Xerox, NC State Collaborate to Advance Research in Service and Innovation Management
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RALEIGH, N.C., and ROCHESTER, N.Y., Nov. 14, 2007 -- Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) and the North Carolina State University College of Management today announced a three-year collaborative project to fund research that will lead to new courses in professional service management and innovation management.
"We are operating in a service-led economy and increasingly larger segments of our Xerox research portfolio are dedicated to developing differentiated technologies for services," said Sophie Vandebroek, Xerox chief technology office and president, Xerox Innovation Group. "Our collaboration with faculty at NC State, who are global leaders in services and innovation management, is an excellent way to advance knowledge in this area."
"Establishing such industry-academic partnerships reflects the university's commitment to economic development," said James Oblinger, chancellor of NC State University. "Our students benefit through relevant coursework and employment opportunities that evolve from these relationships, and both the faculty and industry benefit through a dynamic exchange of knowledge."
The new academic programs and research are being developed and delivered through NC State College of Management's Service and Product Innovation Initiative (SPI) and the Center for Innovation Management Studies (CIMS), a collaborative venture between academia and corporate R&D centers based at the college.
The new courses include the Service Innovation Lab where graduate and undergraduate students will work with companies to develop innovative service concepts. In addition, a new graduate-level service management course will be taught in partnership with Indiana University, using emerging virtual world tools and technology.
"At the College of Management, our faculty has leveraged NC State's strengths in engineering and design to establish a technology focus in all our programs," said Ira R. Weiss, dean of the college. "Working in collaboration with engineering, textiles and design faculty, as well as industry leaders such as Xerox and IBM, assures a depth of relevance to our research and coursework in this area."
A CIMS partner since 2002, Xerox recently hosted the biannual CIMS meeting at the Xerox Research Center Webster (XRCW), one of the company's four worldwide research centers.
About NC State SSME
North Carolina State University's management and engineering faculty offer graduate courses in Services Science, Management and Engineering (SSME). The MBA program in NC State's Jenkins Graduate School of Management offers a concentration in services with two options: one emphasizing professional services and relationship management, and one emphasizing service innovation. The Jenkins Graduate School is part of NC State's College of Management. NC State's College of Engineering offers a master of science in computer networking with concentrations in IT services and network services. Business and engineering students and faculty work collaboratively in several of the service courses.
About Xerox
Xerox Corporation is the world's leading document management, technology and services enterprise. A $16 billion company, Xerox provides the industry's broadest portfolio of color and black-and-white document processing systems and related supplies, as well as document management consulting and outsourcing services. This year Xerox was awarded the National Medal of Technology, the highest technology award in the United States, for its innovations. For more information, visit http://www.xerox.com/innovation.
