SPIE assists the IT department of MBS School of Business in its transformation

Malakoff, 16 September 2025 – SPIE ICS, a French digital services company and subsidiary of SPIE, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in the areas of energy and communications, is assisting MBS School of Business, a leading international management school founded in Montpellier in 1897, in the transformation of its newly structured IT department.

A redesigned and internalised IT department to serve the school’s strategy

MBS School of Business is pursuing an ambitious strategy of educational innovation and development. With two strategic campuses – its historic site in Montpellier and its Paris satellite campus – the school welcomes more than 3,700 students and promotes an educational vision that combines academic excellence, educational innovation and social responsibility.

Faced with the challenges of this expansion and transformation strategy, MBS School of Business identified the need to completely rethink its digital ecosystem. After an in-depth audit, in early 2023 the school created a centralised Information Systems Department to bring together all the previously fragmented or outsourced services. This organisational transformation re-structured the IT department around four key areas: a “Proximity” unit for user support, an “Infrastructure” unit, a “Projects” unit and a “Cybersecurity” unit.

SPIE ICS assists the IT department in its transition

Following a call for tenders launched in February 2024, SPIE ICS was selected for three strategic lots and provides day-to-day support to the IT department. It contributes to technological choices and provides support for projects and technical expertise. In place since September 2024, the collaboration gives MBS School of Business access to a technical team permanently based at the Montpellier campus and allows it to call on SPIE ICS experts on demand. 

Among the projects developed with SPIE ICS is the redesign of the XRM tool^[1] , which is scheduled to go live in autumn 2025. The solution will provide a 360° view of interactions with all third parties in the MBS ecosystem. It will equip user departments with data-based tools to manage their activities and offer a completely redesigned user experience.

SPIE ICS is also working with the school to optimise and streamline its digital tools. SPIE ICS is lending its expertise to the IT department to design a responsible digital infrastructure for the future ANIMA campus in Montpellier, which has applied for Silver-level Occitanie sustainable building certification and is scheduled to open in 2027. 

A vision focused on educational innovation

The transformation of the IT department is part of a broader strategic vision that aims to enhance the school’s appeal through educational innovation. In addition to the continuous improvement of the LMS platform^[2] (deployed around ten years ago), MBS School of Business plans to integrate more immersive tools and gamification into its teaching, while digitising its internal processes so that its teams can focus on high value-added tasks.

The school conducted an in-depth audit of the skills of all its staff. Based on findings, it created tailor-made training programmes to help employees master digital tools and become more autonomous. 

“Restructuring our IT department was a major challenge for the school. SPIE ICS is a trusted partner that helps us structure our projects and make the right technological choices. The IT department is working in support of academic excellence and educational innovation at MBS School of Business by contributing to the technological conditions for its growth,” says Erwan Mérel, CIO at MBS School of Business.

“SPIE ICS’s comprehensive approach allows us to contribute to the school’s transformation by providing our technical expertise, our vision and our commitment to responsible digital technology. Through this collaboration, we play a role in the construction of a modern and agile IT department,” adds Guillaume Bollègue, project manager at SPIE ICS.