Second Wave ERP Education

Journal of Information Systems Education, Fall 2004 by Hawking, Paul, McCarthy, Brendan, Stein, Andrew

ABSTRACT

In the 1990s there was considerable growth in implementations of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems. Companies expected these systems to support many of the day to day business transactions. The growth in ERP implementations had a resultant impact on the demand for ERP skills. Many universities recognised this demand and the potential of using ERP Systems software as a teaching tool, and endeavoured to incorporate ERP systems into their curriculum; however most universities have struggled in this task. ERP systems have now evolved to incorporate more strategic components and universities and ERP vendors are investigating ways in which curriculum can be developed to support these new solutions. This paper discusses the evolution of ERP systems and university curriculum. It identifies how one university is addressing this problem and how this approach can be adopted and expanded by other universities.

Keywords: Enterprise Resource Planning Systems, Application Hosting, ERP education

1. INTRODUCTION

Many universities have committed considerable time and resources in modifying their curriculum to incorporate Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) (Hawking, Shackleton & Ramp, 2001; Lederer-Antonucci, 1999; Watson and Schneider, 1999). For many universities it has been a struggle even though ERP vendors have developed a number of initiatives to facilitate curriculum development. As companies' ERP system usage has become more strategic in nature, ERP curriculum needs to evolve to reflect and support this usage. Information Systems curriculum in universities has undergone rapid and continuous change in response to the evolution of industry requirements. Over a period of 40 years, the Information Systems (IS) discipline has become an essential component in the employment of information technology personnel in business and government organisations. In recent times there have been discussions by IS professionals on how to best respond to developments in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. The industry now requires a broad range of skills that support the development, implementation and maintenance of e-business solutions. A recent Australian report identified skill shortages in security/risk management, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, data warehousing and customer relationship management (CRM) (ICT Skills Snapshot, 2003). Over the same period there has been a downturn in employment opportunities in the ICT industry (ICT Skills Snapshot, 2003). Recent research indicates that many of the entry-level positions graduates traditionally go into have diminished due to the economic downturn and to companies outsourcing positions offshore. This paper discusses the evolution of ERP education and the issues it now faces. It provides an example of how one university is addressing the " second wave" of ERP education and the challenges that educators face in preparing students for rapidly developing software environments.

2. ERP SKILLS & CURRICULUM APPROACHES

The shortage of ERP related skills is not a recent phenomenon. A survey by Hewitt Associates (1999) found that people with ERP skills were in short supply, and consequently in high demand experiencing rapid changes in their market value. In Australia, an IT Skills Shortage study (ICT Skills Snapshot, 2003) commissioned by the Government, found skill shortages in enterprise wide systems, and more specifically SAP R/3 and PeopleSoft implementation and administration. The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs in their Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL 2000) identified information technology specialists with SAP R/3 skills as people who would be encouraged to migrate to Australia.

In accordance with this demand many universities identified the value of incorporating ERP systems into their curriculum. ERP systems can be used to reinforce many of the concepts covered in the business discipline (Becerra-Femandez et al, 2000; Hawking et al, 2001). The ERP vendors argue that their products incorporate "world's best practice" for many of the business processes they support, making them an ideal teaching tool (Hawking, 1999; Watson and Schneider, 1999), while at the same time increasing the employment prospects of graduates. Universities also realised the importance of providing students with "hands on" experience with particular ERP systems and formed strategic alliances with ERP system vendors to gain access to these systems. The ERP vendor benefited from these alliances by increasing the supply of skilled graduates that can support their product thereby enhancing its marketability and lowering the cost of implementation.

Universities who decided to introduce ERP related curriculum were faced with a number of barriers. For many universities getting access to an ERP system to provide "hands on" learning environments was not a major issue, however, the lack of ERP related skills of academic staff and accordingly the development of appropriate curriculum material was and still is a major hurdle. SAP, the leading ERP vendor has established the largest ERP university alliance with more than 400 universities worldwide accessing their ERP system (SAP R/3). They have introduced a number of initiatives to facilitate the incorporation of their system into university curriculum. Initially when universities joined the alliance they were provided with free training for academic staff and access to training materials. The amount of training made available and the restrictions how the training materials could be used varied from country to country and to a certain extent from university to university within the same country.