SAP: SAP Hungary and BME sign three-year strategic cooperation agreement

The focus of the 3-year cooperation is the common recognition that only those students will be truly competitive in the digital economy who not only have theoretical knowledge, but also practical knowledge related to modern corporate technologies. Accordingly, the framework agreement includes several projects and developments that will give BME students direct access to SAP’s enterprise systems, modern cloud-based infrastructures and leading technologies for business digitalization. With the agreement, the parties will create a framework focused on common educational and research goals, which will determine the professional directions of the cooperation.

Within the framework of the agreement, SAP will also support the creation of a physical and virtual lab that will become the professional center of the cooperation. In the lab, students can work in a real corporate environment with SAP’s new generation, cloud-based enterprise management system, the SAP S/4HANA system, as well as business analytics solutions and other modern SAP technologies equipped with AI capabilities. These systems also operate on a daily basis at the world’s leading companies, so university education will gain a new quality by allowing students to acquire practical knowledge that will be used in their future workplaces. The center will also serve as a meeting point for educators, researchers, students, and SAP professionals, facilitating two-way knowledge transfer and joint innovation.

As part of the collaboration, BME will also join SAP’s international University Alliances program, which connects thousands of universities as a global educational network. Thanks to this, BME educators and students will have access to the entire SAP curriculum and training portfolio, real-world business simulations, and tasks that demonstrate the operation of digital companies. As part of the program, students can also obtain SAP certifications, which gives them a significant advantage in the domestic and international labor market.

SAP Hungary, which currently employs nearly 2,000 people, plays a key role in the parent company’s cloud transformation: in addition to commercial and support functions, it also serves domestic customers with a consulting department, and its multicultural development center in Budapest, SAP Labs Hungary, is a prominent location in the SAP network on a global scale.

“In the digital economy, there is an increasing demand for engineers and IT professionals who have not only theoretical knowledge, but also real-world corporate experience. Our cooperation with BME serves precisely this purpose,” said Péter Hidvégi, Managing Director of SAP Hungary. He added: “SAP Hungary’s presence is constantly growing: not only is the number of colleagues growing year by year, but we are also carrying out increasingly complex, value-added developments. For this growth, we need talented and open-minded young people — and BME is one of the most important partners and sources of supply for us. We especially welcome the fact that the university will launch a basic education in business informatics in September 2026 for those who want to be at home in both the worlds of technology and business.”

An important element of the partnership is that knowledge transfer is not one-way: SAP experts will regularly give guest lectures and courses at the university, while BME instructors will also provide training to SAP employees, mainly in areas such as data processing, artificial intelligence or modern IT methodologies. This mutual model is a rare and highly valuable pillar of the agreement, ensuring that both corporate practice and academic knowledge are renewed and continuously follow the rapid changes in the industry.

In the coming years, the parties will launch several joint projects that go beyond education: joint research initiatives, EU education and innovation grants, and support for BME’s talent management and career programs are also planned. The university and the company already had a joint research project in the field of supply chain solutions, and the topic of Supply Chain Management continues to be a key topic.