FMS starts service innovation cell

Joins hands with CII and IBM.

To help prepare management students for services-led jobs, Delhi Universities' Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) "" along with industry partners like the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and IBM "" has come up with a service innovation cell.

The cell will work towards development, adoption and dissemination of services science, management & engineering (SSME) "" an integral part of the services sector of the country's economy.

"There is a shift in the global economy towards a services-led economy, the need for IT related skills will be greater then ever. But the reality is that the nature of those IT related jobs in the services economy is also changing. Thus we need a programme like this," said Ankita Mehta, member, Systems Society, FMS, Delhi University.

The cell intends to float student projects, case studies, develop curriculum and conduct training programs for faculty members and service professionals.

"There is an increasing requirement to apply technology, engineering and disciplined thinking and design to the 'people' aspect of businesses. These are high-value skills beyond simple programming or system administration," Navkant Meher, member, Systems Society, FMS, Delhi University, said.

With facilitation from CII, the students will get the opportunity to work on services sector projects in which faculty members may get involved as project guides.

"The key focus of this initiative is to create innovative solutions to real world problems in the services areas," Siddhanth Khosla, president, Systems Society, FMS, Delhi University, said.

While IBM will contribute three IBM system X servers to the cell and sponsor the signage for the cell, CII and IBM together will jointly issue a certificate of participation to all students working on projects under the Services Innovation Cell.

IBM will also help faculty in developing curriculum and courseware and provide content and personnel for conducting training programs for faculty members and services professionals on services management and innovation topics.

The cell would also create a repository of services sector management case studies with Indian content, context and relevance.

CII will provide touch-points within its services sector members to the students who will write-up the case studies. The case studies will then be made available to all business schools (B-schools) interested in teaching services management topics.