How can I get involved with teaching SAP BI at a University

[Former Member]

I have been working on SAP BI for about 8 years and have good ideas on where it can add value to companies. How can I go about teaching it at a university?

[Heather_UA · Accepted solution]

Arvind,

Thanks for posting your question. I've noticed a number of faculty are registering for the UAC and starting to explore the new community ... so I think we'll see some responses from folks on campus soon. I expect they'll be able to offer you some practical advice on getting started. There are many universities that may be interested in bringing an experienced business person for either an adjunct instructor role or a guest lecturer. With 8 years BI experience I'm sure you've got lots of real-world experiences that students would find valuable!

Best,

Heather

[Former Member]

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I apologize in not checking this thread for a long long time. I am trying to answer your questions in brief.

1) What time commitments can I give : Weekends would work best for me, but I can probably do some evenings on weekdays

2) my academic qualifications : MSc Physics, MBA - finance - university of Chicago

3) Experience - doing BI for last 8/9 yrs, did R./3 SD for about 2 yr before that

4) City I live in : Chicago , IL

5) I will be more than happy to volunteer my time. Not really looking for a teaching career.

6) Would like to teach only part time.

7) I do not know of any opportunities in research. Would be happy to hear any topics/opportunities

😎 What value can I add: I think I have a very good understanding of technical component of SAP BI and direction and strategy SAP is adopting (for instance - develop BI Accelerator, offer Teradata as an underlying DB... etc). I have always been interested in Business (more so as an analyst) - which translates into me to taking a lot interest in the BI projects that I have been involved in (i.e. business reason/ value added) . Maybe I can bring people to reality - as to what is possible and what is not, why IT projects taken an enormous amount of time to implement, Separate out/differentiate the policy for making changes - depending upon applications (this is my pet peeve, large implementations - take 1/2 week to transport changes to production - because they have created this "board" to QA them , this might be important for an FI report but counter productive when the same process is followed for marketing data).

[Former Member]

Hi Arvind

Oakton Community College is a new member of University Alliances.

Governors State University is a long-time member.

You can start with these institutions. Get to know the people there even if they are a bit far for you to get to them. They know the other colleges in the Chicago area. You have SAP in common with them.

In our Business Intelligence pages of our UA Library, you will also find many materials and software packages on a time-limited license to download for Xcelsius and Crystal Reports for university courses. You could use these items at any university in your area that you find that has interest in BI. They do not have to be members of UA.

Just go and talk to the business school dean or MIS or IT department chair about your background. BI is a hot topic at universities and you are bound to find more than one university in such a large city as Chicago which would find your background attractive. Just yesterday, I made a presentation at a leading Philadelphia area university and the chair for CS and IT told me they are looking for a few adjunct professors. I am sure it is similar in Chicago.

Good Luck

Bob

Edited by: Bob LoBue on Nov 8, 2009 1:58 AM

[Former Member]

Hi Arvind,

Well you will certainly be in demand if you have practical experience so I suspect that the problem won't be searching for teaching opportunities but selecting from the many that are offered. Real world experience is invaluable as it puts meat on the bones of materials which students will have had access to prior to your arrival. In some of the UK and Irish schools consultants are asked if they can assist in amending or putting together teaching materials and then co-presenting the materials to students. This formnat often works very well - so well in fact that in those cases where I have attended the lectures tend to be wildly over-subscribed and students will fill every available floor and wall space!

I would certainly echo Bob's thoyghts with regard to including some additional information though. It's very easy to get requests from multiple institutions that don't reflect your skills or interests and this can be headed off by making it very clear what you want to talk about and what your range of interests might be / companies that you have worked at / any research or prior teaching you've done and certainly not least - what you actually enjoy doing.

I would also suggest that case studies are in huge demand - a lot of my schools have formed local collaborations with smaller SAP implementers because they can provide a case study, sometimes in collaboration with a speaker from the case company, and this really enables the university to show local relevance.

I would also suggest you indicate the sort of time that you would be prepared to give - perhaps you have a format in mnd that fits in with your professional life? this is important as the est collaborations take into account the needs of both parties.

All the best

Martin

Martin Gollogly

Director, University Alliances

United Kingdom and Ireland

[Former Member]

Hi Arvind, I teach varieties of "numbers in business" courses to students in the Business School at my UK university. Lots of my students tell me "there are no numbers in business" (yes really!) and insights from "the real world" are good to help my students understand just how important good analysis of good data is to running a successful company

Best wishes, Dave

[CrispianTan]

Hi Arvind,

Based on my observation where we have our SAP colleagues give a short seminar at universities and schools lasting 1 to 2 hours long, the students and teaching staff always appreciate those sessions. This is because our SAP colleague - be they from pre-sales or business development - are able to translate theory (what is being taught in schools) into real-life experience for students (via examples of real company implementation).

Hence, a good way for you to start teaching in a university is for you to volunteer your time giving these seminars to students at a university close to you. Once you have established that rapport with the schools, the school may then look into engaging you to teach SAP BI course in their school.

All the best to you in your teaching!

Crispian

[Former Member]

Arvind

I would like to second Crispian's thoughts on presenting at local universities. I have done probably 10 presentations at SAP schools over the past year. Typically I give the standard "corporate overview" presentation and then answer questions for a few minutes. I've spoken to the MIS "club" of several hundred students all the way down to an individual class of 20 students. I've gotten wonderful feedback and always personally gotten a great deal of satisfaction seeing the students and professors excited about SAP when I leave.

The true value of SAP and our ecosystem of customers and partners is sometimes obscured by the need for professors to focus on teaching the "basics" in class, so they really do appreciate anyone from SAP (or our customers or partners) who talk to them about the role of SAP in the "real world". Anything you can do to help educate students about the real world of SAP would be a valuable contribution. They love hearing "war stories" and little anecdotes about what they will face once they hit the workforce.

Cheers

Jeff

PS. I've been offered teaching jobs at almost every school I present at

[Former Member]

Hello to all,

I teach BI in both overview courses (undergraduate and MBA) as well as technical courses for our BSIS-MIS majors. I am always looking for BI professionals who have time to share their knowledge and experiences with our students. While this can be a face-to-face visit, it does not necessarily need to be the case. A virtual class visit also works nicely.

Best wishes,

Lorraine Gardiner

[Former Member]

Hi Arvind

I would advise you to go out on a limb and add a new post here. Please include the city you are working in and a little information about your own educational history. If you have given guest lectures or taught before, including as a graduate assistant, this will be very interesting.

Do you want to give a single guest lecture at a local university to profile your own firm at the same time as bringing BI alive to a classroom? Present a little more information about your firm and about your experience in your new post.

Do you want to teach a full semester or quarter course as an adjunct lecturer? If so, you will probably need to have a master's degree and sufficient coursework in the field you would like to teach in. Experience is a real plus, but academic qualifications are also necessary for a teaching assignment at accredited universities.

Also, it would be great for you to start a thread on BI careers, usage, advantages, or some other idea, etc. It would give the community another indication of your expertise in this area.

Good Luck.

Bob