The world's leading provider of business software SAP has launched its eAcademy programme aimed at setting new standards in the executive level training programmes. The launching ceremony was held at a local hotel on Thursday with a signing of a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) by the four partners of SAP Pakistan - Abacus Consulting, VMS (Virtual Matrix Synergies), Siemens and SuperNova Solutions - as the official providers of eAcademy training in the country.
Welcoming the launch of eAcademy in Pakistan, the chief guest, Sindh Minister for Information Technology, Raza Haroon noted that the role of information technology was limited in the country. There is a dire need to have a national IT policy, which would definitely help in increasing the role of new technologies, he said.
Informing about the performance of Sindh IT Department, the minister said that despite limited resources the Sindh government had successfully completed e-Policing and e-Government besides automation of the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) and the Advocate General (AG) Sindh office. "We (IT Department) is trying its best to facilitate the foreign companies in coming to the country particularly in Sindh province for the promotion of IT", Haroon added.
Vice President, Field Services SAP South Asia, Mike Bramwell said that the SAP had its first customer from Pakistan in 2002 that helped in further extending business partnership. SAP's eAcademy was successfully operational in neighbouring countries like China and India.
Pakistan is a strategic market for the SAP and the launch of the eAcademy will prove to be the most effective in encouraging more and more people to obtain SAP certification and pursue an attractive career, Bramwell added. Director Field Services SAP Pakistan, Waqas Naved Siddiqi said that the SAP was very keen to promote skilled education and to ensure that people who were getting SAP certification could take advantage of the flexi schedule and avail the option of learning at their own pace with online high quality standardised training.
Whether the participant's area of interest is human resources, finance, sales & marketing, manufacturing or programming, SAP eAcademy offers courses to match each individual's career path. The courses are especially designed so that students can participate on their preferred schedule, he said.
At SAP eAcademy centres, the participants have access to upto 200 hours of e-Learning academy curricula. SAP's online learning solutions offer an efficient way to transfer knowledge. Each course provides interactive "snapshots" of business processes, along with simulations, exercises, pre and post evaluations. The participants can seek assistance through dedicated online support available via web-based chat, voiceover IP, Net Meetings, as well as global learner discussion boards, Siddiqui added.
With SAP certification, consultants are empowered to demonstrate superior expertise, giving an organisation a powerful competitive advantage. The certified professionals become part of a distinguished community of experts recognised globally and more than 140,000 consultants and users world-wide are part of this exclusive community, said the Director Field Services SAP Pakistan.
Taha Rizvi of the Abacus Consulting, one of the leading SAP partners, explained how it would facilitate SAP in offering eAcademy training in the country and provide participants with an opportunity to gain real-life understanding through local studies as value addition to the training programme.