Dr. Vijayakumar Bharathi S is a postgraduate in commerce from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, and management from Bharathidasan University, Trichy. He earned his PhD in Computer Studies from Symbiosis International (Deemed University) (SIU), Pune, in ERP Risk Assessment for SMEs. He is an ICWA (Inter) Qualified from ICWA, India. He has over 32 years of experience, including five-plus years in the Industry at an Indo-Swiss JV manufacturing textile machinery. While at this company, in addition to his core functions of Costing & Banking, he was a part of the Task Force on Business Process Mapping and MIS Reporting as part of the ERP Initiative.
He has taught various courses in commerce and management on the academic front at reputed institutes in Coimbatore, Mumbai and Pune. He is a PhD guide for the Faculty of Management and Computer Studies at SIU, Pune, India and PhD thesis reviewer and examiner at MDI, Gurgaon, India and Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
He is a SAP-ERP trained and certified (SAP-TERP10 and SAP-Business ByDesign) faculty member in Business Process Integration from SAP. He has twenty years of experience successfully planning, developing, testing and conducting end-to-end SAP curricula for SAP R/3, ECC 6.0, SAP ByD, S/4 HANA, SAP PA, SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Integrated Business Planning.
He has conducted ERP, Design Thinking and Analytics Workshops for Faculty Members in India, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Myanmar, Australia, China, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
He conducted Design Thinking workshops for Faculty and Students of India and Faculty and Students of Indiana University-Purdue University (IUPUI), USA, Technische Hochschule Nürnberg, Germany and Hochschule Mainz, UAS Mainz, Germany. He mentors Celonis Process Mining at his university and collaborates with Hochschule Pforzheim, Germany.
His academic and research interests include Design Thinking, Immersive Technologies, Collaborative Learning, Platforms Process Mining & SAP S4HANA.
He has over 100 publications in research papers, conference proceedings, and case studies covering contemporary issues in Technology Management, Design Thinking, Enterprise Systems, social media, and HR in Elsevier, Springer, Emerald, IGI Global Sage and Inderscience. His publications have been featured in reputed journals such as Production Planning & Control (Taylor & Francis), Journal of Computers in Learning (Springer), Journal of Computer Information Sytems (Taylor & Francis), Thinking Skills and Creativity (Elsevier), Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management (Springer) and Benchmarking-An International Journal (Emerald). He published case studies in the Case Centre (formerly ECCH) and PMI, which featured in the world's top 20 most viewed cases in 2008. He is a reviewer of journals in Springer, Emerald and IGI Global.
He was a member of the SAP Business ByDesign Enablement Project for Universities by SAP Germany. He has been invited twice to SAP SE Germany (Munich and Walldorf) to share his experience in curriculum development and conduct. He also participated in and delivered sessions at the SAP University Alliances Academic Conference held in Hong Kong (2012), Shanghai (2014), Singapore (2015), Seoul (2017), and Brisbane (2018), Melbourne (2023). He is working on Global Pilot Projects with SAP University Alliances, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Integrated Business Planning & SAP Business Builder. He has published the SAP University Alliances curriculum on Big Data Analytics.
He has also worked on six funded projects: one from the European Union (Erasmus+), one from PMI, two from SIU, and two from Industry. He is widely consulted on planning, developing and executing SAP ERP-based curriculum. He visited KTH, Stockholm, Sweden, the University of Valencia, Spain and the University of Barcelona, Spain, as part of the Erasmus+ project during June 2019 & January 2020. In 2022, he received DAAD funding to visit Germany to collaborate on design thinking with universities. In 2023, he worked on an Indo-Singapore Design Thinking project with Singapore Polytechnic.
He received the Outstanding Academic Award, 2013 for the SAARC Region from SAP University Alliances, APJ, in Shanghai, China, in March 2014. He also received performance awards for teaching, research and consultancy at the Institute level.
He conducts classes for the Executive MBA Programs of SIU and managers of companies such as Larsen & Toubro, Godrej, Tata Motors, Atlas Copco, Citius Healthcare and Wipro Technologies.
He has served as a member of the Board of Management (February 2016 to February 2019), Symbiosis International (Deemed University). He was a member of the University's Academic Council (2011-2015; 2019-2020). He is a member of SIU Faculty of Computer Studies, Board of Studies, and the School of Humanities and Management of Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Pune. He was the founding president of the Academic Board, SAP University Alliances, Asia Pacific Japan and China 2020-23 and is currently a board member. He is also a SAP UA Global Cross-Board member.