SAP Joins Notre Dame Students at Indiana Management Performance Hub
On December 16th, I had the pleasure of joining a University of Notre Dame trip to the Indiana State Capitol to visit the Management Performance Hub (MPH) of the state government. Our host was Sara Marshall, Operations Director of the Office of Management and Budget. She and her team have built an amazing facility and capability to put real-time data — on everything from traffic fatalities to meth busts to infant mortality — at the fingertips of policymakers.
Sara provided an overview of the MPH (http://www.in.gov/mph/) and its charter. Its mission is to develop an industry leading comprehensive enterprise wide data driven management system. This mission supports the state vision that Indiana will have the most effective, efficient, and transparent state government in the country. You can learn more about MPH in this article Data hub in Statehouse. One of the first compelling use cases for SAP technology has been to help tackle the problem of infant mortality in the state. The project was highlighted on stage by Steve Lucas at TechEd Las Vegas in October.
After the overview, the MPH team provided a quick course in the use of SAP’s LUMIRA data visualization product and asked the students to spend time creating their own interpretations of two state data sets on air pollution statistics and industry employment trends. The students had about one hour to manipulate the data and closed the day with individual presentations of their findings and recommendations. It was a terrific learning experience and gave them the opportunity to see “government moving at the speed of business” with SAP Lumira and SAP HANA.
The visitors were led by Dr. Sunny Shah, Assistant Director and faculty for the ESTEEM Graduate Program at the University of Notre Dame. ESTEEM (Engineering, Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Excellence Masters Program) is an innovative 11-month entrepreneurship master’s program designed to equip a person with the specific skills required to launch a business. Unlike the traditional M.B.A., an entrepreneurship master’s focuses on the direct application of business skills to an entrepreneurial environment. ESTEEM sets itself apart from other entrepreneur master’s programs by putting students in the middle of real-time startup development. In addition, a wide
network of investors and alumni is available to help launch ventures inspired by students’ capstone projects. http://esteem.nd.edu/
I want to thank the four students pictured above for their creative work: Alison O’Shea, James Sallee, Amy Flanagan, and Daniel Kestell. I also want to thank John Roach of KSM Consulting for participating and providing valuable insight into the tools and data available at MPH. KSM (http://www.ksmconsulting.com/) has been working closely with SAP and the State of Indiana on this project.