SAP Next Generation Lab

SAP stands for systems, applications and products in data processing. SAP is the world's leading cloud-based business software and is used by 171 million users in 180 countries. Whether you represent a business or you're a student on one of our digital transformation courses, you can use the SAP business resource planning software and equipment in our SAP Next Generation Lab.

SAP is used for business tasks including:

Customer Resource Management (CRM) and customer experience
Business analytics
HR and people engagement
Digital supply chain management
Financial planning
Intelligent technologies

Equipment in the SAP Next Generation Lab

The SAP Lab has:

4 mobile tables, each equipped with 3 laptops and seating up to 9 people
20 more laptops available for collection inside the lab
A 55-inch LED digital whiteboard
70-inch class screens
SAP Leonardo digital innovation system, when helps businesses incorporate growing technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain and advanced analytics into their business data processes.

We're the only university in the UK to own SAP Leonardo.

SAP for students

If you're taking a course related to digital transformation, such as BSc (Hons) Data Science Analytics, you can use the SAP Next-Generation Laboratory to:

Gain practical skills in the latest cloud-based software
Practice the theory behind business resource planning, predictive analytics and data visualisation sentiment analysis
Explore the impact of the cloud on business processes
Learn about new business tools and currencies
Discover how to extract meaning from corporate data in seconds

SAP for businesses

Our partner businesses can use the SAP Next Gen Lab to collaborate on business problems and short-term consultancy projects. We're keen to work with companies that would like to develop SAP-rich courses, take part in teaching students through current case studies, or who can benefit from taster courses or proof of concept systems.

If you want to trial SAP software before purchasing, you can do so in our lab. You can test business processes in areas such as sales and distribution, procurement and production planning. We can arrange for proof of concept systems to be made available at the University Competence Centre at the Technical University of Munich. This gives businesses the opportunity to try out SAP S/4HANA or HANA at very low costs.

To express an interest in events, seminars or in partnering with us, please send an enquiry to next.gen@port.ac.uk

SAP for research

If you're looking to conduct a research project related to the SAP digital core, analytics or data warehousing, you can pitch your project to the SAP Next-Gen Lab team. Please get in touch with us at next.gen@port.ac.uk

We've conducted the following research in the lab:

Machine learning in financial services – This research focused on how small companies could compete with the Big Four accounting firms (Deloitte, PwC, KPMG and Ernst and Young) in terms of assessing what is 'normal' in financial transactions. We explored how to highlight abnormal changes that might represent fraud.
Creating the internet of things – We investigated how companies like Arqiva, a British telecommunications company, are working with Sigfox, a global network provider, to roll out ultra-narrow band low power networks to connect things to the internet. We looked at how the 'internet of things' links people, companies and things together in one information sharing network.

SAP for events

As a member of the SAP University Alliances program, we host events with our SAP Next-Gen Lab partners. These events are available to students and the wider public, and provide live demos and focused practice. Attendees learn about features of SAP and test these features on our SAP Leonardo digital innovation system.

We also host lectures by resident researchers and guest speakers specialised in SAP.

In 2019, we held the event 'BusinessTalk: The Digital Economy & Intelligent Enterprise'. With guest speakers from SAP, this event focused on showing companies how digital transformation is changing the nature of business

Where to find us