Session 1 - 06 July (12:00 - 14:00)
Digital transformation in business and the implications for academia – Mervyn George, SAP
It is foreseen that the IT industry will experience major disruption in the next 5-10 years. Although we have been discussing “disruption” for a long time, what Covid-19 has taught us up to know is that major disruption can occur almost overnight and change the way we work and live instantaneously. How will this impact the academic world in Africa as viewed through the lens of Industry? How do universities continue to prepare their students for this uncertain future, where theory needs to meet applicable skills which change almost constantly?
SAP University Alliances Overview and new Cloud content – De Wet Naude
In this session an overview and strategy update on the re-organized SAP University Alliances will be provided, plus a road map of new SAP Cloud curricula under development, to be competed in the foreseeable future.
Session 2 - 07 July (12:00 - 14:00)
Keynote by Cathy Smith – Managing Director SAP Africa
We are living in a very confusing, and sometimes scary, world at present. Many long-established concepts and principles are no longer valid. As with all industry leaders, Faculty members need to navigate and try to make sense of the new reality we find ourselves in. Even more so, lecturers hold the futures of many young minds in their hands and the requirement for strong, calm and rational leadership is all the more important. In this keynote, Cathy Smith, Managing Director of SAP Africa, will share some of her thoughts on this important topic and highlight how SAP deals with the challenges of the new normal, especially from the perspective of leadership.
Research and Collaborative Innovation - Victor Oladokun
Collaboration in research and innovation systems has become imperative in dealing with undertakings across academic community. There is an increased complexity and interdependency of society’s systems requiring a multidisciplinary approach to understand their associated problems and opportunities. Emerging problems have multidimensional implications that require researchers to work collaboratively in order to be able generate innovative workable solutions. Evidence has shown that most of the highly impactful scientific breakthroughs in recent times were products of intense and complex transnational collaborations. This session will examine some frameworks for deepening collaboration and innovation initiatives within the ESEFA network
Resource Mobilization Toolkit - Philip Oyier
Searching and growing in terms of budget is a major part of resource mobilization, but acquiring new people and connections is important too: in-kind contributions (gifts or services), knowledge, connections, information, experience and friendships can go a long way to advancing our goal. The Research Toolkit helps investigators and their teams find the resources they need to conduct research, and the presents types of Resources/Funding Schemes. It includes:
- Monitor bids for research and collaborative teaching funding
- Identify, communicate and drive opportunities for funding at universities
- Share case studies on sustainability
- Assist universities to raise funds for themselves (create a toolbox)
Industry liaison – Olufemi Adetunji / De Wet Naude
It has been clear for some time that there should be more interaction between Industry and the academic world. This has always been a challenge and therefore the SAP African Academic Board created a portfolio to explore ways and means for foster more dialogue and involvement with Industry, in this case, specifically as related to the topic of Enterprise Systems. In this session the team will provide an overview of the topic, indicate progress towards this goal and explore, with the group, further options.
Session 3 - 08 July (12:00 - 14:00)
Preparing for the S/4HANA migration Workshop - Gwamaka Mwalemba
For the past few years SAP has been rolling out their new ERP system called S/4HANA as a replacement to the previous SAP ECC system. The new S/4HANA ERP comes with significant changes on the interface as well as the underlying data architecture which has been optimised for analytics.
In order to ensure our curriculum is up-to-date and in line with industry developments, we have upgraded our ESEFA ERP curriculum so that it can be taught using the new S/4HANA ERP system. The aim of this session will be to briefly highlight the key changes when transitioning from the current SAP system (SAP ECC) to S/4HANA.
Reporting with Lumira Designer - Kudzai Katsidzira
SAP Lumira has been updated to SAP Lumira Designer. With this change, it is important that the ESEFA curriculum adjusts accordingly to continue providing relevant up to date content and material. SAP Lumira Designer is data visualisation software that allows users to create interactive maps, charts and infographics from their data. It provides users with data visualisations through dashboards and analytical applications and enhances the design of dashboards.
SAP Lumira Designer has various benefits such as the ease of development of data and an improved visualisation experience. Users will be able to experience improved use of business Intelligence (BI) data and analytics. With SAP Lumira Designer multiple data source blending and acquisition is possible. The workshops will highlight the benefits of this product and how students can learn more about BI and data analytics.
Process Mining (with Celonis) – Lisa Seymour / Sinekhaya Nongabe
Process Mining is a method used to discover, manage and improve processes. It looks at processes as they are actually performed, and not assumed to be, by extracting data from sources such as transactional and master data tables in enterprise systems. Organisations are increasingly adopting process mining and it is predicted that the manual way of modelling processes will disappear. Process mining has machine learning algorithms which enable root cause analysis and predictions replacing traditional ways of performing process improvement and management. In this presentation we will describe process mining, introduce types of process mining, demonstrate process mining using Celonis and reflect on running process mining workshops at UCT in 2019 and 2020
Session 4 - 09 July (12:00 - 14:00)
Additional SAP UA curricula - Stefan Weidner
In this session, Stefan presents additional curricula available to SAP University Alliances member institutions. SAP UCC Magdeburg has been the lead curriculum contributor for Enterprise Resource Planning, Business Intelligence, Supply Chain Management, Customer Relationship Management and Internet of Things. Stefan introduces teaching and learning environments for both SAP on-premise and cloud solutions. The teaching material is based on the model company Global Bike. Due to its modularization and independent student work, it can easily be integrated in virtual or distant academic courses
Curriculum and remote teaching – Zarine Cadersaib / Gwamaka Mwalemba
The ongoing covid-19 pandemic has forced higher learning institutions to rethink and adapt their teaching, learning and assessment practices. Most universities had to suspend face to face classes and turn to remote/online options to salvage the 2020 academic year. This move has forced lecturers to explore new ways of teaching and assessing students. The aim of this session will be to share ideas/experiences on various tools and techniques that can be used to facilitate remote teaching, learning and assessment. The session will also cover effective options which can be used to teach the ESEFA curriculum remotely.