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Dr. Gunjan M Sharma Professor of Business Analytics IFIM Business School

Business challengeWith global employers clamoring for candidates with practical big data and analytics skills, could IFIM Business School (IFIM) create a program that delivered the necessary hands-on experience?

TransformationResponding to global demand for big data and analytics skills, IFIM Business School (IFIM) teamed with IBM to create an Executive Post Graduate Diploma course in Business Analytics. The program will enable students to gain cutting-edge skills, learn real-life applications from industry experts, and open up exciting career opportunities.

Business benefits:

Opens upexciting career opportunities

Equips students with highly marketable skills that address a gap in the market

Attracts new students to IFIM

IFIM Business School enables students with on-demand analytical skills and relevant real-world experienceStrategically located in the heart of Electronics City, Bangalore, IFIM Business School (IFIM) is one of the top business schools in India. Offering post-graduate and PhD programs, IFIM’s vision is to nurture holistic, socially responsible and consistently employable professionals.

“The Executive PGDM program developed in partnership with IBM addresses a large gap in the market.”Mr. Sanjay Padode, Secretary, Centre for Developmental Education (CDE), IFIM Business School

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Leading the way

IFIM aims to build the great leaders of tomorrow. To do so, it must stay abreast of the very latest trends in the market to best prepare students for their careers after they graduate.

Mr. Sanjay Padode, Secretary, Centre for Developmental Education (CDE) at IFIM, elaborates: “IFIM is always seeking to identify skill gaps in the market, so that we can set our students up for success. We recognized a global demand for big data and analytics capabilities, with the Indian market estimated to grow to USD1 billion by the end of the year, and a severe shortage of skilled manpower in this area.

“We decided to create a new program dedicated to analytics, and began looking for the best technology and partner that could support us in this initiative”

Joining forces

IFIM worked closely with IBM to create the Executive Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Executive PGDM) program in Business Analytics, a 15-month program targeted at working executives from all levels of management.

Dr. Chandrsekhar Subramanyam, Senior Professor of Business Analytics, comments: “As one of the only analytics programs in the world of this intensity, developing the curriculum was a major task, and IBM gave us a great deal of valuable assistance and support. IBM also provides ongoing training services for faculty members and students.”

Approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the program offers students hands-on experience of working with a range of IBM Analytics solutions, as well as real-world examples from IBM and industry experts.

To this effect, an IBM Business Analytics Lab was established at the IFIM campus under the IBM Career Education program.

Classes are taught face-to-face, and also made available via live streaming or recorded sessions for remote learners, with 250 hours of required lab experience.

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With hands-on experience, training and curriculum provided by the IBM Career Education program, the IFIM faculty members obtained the background needed to integrate Big Data and Analytics education into the program curricula, further advancing the depth and breadth of learning opportunities for its students.

Dr. S R Kulkarni, Senior Professor, explains: “One of the key reasons we chose to work with IBM is the breadth of their analytics solutions portfolio.

“Participants are trained to use IBM BigInsights to analyze big data, IBM SPSS for predictive analytics and IBM Cognos for descriptive analytics and business intelligence, offering them a good grounding in all aspects of the analytics discipline. Soon, we plan to add risk analytics to the curriculum.”

As a part of the program, each student must complete a capstone project working with an industry, enabling them to put their newfound skills to the test and gain valuable practical experience.

Dr. Gunjan M Sharma, Professor of Business Analytics says: “For example, a student that chooses to focus on the telecommunications industry will analyze data from millions of customers and use the insights to develop a strategy to raise sales. Analytics on this scale is only possible with an advanced big data solution such as IBM BigInsights.”

Dr. Chandrsekhar Subramanyam adds: “By choosing to train participants to use IBM BigInsights software, based on the Hadoop distribution, we offer them the added advantage of familiarity with open-source technology—a must-have for any candidate looking for a career in analytics.”

Skills that matter

By equipping students with highly marketable skills, IFIM is giving them the tools they can use to take their careers to the next level.

Dr. Chandrsekhar Subramanyam comments: “The Executive PGDM program is expected to open up exciting career opportunities, by equipping students with the skills needed to transform data into insights for better decision-making, benefiting both themselves and the organizations they work for.”

Please Recycle

Solution components•IBM® BigInsights®

•IBM Cognos® Business Intelligence

•IBM Cognos Insight

•IBM Cognos TM1®

•IBM SPSS® Statistics

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2015, IBM Corporation, 1 New Orchard Road, Armonk, NY 10504 U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America, September 2015.

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At the end of the program, participants receive a certificate—awarded jointly by IFIM and IBM—that is well-recognized within the corporate world. The ongoing collaboration with IBM is helping IFIM maximize the appeal of the program.

Dr. Gunjan M Sharma explains: “Partnering with IBM brings greater credibility to the Executive PGDM program and emphasizes the industry focus. As IBM develops its analytics portfolio to meet emerging challenges, we have the opportunity to work alongside and train students in the latest innovations. There has been a very good response since we launched the program, and we expect its popularity to grow rapidly.”

Mr. Sanjay Padode concludes: “With the Executive PGDM program, we are providing skills that are highly in demand and address a large gap in the market. As analytics play an increasingly important role in organizations across all industries, this demand will only grow, and with IBM’s help we are well-placed to lead the way in responding.”

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IBM Analytics offers one of the world’s deepest and broadest analytics platform, domain and industry solutions that deliver new value to businesses, governments and individuals. For more information about how IBM Analytics helps to transform industries and professions with data, visit ibm.com/analytics. Follow us on Twitter at @IBMAnalytics, on our blog at ibmbigdatahub.com and join the conversation #IBMAnalytics.

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