Monday, October 13, 2008 SAP school opens at UP Cebu
THE country’s only system application product (SAP) academy in Manila has opened its doors to the Cebuano market.
Kaisa Consulting Corp. formally opened its satellite office yesterday at the Technology Business Incubator (TBI) at the University of the Philippines Visayas-Cebu yesterday. This is the company’s first venture outside of Manila.
“We are already ready to accept students and our operations will be in full swing next week,” said The Opinion, managing director of Kaisa Consulting Corp.
The TBI would be the testing and demo site for the SAP Productivity Pak, a documentation and learning tool for organizations.
Kaisa projects that the SAP Productivity Pak could generate savings in both time and expenses in the documentation process of companies by as much as 70 percent.
“Our satellite office will serve as a venue for application incubation. All the new products developed in Manila will be brought here for testing and demonstration,” said Opinion.
Complete system
Opinion said that SAP uses an enterprise resource-planning (ERP) product that allows a company to have all their company systems compressed into one complete system.
“It is an integrated enterprise system,” added Opinion.
Through the E-Academy, professionals may learn the makings of a SAP interface and apply it to their respective companies once they become SAP consultants.
The E-Academy applies the web-based approach, where those who are enrolled in the academy may schedule their training classes days before for two hours per day.
“The E-Academy requires students to complete 200 hours of training within a five-month period,” said Opinion.
With nine computers for instruction, and a minimum of two hours of training per day, Opinion estimates that about 36 students can be trained within a day.
Currently, Kaisa has two training assistants permanently at their satellite office, which also serves as a training center.
“Other instructors will fly in and out of Cebu for classes,” said Opinion.
The E-Academy is the perfect way of teaching professionals who are interested in learning the SAP interface.
“We are breaking the barrier. Some companies just cannot afford to lose their employees for five weeks, which our regular SAP Academy requires for a straight training course. Through the E-Academy, the professionals can continue working while learning SAP at their own pace,” said Opinion.
“Our hope is to multiply the number of SAP consultants in the county so we can compete with India, Malaysia and the global market,” she added.
Kaisa is the first resident client at the TBI.
For UPVCC Dean of College Dr. Enrique Avila, this is a great development.
“It will definitely give an opportunity for our students to be exposed to how it is in the industry and for those who are in the industry, they will have a great opportunity to link with the academe,” said Avila. (EPB)
