SAS® and ESC Lille

A successful partnership for a renowned school

Founded in 1892, the ESC Lille Group is one of the oldest and most prestigious business schools in France. For 112 years it has continued to develop its innovative curriculum, while keeping its family-run feel. It offers students a wide range of program, from diplomas to doctorates, as well as holding courses for senior business management.

ESC Lille has 2,200 students, 60 tenured professors, 50 visiting professors, 400 contributors, 3 campuses, 30 programmes, 9,000 graduates and 66 international partnerships.

A special partnership
Many companies are seeking specialists to collect and analyse data that will improve their decision-making processes. For these businesses, the SAS solution has become a major component of their business-intelligence strategy.

ESC Lille has included SAS teaching in its pioneering "Direct Marketing, Distance Selling & E-Commerce" Mastère Spécialisé since 2001, demonstrating the school's keen understanding of the economic significance of the business-intelligence market.

MS MDCE – Daniel DELORGE Class, July 2004 "Direct Marketing & E-Commerce" Mastère Spécialisé

Following the success of this Mastère Spécialisé program, and of the partnership with SAS, ESC Lille has introduced further teaching programmes to develop SAS skills: the "Project & Programme" and "Supply Chain" Mastères Spécialisés arrived in 2003, and the "Marketing Management through Quality" Mastère Spécialisé was first run in 2004.

"SAS has really been able to set itself apart from potential competitors thanks to the ease of use and flexibility of its solution, together with its full offering of software packages, which includes not only Business Intelligence but also Knowledge Management, Management Assistance and Decision-Making," states Christophe Bredillet, who conducted several of the courses.

SAS teaching
Since 2001, some 100 graduates, 30 students and 30 lecturers, across all courses, have been involved in using SAS solutions. "The teaching fits the content of the course perfectly and makes it possible to improve management processes," notes Henri Verliefde of ESC Lille. Depending on the specialization taken by the student, SAS teaching may include the exploration and understanding of the basics of data mining, data analysis or even segmentation. In his Mastère Spécialisé course, Nicolas Giard has taken the teaching further by installing the latest version of the analysis software on the laptops his students use in class.

Each student who passes the data-analysis exam is presented with an original SAS-ESC Lille Business Intelligence Analysis certificate. These certificates are co-signed by Pierre Debourse, Managing Director of ESC Lille, and by Daniel Delorge, Managing Director of SAS, France, and sponsor of the "Direct Marketing & E-Commerce" Mastère Spécialisé.

The main goal of these certificates and of the courses more generally, is to provide students with the skills they need to succeed in the job market. This is especially valuable at a time when there is a lack of expertise in this market sector.

Real-world success
SAS teaching is a great boost for career prospects, and students quickly see these advantages when they start hunting for jobs. According to Bredillet, "85 percent of students find a job within 60 days of getting their diploma; 50 percent of them even have promises of jobs before the end of the course."

This year, one of the former students from the "Direct Marketing & E-Commerce" Mastère Spécialisé even started his own business, Naxeo. Because SMEs tend not to have the skills or financial means to invest in in-house solutions, Naxeo enables them to analyse their databases online. "This innovative idea came from the skills acquired through the SAS teaching," explains Giard.

Outlook and development
Staff at ESC Lille are already planning to drive their success into the future. Verliefde intends to organise refresher seminars for students who attended in previous years, when the presentation of the course didn't benefit from SAS training.

Bredillet also plans future joint developments with SAS. Among these will be the creation of a seminar on standardisation, and the organisation of week-long workshops to better identify the specific needs of each programme.

Because SAS training is so highly rated by companies and so firmly entrenched in the school, it may soon be added to other courses at ESC Lille. The SAS-ESC Lille partnership looks set to have a great future.

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