Grenoble Ecole de Management: Pioneering new territory in academia

Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM, or Grenoble School of Management) in Grenoble, France – which holds triple accreditation (AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA) – has done something that few educational institutions have. In collaboration with SAS, they have created a Mastère Spécialisé program in the study of business intelligence. The goal of this postgraduate program is to provide companies with graduates who, as specialists, will be able to anticipate and manage the complex business intelligence challenges that organizations currently face. The courses at GEM are designed to explore a wide range of contemporary issues such as: customer relationship management, technical architecture adapted to business intelligence and enterprise performance management, all with a common goal of creating valuable intelligence. Therefore, SAS®9 and the Enterprise Intelligence Platform are pervasive throughout the curriculum.

This program comes as welcome news to companies the world over who have traditionally hired graduates and then paid to train them in the specialized area of business intelligence. GEM graduates have valuable skills which make them immediately employable and, therefore, important additions to the organizations which hire them.

"The students participating in this Mastère Spécialisé program have the advantage of acquiring exactly the skills expected from these companies, and companies using SAS in particular, as opposed to students who have taken general business programs," says Thierry Grange, Dean and co-founder of Grenoble Ecole de Management.

"This program is original and unique because it covers all aspects of business intelligence. We decided to partner with SAS because SAS is the market leader," says Jean-François Fiorina, Head of the Business Graduate Programs at Grenoble Ecole de Management.

Managers of intelligence
"What we would like to offer are competencies so that students can acquire information, disseminate it and utilize it. For example, we'll enable students to make the right decisions based on market analysis. The students we recruit already have some core competence, and many of them may already have had computer training, so they know what is happening or what is in the pipeline. But we're concerned primarily with the managerial aspects: the utilization, the dissemination and interpretation of information to create value in companies," states Fiorina.

"What will differentiate companies in the future is the ability to make decisions," continues Fiorina. "Companies have already made huge investments into information systems. The systems exist, but there's something missing – that information delivery capability – that means it's our challenge to train students on that aspect and teach them how to make the right decision at the right time and to react as quickly as possible, faster than their competitors. These are people who will be capable of utilizing information and making the right decisions in situations involving crucial opportunities, whether they be managers, consultants, project leaders or future executives."

Bridging the gap between academia and business
Due to SAS' own academic roots, SAS always worked closely with universities. SAS created the Academic Program which has been working with academic institutions for a number of years to enhance the skill levels of today's graduates to fill the resource demands of businesses and organizations in the public sector everywhere.

In France alone, universities have trained over 15,000 students in creating intelligence with SAS, but GEM has created a Mastère Spécialisé degree program to bridge this intelligence gap. The program consists of 600 hours of coursework in the areas of management training, analytics and business intelligence with a comprehensive view of SAS technologies and solutions, as well as practical work experience. SAS awards scholarships for selected students every year and offers internships for students pursuing business careers.

All of the students at GEM are equipped with laptops and a wireless network connects 2000 students, enabling this school to develop e-learning, new teaching methods and innovations. At 21 years, this is a relatively young school and old habits haven't been acquired, so the institution is still quite flexible and can efficiently examine new concepts and technologies like business intelligence. Because information and communication technologies evolve so rapidly, the professors aren't merely instructors. They are also primary users of those technologies, ensuring their proficiency and keeping their expertise on the cutting edge.

Winning awards with innovation
On 11 June, 2002 SAS awarded GEM with the Academic Intelligence Award for their successful creation of this program. Upon receiving the award, Fiorina said, "On behalf of all of the instructors and administrators of Grenoble Ecole de Management, we thank you for this award. This serves as a reinforcement for our competencies and expertise in the management of technology and plays a role in making our school a major contributor to education in this field. It recognizes a training program that is original and unique, as well as the strength of cooperation between a company and an educational institution." Along with the award, SAS has contributed technology and scholarships to the continuing success of the school, its students and its graduates.

Because most companies around the world face similar challenges, GEM and SAS decided to also create a Business Intelligence Specialization in the MBA program in Grenoble, as well as in Asia, starting with Singapore and Bangalore. "The BI specialization with SAS offered in the Grenoble MBA program provides managers with the expertise necessary for them to drive their organization's performance and growth. The corporate input from SAS enables the students to gain access to a variety of real-life examples of successful BI implementation," says Judith Bouvard, Associate Dean and Director of Grenoble Graduate School of Business at Grenoble Ecole de Management.

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