Focusing on business process modeling and management innovation, SAP AG and IDS Scheer AG announced today at SAPs Innovation Conference in Basil, Switzerland, an alliance that brings together corporate and academic factions.
SAP, of Waldorf, Germany, and IDS, of Saarbrucken, Germany, are founding the Institute for Business Process Innovation, which will focus on research into next-generation business solutions, officials said.
SAP is the worlds largest developer of enterprise resource planning software, while IDS Scheer makes process-modeling software. The two companies have a long-standing relationship.
The institute will leverage each companys existing relationships with academic institutions and focus on research collaboration projects, executive education programs and a demonstration facility.
Rather than stagnate in one locale, the institute will span a global network of universities, including the University of New Orleans, George Mason University and Widener University in the United States; the Ecole Polytechniques in Canada; and the Institute for Information Systems at the University of Saarbrueken in Germany.
The universities will each incorporate Centers of Excellence for business process research and innovation and focus on business process modeling, among other areas, officials said.
The University of Montreal, for example, is running SAPs R/3 enterprise resource planning system and IDS Scheers Aris Toolset for simulations in the health-care sector and aluminum industry.