Skip to main content

Digital Procurement of WATER (sponsored by SAP)

Date Range:
October 12, 2017 to October 14, 2017
Event Type:
Authorized
Location:
Houston
Description:
This unique opportunity has so much to offer our students at the Mays Business School. The program will involve one of my courses for the fall semester (SCMT 335, Sourcing/Procurement) and roughly 30 students. SAP via its satellite organizations will sponsor this program which intents to stimulate innovation via a Management Hackathon. Given the nature of the practical problem our students will be addressing, we will need to stay in Houston for two nights (October 12 & 13, Thursday and Friday). All of the expenses for accommodation and food etc will be covered by SAP. The Chief Strategist of SAP USA is personally championing and managing this program.

Each and every one of our students will be matched with a high level executive from the oil & gas company and potentially the CEO of Ariba will be present. Ariba is one of the largest procurement solutions providers in the world. The CEO appointed two Vice Presidents to personally become involved in our program. Texas A&M is the second university in the world (after MIT) to be involved with this program. The leading topic is Digital Procurement of WATER and its related equipment & services through its full life-cycle at a well or a plant to ensure its most efficient and sustainable use/reuse. It appears to be an extremely hot topic for the Upstream companies, and still has relevancy for Chemical and Refinery Plants, and Utilities.

We also believe that ideas generated in our Launch Pad will fully support the broader global community work as SAP aims with Next Gen and Leonardo to impact the 17 UN Global Goals of which #6 is Clean Water and Sanitation. In addition, SAP's Best Practices for Oil & Gas conference has long been a supporter for raising funds for the "Wells for Water Initiative" Non-Profit and this brings that work to the fore-front.

Essentially, this program involves a Management Hackathon and follow-on Consortia to assist the companies in formulating a "Water Lifecycle Related Strategy". As noted earlier, each of the 30 students will be matched with a practitioner from about 10 corporations, and 15 more professors and SAP employees will be involved for a total of 75 individuals. The teams will be asked to identify creative ways to solve the problem and leverage SAP Leonardo, Ariba, Hybris, and Field Glass type technologies to rapidly prototype and address them. Successful teams may be asked to implement the solution via internships and other opportunities. SAP is willing to sponsor start-ups via this effort.

****For inspiration, please look at this online "Match Making Service" by an MIT Grad for Industrial water sourcing and recycling: https://www.sourcewater.com/blog/mit_startup_online_booking/ It does a great job describing opportunities in this area from a Business Network point of view and how a student can think about "Hacking" the global water challenge.

Thanks so much for your consideration.

Xen
Contact Information:
Xenophon Koufteros
INFO, Mays Business School
979845-2254
xkoufteros@mays.tamu.edu