The competition is fierce, the financial pressure high, the laws and regulations are complex and today's students, employees and funding bodies are critical. These are the challenges that higher education faces in a nutshell. To remain relevant as a university, it is crucial to change at a rapid pace. Our clients in higher education have identified four trends to which they are responding by transforming their business operations. 

Trend 1: Student Experience

Students have the luxury of choice. So why do they choose your university? The quality of education must be top-notch and campus information always accessible in real time and user-friendly. The higher education sector realizes this, is abandoning the traditional curriculum and deploying technology to continue to deliver quality. This demands a lot from the design of the underlying organizational model.

The solution lies in integration of the often highly decentralized university system. This creates and shares real-time insight into data from support functions such as HR, Finance and Procurement. Read more here.

Trend 2: Optimizing procurement

A visible trend is the struggle of universities to optimize the procurement process. This is partly due to the decentralized organizational structure. In addition, we see a relatively low pace of automation of the procurement function compared to other sectors. The necessary technological opportunities for maximizing effective and efficient procurement still exist. It is crucial to take advantage of these in order to remain competitive and compliant.

With SAP S/4HANA you build the foundation for an intelligent university, with Ariba Guided Buying and Vendor Invoice Mangement (VIM) you further streamline the procurement process. After that, you're ready for the next step: deploying AI to anticipate future procurement. Read more here.

Trend 3: Fit For Future HR

For higher education, people are the strategic asset to deliver quality and be distinctive. To what extent do organizational goals match the people you have on board? And who keeps the quality high when people leave? How do you serve each employee in the right way so that they continue to develop? A clear trend in higher education is the search for "Fit for Future" HR management.

The answer lies in data-driven, strategic workforce planning and a well-streamlined Employee Experience. Read more about it here.