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SSME, Spreading Wings in India
IBM partners with leading Business and tech Schools in India to develop SSME Curriculum
IBM and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) recently teamed up in Bangalore to host the India Service Science, Management, and Engineering - 2007 conference aimed at evolving interdisciplinary curriculum for the 21st century and to bridge the future skill gap in the services economy. The conference was held on 21st June in Bangalore. Speaking on the sidelines, Dr. Daniel Dias, Director, IBM India Research Laboratory, said "Today’s services economy necessitates a new academic discipline for the 21st Century. And, curricula must transform to reflect the realities of today and tomorrow -- SSME is the answer for curricula change."
 Teaming-up for future
At this India SSME Meet - 2007, IBM also announced collaborative SSME curriculum initiatives with leading business and tech schools in India. IBM, earlier this year, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian School of Business -Hyderabad (ISB), and is working closely with Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, IITs and Indian Institute of Science to advance SSME research in the region.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. C Mohan, IBM Fellow and Chief Scientist, IBM India, said, "The new academic initiative is designed to prepare graduate students for careers in the evolving multidisciplinary field of services management." In the 1950s, IBM made a similar effort to help establish computer science as a new academic discipline.
National Institute of Design (NID) and IBM will jointly study design phase of services across different industry verticals to develop services design jumpstart framework which will help to benefit IT service curriculum development.
SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai (SPJIMR) has partnered with IBM to study IT deployment services management model. The study results will help SPJIMR and IBM to develop a courseware in services design.
Nirma Institute of Management (NIM), Ahmedabad, has teamed with IBM to study managed deployment of eGovernance services. The study result is expected to provide guidance in managing the IT-based system deployment of eGovernment projects particularly in the area of citizen services and to contribute in developing a courseware on the eGovernance services.
Building 21st century skills
"We clearly need to develop a more systematic approach to services innovation if we are to sustain this vital new sector in the economy," said Dr. Guruduth Banavar, Associate Director, IBM India Research Laboratory, Bangalore. "It is critical that we work with universities to create curricula that provide students entering the workforce with skills and training needed for growing our services business."
The new programs draws on research and teaching in the fields of computer science, computer engineering, business strategy, and management sciences to help students develop the skills required in a technology-based, services-led economy.
Many leading universities across the world have begun exploring and investing in the field of service science – also called service sciences, management, and engineering (SSME) – to develop exactly these cross-disciplinary skills. University of California, Berkeley, Arizona State University and North Carolina State University are among a handful of universities in the United States which have established programs in service science. Universities in Europe and Asia are also creating programs in this area.
"We are working with top business and academic leaders across the globe to bridge the future skill gap in the global services economy," said Amol Mahmuni, IBM India University Relations Program Director. "By making innovation a national priority – India is marking itself to become a dominant player in the global economy. IBM realizes that promise and potential of India’s most valuable resource – its talent – can be untapped through academic collaboration. Currently, IBM is actively working with more than 740 engineering colleges to help students build 21st century skills on the latest tools, technologies and trends."
The goal of the SSME discipline is to drive productivity, quality, and sustainability of services, while making the learning rates and innovation rates more predictable across the service sector, especially in complex organization to organization services including business to business, nation to nation and government to population. This new academic discipline brings together ongoing work in fields of computer science, management science, and social science to develop skills required in a services-led economy.
Since 2004, IBM has hosted a series of conferences and workshops, inviting hundreds of faculty from universities around the world, in a call to action. Many leading universities across the globe have begun exploring and investing in this area, working in tandem with thought leaders in the business world. The global SSME research community is aggressively laying the groundwork for this challenging new research area.
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