IBS to Contribute to Creating New Generation of Educational Institutions

IBS offers a new package of solutions for higher education institutions and sets up a specialized business segment as the academic year begins

September 03, 2007 IBS, Russia’s leading player in the IT and consulting market, announces setting up a business segment specializing in services for educational institutions as part of the management consulting practice. The new business segment will consolidate specialized consulting services and IT solutions of IBS for the education and be developed by Mikhail Alashkevich¹, who has been appointed Consulting Director of the Management Consulting Department.

This IBS initiative seeks to promote services and solutions necessary to create ‘the innovative higher education institution of the future’, a new generation of educational institutions aligned with the needs of the public and the national economy and able to successfully compete nationally and internationally.

IBS focuses on providing solutions to address important challenges of a higher education institution, including

• using state-of-the-art management and information technologies for better management of a higher education institution;
• introducing innovative education technologies;
• developing human resources of a higher education institution;
• bringing in more tools and ways to control the quality of education.

“IBS has been in cooperation with top higher education institutions for quite a while, including cooperation under the national priority projects, helping to deal with management issues, implementing information systems, streamlining the education process and designing state-of-the-art infrastructure. We have accumulated extensive project experience and expertise in that field and thus have been able to build an integrated package of offerings for higher education institutions and set up a separate business segment within IBS specializing in that promising business”, said Dmitry Sadkov, Director, Management Consulting Department, IBS.

The integrated package of IBS offerings for higher education institutions currently includes:

• building an integrated system for management of a higher education institution, including administration, financial management, asset management, logistics, etc.;
• designing a network-based educational entity, enabling a common information environment for research, development and education activities of a higher education institution;
• implementing an e-learning system, a distance learning system, e-libraries of a higher education institution;
• building a common information environment of a higher education institution, including infrastructure solutions, stationary PC and mobile computer classrooms, reading rooms, network infrastructure, wireless access areas, etc.;
• building the quality management system of a higher education institution;
• optimizing the human resources management system of a higher education institution, including motivation, faculty training and development, staff performance management, graduate career management.

IBS customers include top higher education institutions such as Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics, the Higher School of Economics (State University), Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics, I. M. Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy, etc.

“The Education national priority project gave a strong impetus to large-scale innovation programs in the Russian education system. Higher education institutions are undoubtedly leaders in that field, and we are in close cooperation with them. However, “the wave of innovation” now embraces almost all of the education system. This is why we plan to extend and adapt our services and solutions to secondary and basic vocational education institutions because introducing innovation technologies and a high quality of education at that level is just as important”, Mikhail Alashkevich said on the practice development plans.

¹ Mikhail Alashkevich, born on May 28, 1972, graduated from Krasnoyarsk State University majoring in economics and holds a Master of Arts in political science from the University of Manchester. Mikhail was Program Coordinator at the National Training Foundation from 2002 and headed the Expert – Education project at Expert magazine from 2003. In 2005 Mikhail joined IBS. Mikhail Alashkevich has an impressive background of carrying out consulting projects for federal executive authorities, higher education institutions and authorities of constituent entities of the Russian Federation.