SAP has chosen Widener University’s School of Business Administration and Small Business Development Center (SBDC) SBDC’s Success Lab as a SAP Next-Gen Lab for design thinking and analytics.
The lab is an innovative space where students, faculty, and business consultants gather to find solutions to help clients start or grow their businesses.
The SAP Next-Gen Lab designation will expand these opportunities to connect the university with leaders in industry and academia who are using design thinking to develop methods to drive the digital transformation of industries and solve the world’s most serious problems, as identified in the 17 global goals set by the United Nations.
Lenin Agudo, director of Widener’s SBDC, said the SAP Next-Gen Lab designation reaffirms the value of the SBDC’s unique approach to solving clients’ business problems.
“This trailblazing designation is crucial to inspiring other small business development centers to evolve and adopt creative solutions when assisting clients,” Agudo said. “We want to lead by example – fostering collaboration, innovation and creativity using our e-design thinking philosophy.”
As a member of the Pennsylvania network of Small Business Development Centers and the national Association of Small Business Development Centers, Widener’s SBDC has been providing consulting services and educational programs to small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs in southeastern Pennsylvania since 2007.
To align its services with this innovative space, the SBDC redefined its consulting process and created a series of packaged consulting sessions, called Strat Chats and Growth Sprints.
A central component of the revamped consulting services are student-driven, research-based projects that allow students to apply course concepts to real businesses.
SAP is the world’s largest provider of enterprise application software. Widener’s School of Business Administration has been a member of the SAP University Alliances program since 1998, allowing both undergraduate and graduate business students to earn an SAP Student Recognition Award by completing courses that use SAP software.
“Our strong partnership through the SAP University Alliances program opened the door for the Widener SBDC to apply for the SAP Next-Gen Lab designation for its Success Lab,” said Yvonne Antonucci, a professor and SAP University Alliances faculty coordinator. “Students will now benefit from even more class projects and internship opportunities that allow them to understand how technology can enable integrated business processes and strategic thinking.”
This new designation also allows Widener to broaden its SAP-related curriculum, bringing new methodologies and applications to enhance the student experience.
For more information about this news, visit www.widenersbdc.org.