KAUST selects SAP solutions over Oracle

SAP AG said that the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), a new international research university has selected a broad range of SAP applications over Oracle and others for its IT landscape and business platform.

SAP said its solutions are aimed at supporting student-facing functions, main university administrative functions, and the information-sharing and integration needs of its collaborative, global research centres that focus on discovery and innovation in the areas of science and technology.

KAUST, a new international graduate-level research university dedicated to inspiring a new age of scientific achievement, selected SAP over Oracle and others to help achieve its vision of applying science and technology to problems of human need, social advancement and economic development in Saudi Arabia, across the Middle-East and around the world.

The implementation began on July 1, 2008, after contract agreements had been secured in the second quarter. A team of highly qualified IT professionals will take care of the software implementation, one of the largest and most complex IT projects in the Middle East.

Scheduled to open in September 2009, KAUST will create a collaborative community of passionate and talented researchers from around the world that will be organised and recruited into interdisciplinary research centres.

The first four KAUST research thrusts will focus on the areas of resources, energy and environment; materials science and engineering; bioscience and bioengineering; and applied mathematics and computer sciences and engineering.

These initial focus areas will support the existing industries in the Kingdom, the development of future knowledge-based industries, the Kingdom's social and economic needs, and potential regional and international impact.

"KAUST is being built from the ground up with no legacy systems," said Majid Alghaslan, interim chief information officer, KAUST. "This is a tremendous opportunity for the university in the application of advanced technology that will enable scientific discovery and mastery. We consider SAP a valuable partner and enabler for our advanced service-oriented architecture that will also be sustainable and able to harmonise with all our other business applications. In fact, KAUST is more than just a usual university. It is a 'City of Science' that we are building for the future of Saudi Arabia and the world."

KAUST will leverage the integrated end-to-end industry process delivered by SAP Business Suite applications, including the SAP Real Estate Management application, for the comprehensive support of university facility development, construction, operations, service and maintenance.

Within the SAP for Higher Education & Research solution portfolio, the SAP Student Lifecycle Management application will support a range of university student administrative functions — from recruitment and admission to schedule building, registration, grading and student accounting.

The SAP NetWeaver technology platform will help KAUST accelerate application integration and business process composition while improving user access to relevant and reliable information across collaborative research frameworks.

"At SAP we have a long-standing tradition of working with leading research institutions from around the globe, including the Centre national de la Recherche Scientifique [CNRS] in France, Duke University and Health System and the Johns Hopkins University and Medical Centers in the United States, the University of Toronto in Canada and the National University of Singapore — among many others — to help them achieve their mission of supporting world-class research, teaching and learning," said Harald Pitz, Vice President, Global Higher Education and Research, SAP.

"KAUST has great vision, and we are proud to be its technology in helping address scientific and technological challenges in Saudi Arabia and around the world."

Source: TradeArabia News Service