Giorgio Panci, a senior in business management systems from Rome, is gaining international experience in Barcelona, Spain, this summer as a digital demand associate intern with SAP, a global software company.

Through the six-month internship, he’s experience working with customer data, digital campaigns and business technology in an international setting — in an office right on the beach.

“I would have never expected myself to get into this kind of thing,” Panci says. “I started as a business major and I thought I was going more into finance or banking. After taking some classes, I started liking the technology side of business.”

That decision led Panci to S&T’s business management systems program, including coursework focused on enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, where he gained experience using SAP-related tools. That helped prepare him for the competitive SAP internship process.

“Knowing what SAP makes and how it works helped me a lot, especially during the interviews,” Panci says. “A lot of the other interns didn’t know what SAP actually does, so I already had that background.”

SAP develops enterprise software that helps organizations manage business operations, data and processes. In his role as a digital demand associate, Panci helps prepare and organize data collected from customer campaigns so sales teams can use that information to identify potential business opportunities.

“I take the data from campaigns and clean it, make it better for the sales team to analyze,” he says. “Then, they can use that information to contact customers who showed interest and create opportunities.”

Dr. Bih-Ru Lea, associate professor of business and information technology at the Jaggi School of Business and director of the Center for Enterprise Resource Planning, helped guide Panci to the internship.

“I am very excited that Giorgio has the opportunity to apply what he learned in our ERP program,” she says. “His experience highlights the advantage of combining a strong business education with experiential hands-on ERP education. Business students like Giorgio are uniquely positioned to excel because they understand not only how to configure enterprise systems, but also why business processes are designed the way they are.”

For Panci, the internship is also providing a new perspective on career possibilities. Through S&T, he had previously considered a future in SAP consulting, but his experience in Barcelona is giving him insight into working directly for a technology company.

“At S&T, I experienced more of the consulting side,” he says. “Here, I’m experiencing the company itself with the actual developer, and it’s helping me understand what I like more.”

The experience has also shown him the value of the opportunities available at S&T.

“When I got to S&T, I noticed how many facilities and resources we have,” Panci says. “The Innovation Lab, the library, the availability of professors — you can grow so much because you’re supported.”

Originally coming to the United States to continue swimming while pursuing his degree, Panci says S&T offered him opportunities he would not have had in Italy. He is a member of the S&T men’s swimming team and says the combination of classes, athletics and career opportunities made S&T the right choice for him.

“I wanted to keep swimming while studying, and in Italy that was really difficult,” he says. “S&T gave me the opportunity to do both.”

As he continues his internship abroad, Panci is looking ahead to how this experience will shape his career. Whether he pursues consulting or a role within a technology company, he says the experience is helping him better understand where he wants to go next.

“I’m learning what kind of environment I want to work in,” he says. “This experience is helping me figure out what I want my career to look like.”