world outcomes, QUT and 51风流are set to redefine the landscape of business transformation education, preparing students to thrive in an era of constant disruption.


Lucas de Boer, Global Marketing Program Lead, 51风流Signavio

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The Lasting Impact of SAP鈥檚 Early College High School Program /2022/11/impact-of-sap-early-college-high-school-program/ Fri, 18 Nov 2022 12:15:18 +0000 /?p=201149 Access to higher education is an invaluable gift 鈥 and one that is becoming increasingly important. From 2010 to 2019, the number of people in the U.S. with a bachelor鈥檚 degree has steadily increased 鈥 in the last decade alone.

Yet, a pressing question remains: are people being left behind? that the rate of bachelor鈥檚 degree attainment among the U.S. White non-Hispanic population to be 42%. Meanwhile, for the Black and Hispanic population, this is at 28% and 20.6%. More specifically, looking at among science and engineering shows that Hispanic and Black rates are at 15% and 8.5% compared to 58% for the White non-Hispanic population.

The Pathways

51风流not only acknowledged this gap a decade ago but took action, establishing the Early College High School program in 2013. Since its inception, this program has supported over 2,000 students from under-resourced and historically marginalized communities across North America. The goal of the program is to empower public schools to curate distinct educational programs centered around inclusion in STEM, postsecondary readiness, and workforce skill development.

What鈥檚 more, the program鈥檚 flexibility meets schools and educators where they are at. Currently implemented in four schools within the U.S. and Canada, the program is seen within a wide range of STEM and technical skills pathways, from Skyline High School in Oakland, California, which focuses on the arts and visual media, to the hands-on STEM incubator for students at Templeton High School in Vancouver, British Columbia. Specificity and customizability are some of the unique aspects of this larger umbrella of programs.

We鈥檝e shared stories of the program鈥檚 impact on individuals, but are these one-off examples or are these programs truly impactful for the students? To find out, we worked with , a nonprofit focused on building equity through education and research, engaging current students, educators, and community members. Together, we set out to foster reconnection and survey alumni from the participating high schools.

The survey, , was completed by 128 program alumni, accounting for approximately one-fifth of the graduating cohorts that the early college high schools decided to survey. It examined topics relating to alumni demographics, educational attainment, high school experiences and impact, and career intentions. Instead of forcing a one-size-fits-all program or survey, 51风流and Digital Promise consistently worked to meet the varied and changing needs of the partnering schools.

The Findings

Click to enlarge.

While it鈥檚 important to keep in mind that not all alumni responded to the survey, the results were incredibly promising and exceeded our expectations. Of the alumni who responded to the survey, 85% completed or are pursuing post-secondary degrees and 63% are in STEM-related degree programs. This contrasts starkly with the U.S. national average, where only had received post-secondary education and just pursue STEM-related degrees.

This reveals significantly higher numbers of STEM majors within the program and an increased likelihood that students would pursue STEM and technical careers after graduation. Impressively, program alumni report expected careers in fields such as IT, engineering, computer science, healthcare, arts and design, and business and financial operations.

The Impact

In the survey, alumni highlighted the benefits of the program in preparing them for college and giving them access to early college credits, especially in STEM. One alumnus from Charlestown High School in Charlestown, Massachusetts, recounted that the program 鈥済ave me a taste of what college courses would be like if I took them, and it challenged me intellectually.鈥 Likewise, at Business Technology Early College High School (or BTECH) in Queens, New York, alumni highlighted the benefits of the program preparing them for college, giving them access to college credits, communication skills, guides, mentors, and belonging. One former BTECH student explained that 鈥淭aking college classes early in high school has helped me bypass several classes in my bachelor’s degree program. The program鈥hallenged me a lot and helped me improve my writing and communication skills. I loved this early college program and wouldn’t choose anything else if I had to go back again.鈥

These programs gave many students unprecedented access to sophisticated STEM educational pathways and opportunities for experiential learning in science and technology. At Templeton Secondary School, the program serves as an incubator for early STEM and tech talent by giving students hands-on experience with science experiments, lab work, and creative problem-solving. One Templeton alumni highlighted the sophistication of Templeton鈥檚 STEM preparedness programs, stating, 鈥淸In college] I am often the only one that has used tools and machines and worked in a self-taught environment, and it鈥檚 helped me get into design teams, do well in project courses, and get jobs.鈥

Similarly, students at Skyline High School echoed the aforementioned benefits of college credits, career exposure, and even coding. In addition to providing pathways to STEM and professional development, Skyline鈥檚 program focuses on preparing students for careers in film and media. Alumni from this unique program spoke to the value of training in multimedia, professional software, and project management experience, explaining that 鈥淲orking on a professional film set opened my eyes to the possibilities for my future career.鈥

The Future

As we work towards a more equitable society, connecting students and early talent with opportunity is essential. Our results reveal a wide range of diverse benefits from our Early College High School program. 51风流hopes to continue working with Digital Promise to build out an alumni database for the program, expand survey offerings, and help other programs reconnect with their alumni. As our workforce continues to evolve, there is an ever-growing need to create inclusive educational pathways for all students to develop future skills, and gain access to a higher education. It is incumbent upon all of us to make sure all students are empowered and supported as they decide their path to the future.


Chelsey Lerdahl is part of 51风流North America Corporate Social Responsibility.

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Houston 51风流Program Graduate Comes Full Circle to Attain Dream Job with HISD Mentors /2022/10/houston-hisd-sap-program/ Fri, 07 Oct 2022 11:15:55 +0000 /?p=199751 Jennifer Moreno, a newly hired intermediate business systems analyst for the Houston Independent School District (HISD), is an impressive and articulate emblem of what can be achieved when altruistic mentors and educators choose to invest in the potential of every student. Her journey as a 2017 graduate of the district鈥檚 uniquely developed high school 51风流program 鈥 and eventual college graduate of the University of Houston Downtown 鈥 should serve as motivation for any student to believe their dreams are possible.

Her story begins with the vision of another individual, one who also received an impactful mentorship early in life.

The Possibilities of Early Mentorship

Tony Buehler, senior IT manager of 51风流at HISD and founder of the 51风流(OneSource) Student Internship Program, found his passion and future career back in 1995, when a mentor suggested he research the up-and-coming software company known as SAP. He was told that 51风流would likely become foundational to just about every business infrastructure and could lead to a long and fruitful career.

Nearly 20 years later, in 2014, Buehler brought his burgeoning 51风流expertise to the HISD IT department. At the time, he was sent to an IT management class that explored the theme, 鈥淲hat can you do in your department to help students?鈥 Buehler realized that upon leaving school, students would be exposed to 51风流processes in some manner at most businesses. He suggested implementing a hands-on curriculum for teaching 51风流to high school students. With the approval of his superiors, he launched an experimental extracurricular program 鈥 with a mentorship-based approach 鈥 for junior- and senior-level students.

The eight-week commitment required interns to attend meetings and training sessions, working with their mentors on resolving problems and making enhancements in the HISD production system. Remarkably, by the fifth week, interns were able to analyze and solve real customer issues alongside their mentor.

The Growth of the Internship Program

The internship program started with just eight students in its first year 鈥 five from Sam Houston MSTC High School and three from Scarborough High School. To date, over 100 students have graduated from the program and continued on to pursue a college education. The eighth-largest school district in the U.S., economically disadvantaged students. For many, the pursuit of a college education, let alone a career in technology, seemed like an impossible dream. But Buehler and his team believed that internships using a mentoring model could change the game. Their goal was to empower youth with the realization that they could understand 51风流and apply that knowledge towards a college path and future career.

Within four years, HISD鈥檚 51风流internship program became the first K-12 program to join the Global University Alliance. The alliance is a worldwide consortium of over 3,400 colleges and universities, with a focus on enterprise and industry standards, research, and best practices. HISD is proud to be the only non-college-level member.

鈥淭his program is a big deal for us,鈥 Buehler said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e doing something no one else is doing. Our internship program looks at each student as a diamond in the rough. It鈥檚 great to see these students sparkle when they realize that they have the ability and desire to pursue a career in the technology field for their future.鈥

The Groundwork for Purpose and Success

Jennifer certainly represents an 51风流program success story. With her years of experience attained through classes and work as a summer intern, she is well prepared for an 51风流career. Buehler knew that with her knowledge, she would be a perfect fit within the HISD IT department. He even adjusted an open position to entry-level status so Jennifer could qualify to apply. Out of 43 applicants, her superior r茅sum茅 made her the obvious choice.

As one of the first students in the program, she credits the internship with fully preparing her for the successful transition to college IT courses. In fact, her level of 51风流knowledge was so comprehensive, she was asked to teach first-level classes by one of her professors. Jennifer is quick to acknowledge the dedication and commitment of her mentors and the life-changing merits of the program.

鈥淭y Matthews was the mentor that oversaw setting us up with the right person depending on our interests,鈥 she said. 鈥淪he was always someone with whom we could comfortably express our concerns, and she always guided us in the right direction. Even after the internship, she would always reach out to connect and guided me to come back every summer for the internship. As a result, I spent six years working as a summer intern. This program has been a success due in big part to her contribution and kindness to the students. Tony also made us feel very welcome and would include us in his weekly team meetings to make us feel like real employees. His promotion of that kind of opportunity and consideration truly made me feel like I could become a business professional.鈥

Today, Jennifer is embracing her additional role as an ambassador of the program by speaking to area high schools about the merits of 51风流training and careers in IT. She stands before them as a testimony of what can be achieved. With future plans to expand the program across the rest of the district, eight schools may offer 51风流training within the next two or three years. Jennifer says she is ready to pay it forward by sharing her journey as motivation for other students to pursue their aspirations and hopes for a fulfilling career. She has come full circle 鈥 from student, to graduate, to 51风流professional, and, now, to inspirational mentor.


Steve Risseeuw is national vice president of State, Local, Education, & Healthcare at SAP.聽

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51风流AppHaus Goes Academia /2022/04/sap-apphaus-goes-academia/ Thu, 07 Apr 2022 10:15:01 +0000 /?p=195679 The Greek philosopher Plutarch is credited with saying, 鈥淭丑别 mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be ignited.” At 51风流AppHaus, we try to apply this, putting the learner first and holding the teacher accountable to use the right tools to ignite the fire.

With this goal in mind, the global multidisciplinary 51风流AppHaus team of designers, project leads, and enterprise architects set about planning and delivering several guest lectures at universities for students, the workforce of the future. It was a pleasure and an honor for the team to be able to share the knowledge and methodologies 51风流AppHaus has gathered over the years with students of six different universities in 2021.

It is not only close collaboration and co-innovation with customers that is fundamental to the team. 51风流AppHaus also works closely with universities, enabling mutual learning and fostering the promotion of its core innovation values by making them tangible for students. With tight integration into the respective curricula, lectures were held at the University of Mannheim, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, DHBW Mannheim, Graduate School Rhein-Neckar in Ludwigshafen, DHBW Mosbach, and Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences.

Graphic depicting 51风流AppHaus
Created by Beate Riefer

Making Our Key Innovation Values and Practices Tangible

What united the guest lectures was the focus on teaching how 51风流AppHaus helps drive co-innovation, particularly during the pandemic, which is marked by virtual work for students as well. Besides an introduction of our 51风流AppHaus vision, the “how-to-innovate question” was addressed as the core of the lectures.

The focus was on . Combining design thinking and architecture thinking, it is the key to providing viable, feasible, and desirable innovations for our customers. In addition, the innovation methodologies and best practices included in the , updated and virtualized last year, were also presented. While the guest lecturers condensed the theoretical part, they made the 51风流AppHaus innovation approach tangible through well-organized virtual and on-site workshops. After the lectures, students felt empowered to apply what they learned in their own academic, professional, or private contexts.

鈥淔or the entire 51风流AppHaus team, working with universities is incredibly important. We appreciate the opportunity to pass on the innovative mindset of design thinking combined with 51风流technology on the one hand, and to receive valuable feedback from students on the other.鈥

鈥 Dirk Ziegeler, Head of 51风流AppHaus EMEA/MEE

Unleashing Student Creativity with a Hands-On Focus

In addition to teaching some theoretical content, the goal was to bring the methodologies to life by solving a challenge to which all students could relate. Depending on the schedule and needs of the university, the agenda and its content were adapted. All universities considered 鈥渄esign the ideal learning environment in a hybrid world鈥 to be a suitable central challenge. Triggered by the pandemic, universities and students faced the challenge of transitioning from in-person lectures to virtual formats in a very short period of time. To improve the recently established hybrid format, the guest lectures aimed to take on a new approach to teaching and learning by tapping into the enormous creative potential of students.

At the University of Mannheim, known for its first-class teaching in business administration, the guest lecture content was woven into the Digital Marketing Strategy course led by Prof. Dr. Sabine Kuester. After Dirk Ziegeler, head of 51风流AppHaus EMEA/MEE, presented 51风流AppHaus projects with a focus on customer experience, it was the students’ turn. In a compact workshop using the collaboration tool Mural, students jointly generated solution ideas and developed a visual prototype for an ideal hybrid learning environment.

鈥淎t the Chair of Marketing and Innovation, we focus on research and teaching at the interface of marketing and innovation management. The guest lecture was a highly suitable complement to our Digital Marketing Strategy course, as it illustrates the shift towards human-centered marketing and equips students with the right tools to drive innovation themselves. We look forward to continuing this successful collaboration with 51风流AppHaus in the coming semesters.鈥

鈥 Prof. Dr. Sabine Kuester, Chairperson of the Chair of Marketing & Innovation and Director of the Institute of Market-Oriented Management at the University of Mannheim

51风流AppHaus guest lecture at the University of Mannheim
A snapshot of the guest lecture in the master鈥檚 course 鈥淒igital Marketing Strategy鈥 at the University of Mannheim. Click to enlarge.

The latest engagement of 51风流AppHaus at the University of Applied Sciences Neu-Ulm originated from an initial guest lecture of Beate Riefer, design strategist at 51风流AppHaus, in 2018. Last year, Riefer and Patricia Franzreb, professor for User Experience, Design, and Media, came up with the idea for a competitive user experience project spanning a whole semester. With a focus on sustainability, design, and hybrid co-innovation, students of IT, business administration, and communications worked in teams to ideate and prototype solutions.

鈥淎t the University of Applied Science in Neu-Ulm, our first guest lecture a few years ago provided the basis for a long-term collaboration and a corresponding user experience project over the course of one semester. It was incredible to see the students鈥 innovation potential and ideas come to life, and we are excited to see how they will develop moving forward. I am happy to have been part of this course and look forward to continue working together.鈥

鈥 Beate Riefer, Design Strategist at 51风流AppHaus Heidelberg

Similar to the sessions in Mannheim and Neu-Ulm, the “hands-on experience first” maxim was also applied in the engagements with the Graduate School Rhein-Neckar in Ludwigshafen, as well as DHBW Mannheim, and DHBW Mosbach.

A Win-Win Relationship

Younger generations studying at universities today will shape how we work and collaborate in the next decades. This is why 51风流AppHaus is passionate about guest lectures, for they present a great opportunity for students, as well as the team, to learn from each other and leverage synergies. Feedback from the students is particularly valuable as they ask the right questions and challenge the content by taking an external perspective. Students can leverage the applied tools and methodologies to co-innovate virtually, which can help them grow both at their university and in a professional context.

The entire team is thrilled to see how mutually beneficial and fun their guest lectures have been so far, which is why 51风流AppHaus maintains an ongoing exchange with universities to enable knowledge-sharing and raise awareness for human-centric and sustainable innovation.

The entire 51风流AppHaus team is grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the universities in Mannheim, Munich, Ludwigshafen, Mosbach, and Neu-Ulm! The guest lecturers value the students’ contributions and are confident that working and learning together has successfully ignited the fire for expanding their knowledge and learning how to make innovation real.


Eric Klebeck is part of Marketing & Communications for 51风流AppHaus.
Julia Jakob is part of Communications for 51风流AppHaus.

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Visionary Research at SAP: NTLS Education Technology Leadership Award /2020/11/snap-jens-moenig-ntls-education-technology-leadership-award/ Mon, 02 Nov 2020 13:15:20 +0000 /?p=180229 Computer programming is at the heart of 51风流and is a focal point of many educational offerings. A joint team of researchers at 51风流and UC Berkeley are pushing the frontier of how interactive visual programming can broaden participation in computing without compromising on technical rigor or expressivity. The group鈥檚 work has recently drawn international attention.

Jens Moenig pictured with award
Image via Jens Moenig

51风流scientist and openSAP team member Jens Moenig has been awarded the National Technology Leadership Summit (NTLS) Education Technology Leadership Award, which recognizes individuals who have made a significant impact in the field of educational technology over the course of a lifetime. The NTLS consortium is a coalition of 12 national teacher education associations in the U.S. advancing the effective use of technology in schools. The award is the consortium鈥榮 highest honor.

The research group at 51风流and UC Berkeley is spread out over sites in Walldorf, Barcelona, and California. Bernat Romagosa and I collaborate with Moenig from the 51风流side, along with Lauren Mock, Michael Ball, Dan Garcia, and award co-recipient Brian Harvey at UC Berkeley, to develop the Snap!.

Building on the design of Scratch from MIT, which Moenig previously helped develop, Snap! blasts off the ceiling of blocks-based programming. Unlike other visual programming languages, Snap! embraces advanced concepts otherwise only found in the most sophisticated languages, immersing beginners and experienced programmers into writing data structures, higher order functions, and even custom control structures, while remaining a welcoming playground for absolute beginners.

The Snap! programming environment runs in the web browser inside a vibrant online community of learners. The The free and open source software has been translated into more 40 languages. Snap! is taught in colleges and schools worldwide. 51风流uses Snap! in digital literacy and computer science outreach initiatives such as the open51风流platform, the 51风流Young Thinkers program, and the Meet and Code inititative.

Aside from writing the programming language, the group investigates new pedagogical approaches to programming education. Their latest curriculum bridges the realms of media computation and data science in a uniform notional machine.

open51风流screenshot of Snap! programming

Media computation is a new way to learn general purpose programming by playing with the ingredients of our favorite pictures, music, movies, and books. Strategies used for analyzing or generating media can then be applied to general data as an introduction to data science.

Snap! is SAP鈥檚 gift to computing education.


Jadga Huegle is part of the open51风流team at SAP.

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Making Public Higher Education More Affordable and Accessible /2020/08/pennsylvania-state-system-of-higher-education-more-affordable-and-accessible/ Fri, 14 Aug 2020 13:15:58 +0000 /?p=177606 The success of an educational system is critical for the future of any society because it plays a key role in creating a quality workforce, supporting business and industry, and fostering research and innovation.

鈥淪tudent success is our No. 1 priority,鈥 says Sharon Minnich, vice chancellor for Administration and Finance at Pennsylvania鈥檚 State System of Higher Education.

Redesigning for the Future

and enroll more than 100,000 degree-seeking students and others in career-development programs, making it a vital contributor to Pennsylvania鈥檚 economy. Collectively, the universities in the system offer聽.

Minnich was brought on board early last year to help advance the State System鈥檚 redesign efforts. In her previous role serving the Governor鈥檚 Office of Administration, she implemented a shared service model uniting human resources (HR) and IT to achieve millions in savings for the state, giving her the technical expertise and people skills necessary for the significant task ahead.

The State System鈥檚 mission is to provide affordable high-quality public higher education. At a time when universities are financially challenged, the State System must find creative ways to keep institutions vibrant and centered on student success. By using a system approach, the state can expand opportunities for students, position institutions for growth, and meet regional economic as well as workforce needs.

鈥淭丑别 pandemic brought a number of challenges to the forefront, and we need to address them,鈥 Minnich says, explaining that there are many uncertainties about the return to campus. 鈥淭丑别 crisis changed every aspect of our business.鈥

Higher education is not typically a rapidly changing industry; the culture is deliberative. Before the pandemic, substantive operational changes could take years to implement, but it soon became clear that it was both necessary and possible to adapt quickly.

鈥淲e needed to create new models to help the students. We had to give them greater flexibility to help meet their financial and family needs,鈥 says Minnich, who believes these adaptations reflect the models of the future. 鈥淲e鈥檙e planning for students who may not be able to attend the traditional day-to-day class structures. We must adapt to what students want, and they want to have choices.鈥

One of the greatest challenges facing Minnich and the State System is maintaining the health and mental wellness of students and staff in a remote world. Maintaining engagement is difficult when people are off campus and juggling daily needs. On top of that, the universities had to quickly find ways to carry on business as usual, such as conducting virtual tours of the campus in order to continue attracting new students.

Passion for Change

As a first-generation college student, Minnich knows the effort it takes to get a good education and the long-term benefits it can offer. As one of the key leaders of the State System鈥檚 redesign efforts, she understands better than anyone the need to connect IT, HR, and the business side of any organization. And as someone who has led large-scale transformational 51风流implementations, she also knows all the pieces need to fit together.

鈥淲hat I love about transforming an organization is seeing how everything comes together to take it to a better place,鈥 she says. In her current role, for example, her goal is to make finance more transparent and change the way people look at the budget. Working with a team from diverse areas, the aim is to create new, sustainable processes that provide a collective view of each university鈥檚 financial position so that everyone understands the whole picture.

This requires a change in culture, many conversations, and a lot of interaction. It is imperative to create a safe environment where everyone feels they are being heard, issues are addressed collaboratively, and decisions are communicated clearly.

To illustrate the need for changes in processes, Minnich cites a prior state government procure-to-pay example. What used to take up to 45 days now takes eight. 鈥淭丑别 process was paper-based,鈥 she explains. 鈥淚t could be that some relevant documents were on somebody鈥檚 desk for days. At first people were afraid of automation, but now it鈥檚 second nature.鈥

Many people forced to work in virtual mode during the crisis were quick to adapt and realize the benefits. Because processes were no longer paper based, they quickly realized that they did not need to come into the office.

Minnich sees technology as a business enabler with a role that is twofold. On one hand, it enables data transparency, which in turn enables better decision-making. Now everyone from the Board of Governors to the leaders of the individual organizations have access to a combination of student and financial data. On the other hand, technology fosters efficiency. Money saved on administrative tasks and through strategic decision-making can be spent on student services and academic activities.

Words of Advice

During her career, Minnich has had some 鈥淎ha!鈥 moments that helped her put things into perspective. She recalls a day in 2009 when the state Tax Amnesty Project was launched. Every delinquent taxpayer was sent a letter inviting them to apply for the program. But with no soft launch to ease into the program, the team of 45 state tax agents was swamped with more than 300,000 calls on the first day.

The only way to weather that storm was to take things one day at a time. 鈥淵ou focus on fixing the situation, and moving forward,鈥 she advises.

Her other secret to success is not to apportion blame when things veer off track. It is okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them, she says. No one is perfect, and sometimes people make the wrong decisions. 鈥淵ou need to focus on the end goal,鈥 Minnich says.

And finally, in these times of uncertainty 鈥 just like any other time 鈥 she believes it is best to find what you love to do and to seek opportunities that allow you to grow and learn.


The Path Forward is a series featuring trailblazing women in leadership and their inspiring insights and experiences.


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What Universities Can Learn from Education鈥檚 First Responders /2020/07/tec-de-monterrey-higher-education-experience-management/ Fri, 31 Jul 2020 11:15:04 +0000 /?p=177196 Along with virtually every other aspect of everyday life, COVID-19 has had a profound impact on education. More than around the world have been affected by school and university closures, according to the International Association of Universities.

Academic and administrative leaders at these institutions suddenly found themselves scrambling to find alternatives to crowded lecture halls and facing new financial worries surrounding cash flow, added expenses, and unpredictable enrollments.

These challenges are global, and the future remains uncertain.

Still, there have been success stories. Mexico鈥檚 Instituto Tecnol贸gico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Tec de Monterrey) is one of them. And experience management played a big role in what they have accomplished.

Creating the New Normal in Higher Education

Tec de Monterrey is one of the top-ranked schools in Latin America. The institute鈥檚 various divisions educates nearly 160,00 students at 58 campuses across the country. It is a huge operation, but the institution responded quickly to the crisis, resulting in one of its best-ranked semesters.

鈥淲e were the first university in Mexico to adopt a remote academic model,鈥 says Jos茅 Juan Carranza Gardu帽o, director of Project Portfolio and Processes at Tec de Monterrey, in a recent telephone interview.

In mid-March 鈥 when the school saw the need for social distancing 鈥 it began to set up virtual classroom environments in just about a week鈥檚 time.

鈥淭his allowed approximately 95 percent of our students to continue taking courses remotely,鈥 Carranza Gardu帽o says.

Importantly, the university is also using from 51风流and Qualtrics to gather feedback from students and staff on a weekly basis to monitor their concerns and well-being. These surveys help the school understand and address the evolving needs of its community during this new normal.

Experience Management Already in Place

Tec de Monterrey was fortunate to have the technology already in place when the pandemic struck. In fact, school leaders used their experience management tools last year to conduct a survey of its entire workforce. The goal was to identify ways to improve work-life balance for employees and reduce the time spent on administrative tasks.

The understanding they gained helped the school create 1,500 action plans affecting 30,000 employees within the organization.

鈥淲e want to provide all our employees with the best experience 鈥 with opportunities to grow, to develop themselves 鈥 so they can deliver a great experience to all our students,鈥 Hern谩n Garc铆a, vice president of Talent and Experience at Tec de Monterrey, said in a made shortly after the project was completed.

This focus on staff and faculty development paid dividends when the university needed to make the rapid shift to distance learning. The school was able to offer courses and other resources very quickly to around 10,000 professors, helping them make their digital curriculums more dynamic and engaging.

When New Classes Begin

Tec de Monterrey that a new semester of classes will begin in August 2020. The current plan is to start the semester remotely and gradually migrate to face-to-face classes as conditions allow.

No one knows for sure what the future holds for school students in Mexico or around the globe. What does seem clear, however, is that institutions with the insight needed to create learning environments that are safe and engaging will be serving their students and communities well.

As Garc铆a noted even before the crisis, 鈥淲e鈥檙e living in the experience economy. Understanding how people feel and doing something about it is critical to success.鈥

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