University Alliances (UA) spotlights Patrick a young professional currently working for Deloitte Consulting LLP. The UA program courses Matthias took during his Masters studies a Bentley University gave him an edge in the job market and supported the start of his career within the Utilities industry.

The goal of the UA Spotlight Series is to exchange insights with professors, lecturers, students, researchers and the entire SAP ecosystem and community.

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Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you currently located? A fun fact or hobbies that you would like to share with the community?

I am from South Shore of Massachusetts (United States) which is outside Boston and currently live in Boston. Living in the city is a great experience! It has a rich heritage and culture. I enjoy seeing the Boston Symphony Orchestra or the Boston Pops. One of my favorite hobbies is traveling. I have been to the following places: Copenhagen, Denmark; Paris, France; and London, UK. Hopefully I will be able to travel more in the future!

Which university did you graduate from? What was your major? When and how did you first hear about SAP?  Which classes used SAP software and/or curricula in the classroom?

I went to college at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts where I graduated with a Bachelors in Science in Management with a minor in Information Process Management (IPM). During my years as an undergradate I had a spark for learning SAP while taking a Management Consulting course. For my IPM minor, I was amongst the first to take SAP courses offered at Bentley such as “IPM 310: Business Process and Systems” and “IPM 450 Enterprise Systems Configuration for Business.” IPM 310 was a valuable course that gave a high-level understanding of the efficiency and effectiveness of enterprise systems in business processes across a company compared to manual processes. IPM 450 was a course where a company was configured within SAP for the Procure-to-Pay and Order-to-Cash Processes.

After graduating from Bentley University I went to University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Lumbar School of Management for a couple of weeks where I received my SAP TERP 10 Certification. Then, I returned to Bentley University where I received my Masters in Information Technology (MSIT) while also working a MBA internship for SAP North America in Burlington Massachusetts. My internship was specific to focused business solutions helping develop custom development solutions that are compliment with SAP CRM or ECC 6.0.

Where do you work now (name of organization or identify it by the industry - i.e. major manufacturing organization)?  What SAP-related skills do you use in your job?  How have your experiences with SAP solutions in the classroom helped you in your current job (and career)?

I currently work for Deloitte Consulting LLP as a Business Technology Analyst working on SAP implementations across the globe. I specialize in Material Management (MM) in the Procure-to-Pay module in the Retail Industry.

My current client is a global clothing retail company implementing a Retail SAP Solution for all of North America. As a functional SAP MM Consultant, I live in the configuration space, taking the requirements outlined by the business and configuring them in the system to eventually test as part of quality assurance. We will then bring the new SAP solution to go-live during the cut-over phase of our project.

The configuration skills learned in my IPM 450 class for Procure-to-Pay are the same set of skills used today at my current SAP client. I cannot stress enough how invaluable the skills I learned in this course. The learning experiences directly relate to my every day job here in the SAP consulting world. Furthermore, during my MSIT, I took Graduate Studies “602 for Business Process Management” which went deeper into modules of SAP while redesigning business processes using the software tool Process Model to simulate improved performance.

Overall, my experiences at Bentley University with SAP gave me a solid foundation when heading into the working world!

SAP University Alliances (UA) spotlights Plamena Yonkova, a UA program student at Sheffield Hallam University in England. Plamena shares her university experiences and tells us about the internship, including TERP10 training, with SAP that she looks forward to next year.

The goal of the UA Spotlight Series is to exchange insights with professors, lecturers, students, researchers and the entire SAP ecosystem and community.

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Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you currently located? Please share a fun fact or hobbies that you would like to share with the community?

My name is Plamena and I am originally from Bulgaria. One year ago I made the decision to move to England in order to continue my higher education in Sheffield. To describe myself in one sentence, I will use the saying: “Do not limit your challenges, challenge your limits.” I strongly believe that the most effective way to “upgrade” the current version of “You” is by challenging yourself.

I am passionate about youth community work and that’s why I spend a great deal of time working as a youth trainer in Bulgaria and in the Netherlands.

Currently, I am a youth trainer in the GLOW Association in Bulgaria where I deliver sessions and workshops to youngsters between 14 to 18 years old. These workshops range in topics including: Team and Leadership; Effective Communication; Goal Setting and Decision Making. In Holland, I was a youth moderator doing expert meetings and training courses. We facilitated sessions for mixed-age groups of people (aged 17-46) with different backgrounds and nationalities.

My deep desire to understand people’s nature better, leads me to a whole new world of observing people’s attitudes, reactions and behavior on a daily basis and to draw assumptions and conclusions in regards to my observations. These interests somehow parallel to my analytical approach towards everything which surrounds me.

What university are you currently studying at, in which degree program and in what year of study? When and how did you first hear about SAP? Which of your classes have used SAP software and/or curricula in the classroom?
I am studying at Sheffield Hallam University, England and am currently a second year student in Business Information Systems. I first heard about SAP a couple of years ago when I conducted a research project about leading companies in business software with branches in Bulgaria. In fact, SAP was not my initial target company for this project. However, I came across an interesting fact during my research; there are 13 SAP Labs locations worldwide and one of them is in Bulgaria. Through this research project, I learned more about SAP and its establishment in Bulgaria. I consider this period as the beginning of my aspiration to connect with SAP.

My first experience with SAP solutions was during the Level 5 module Web-based Information Systems (WBIS). I entered university with a strong foundation in mathematics and extensive experience with it, including winning several Math competitions in Bulgaria. Taking this into account, together with my course leader, we developed an individual program of study which included the WBIS classes.

During these courses we run a simulated business in a real-time ERPsim environment by playing two interactive games. The first one was mainly concerned with the distribution of bottles of mineral water. My primary activity was to act as a go-between for the customers and the suppliers by receiving requisitions and converting them to purchase orders. At the same time, I kept an eye on the stock levels, maintained the price list and market the products where it was necessary. The second one was a manufacturing simulation game related to the production of muesli. I performed the same activities here, but this time I was involved in the manufacturing process by converting production orders.

Next year you will start an internship with the SAP Services and Support Center in Dublin, where you will also work towards receiving your TERP10 Certification. What do you most look forward to in this experience? What are your goals in pursuing TERP10 certification in terms of advancing your career, skills, and appeal in the job market?
I will start my internship with the SAP Services and Support Centre in Dublin, Ireland in June 2013. I am looking forward to working in a highly motivated and high-performance team for the leading company in business software: SAP.

I expect to come in contact with a variety of opportunities to handle challenging situations. I believe this experience will help me unleash my potential and deliver results which will exceed expectations. TERP10 certification will be a great skill to jump start my SAP career. As a result, I will enhance my understanding of integration of business processes as well as become more aware of using SAP software. It will enable me to maximize my efficiency and truly contribute to the success of my team. In addition, TERP10 will give me a competitive advantage over my rivals when it comes to searching for a graduate job and hopefully, will make me more employable.

What do you like the most about your experiences with the SAP and the SAP University Alliances program?  How has it improved your SAP knowledge?
I was provided with a hands-on SAP experience at two different levels. First, I studied a module which was based primarily on the idea of running a business in a SAP context. Second, I participated in the Student Dashboard Design Competition run by SAP in collaboration with UNICEF France. During that time, I had the opportunity to gain in-depth experience of the Crystal Dashboard Design software. In both cases, these experiences helped me get a better understanding of the SAP basics such as SAP GUI and the internal SAP architecture.

University Alliances (UA) congratulates the EMEA Student Dashboard Design Competition winner: Team GZA (“Great South Africa”) Designers from South Africa. Alexander Oloo, Channel Hillebrand, Dirk Ras and Wonga Ntshinga spent a portion of their past semester designing a Dashboard based on the 2012 European Football Championship.

The goal of this Spotlight Series is to exchange insights with professors, lecturers, students, researchers and the entire SAP ecosystem and community.

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Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Alex: I am currently enrolled at the University of Pretoria and plan to graduate with my Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering. I have been involved in the mentoring and education of first year university students in the Computer Science Department for the last 3 years.

Channel: Presently enrolled for a Master’s Degree (MSc) in Computer Science degree at the University of Johannesburg. I completed my Bachelor of Science (BSc) Computer Science and Informatics degree in 2010 and then in 2011 achieved my BSc Honors Computer Science degree with distinction, majoring in Artificial Intelligence, Mobile Programming and Biometrics.

Dirk: Currently enrolled for my Master’s Degree in Computer Science at the University of Pretoria. My field of research is Digital Forensics applied to Federated Database systems. I have also completed my Honors degree in Computer Science this year where my research topic was Digital Forensics of private Cloud Computing Systems.

Wonga: I am studying towards obtaining a degree in Doctoral Technology (Information Technology) at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). My research is titled, “Choreography of Intelligent e-Services” which I’m delivering while obtaining a Master’s Degree; my undergraduate degree was undertaken at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).

We chose the name “GZA Designers” for our team name because we thought the “G” would stand for “Great” and “ZA” for “South Africa.”  So, we believed that we are Great South African designers! Having stated all that, we never imagined that we would actually win the competition.

What Were Your Experiences in Building the Dashboard?

Alex: It was quite the experience, as it combined two of my greatest interests: computing and football (also known as soccer). The goal was to effectively communicate football statistics, which may as well be Greek to the layperson, in a concise, interactive and intuitive manner. As an avid gamer and web designer, simplicity of user controls is something I am passionate about.

Channel: My experience with building the dashboard is focusing on a good design and constantly adapting to what the user wants. I believe these attributes are the key to a great dashboard. The goal for us was to become proficient in the tool and to create a dashboard that enthusiastic fans would like to use, which in our opinion, we achieved!

Dirk: The goal was to create a usable and innovative application. At first the problem seemed to be quite trivial in that we simply had to add some graphs and pretty User Interface (UI) elements to the dashboard. However, as we progressed, it became clear that there is a lot more to giving a user information in an attractive and helpful manner. As a result, the SAP Analytics tools gave us the ability to provide this information in a clear and interesting way.

Wonga: The team’s thought process was to create a set of mock-ups to envision the look and feel of the dashboard. Our designs were given to football fans in order to obtain their feedback. My experience at this stage was to listen carefully to what the fans required as we asked them questions such as, “Does the dashboard make sense?” and “will the information be meaningful to a soccer player?"

We followed their advice ensuring that their requirements were met and implemented. This approach was pursued in order to portray information that is relevant and useful.

What were you most successful at? What was your greatest challenge? Were there any obstacles you had to overcome? If so, what steps did you take?

Alex: I find I was most successful at finding simple and intuitive methods of representing the football data in the dashboard, which is probably a result of being a footballer since before I could speak English.

I found it difficult to find the exact control that I had envisioned. To overcome this obstacle the tutorials were helpful. The biggest help was the group brain storming sessions that we conducted. Random clicks and "let’s just see what happens" turned out to be a lot more fruitful with such a dynamic group.

Channel: I was the team leader and I think we worked well together. We were most successful at creating a dashboard that football fans can use.

The greatest obstacle we had to overcome is to familiarize ourselves with the tools. We worked through the tutorials provided and made test dashboards to familiarize ourselves with the interactions between different components of the dashboard.

Dirk: Our ability to work well together as a team was a big factor in our success. My greatest challenge was to find what the relevant information to be displayed. As I have a limited knowledge of football it was initially quite difficult to separate the trivial information from the interesting information. This obstacle was overcome by speaking to people who are football fans and much more knowledgeable than myself. This gave them an opportunity to explain what they need. It again showed us how important user engagement is when developing software.

Wonga:  We were successful working as a team using a dynamic approach to work coherently together. The spirit of the team was that we allowed each team member to be creative, as much as possible, in his/her allocated tasks. The challenge, for me, was to develop the PowerPoint presentation and dashboard with a strategy in mind (i.e. how to present the dashboard with the characteristics of Euro 2012 football players). Hence we choose a design that resembles a fast car dashboard which football players are known to love.

Furthermore, I paid attention to the documented evaluation criteria in order to cross-check that we covered every criteria being assessed.

The challenge was to ensure that, firstly, we have a complementary team. Secondly, that the dashboard-design aesthetics supports the quality use of colors (i.e. reflecting the Junior Achievement brand). Moreover, that the size of the fonts are readable, including the arrangement of the components.

The obstacle included that it took time to fully understand the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and implement these KPIs on the dashboard. To resolve the situation we read all the documentation that we received from the organizers (including online resources, online demos, tutorials, power point presentations/lectures, background of the competition, etc.). Additionally, we studied the University Alliance Community (and the SAP Community Network) which has a vast community of people that use SAP software.

The skills you grew and gained from working with SAP’s Analytics solutions are highly valued in the marketplace. How did your experiences with the competition help advance and further your knowledge of SAP’s Analytics solutions and your marketable skills?

Alex: Before this project I knew nothing about SAP's Analytics solutions which meant that everything I have learned contributed to a great leap forward in my knowledge. The greatest skill I have learned is how to approach an unfamiliar obstacle in a constructive and patient manner.

Channel: Working with SAP Analytics gave us the opportunity to learn a new tool in a fun group environment. Now I have the ability to include interactive dashboards in my presentations. The tool is simple to work with and can create powerful, interactive charts to display relevant information. These experiences contribute to a great new skill to add to my CV (a.k.a. resume).

Dirk: My exposure to the SAP Analytics solution added to my skills by giving me the opportunity to use a tool that would, under normal circumstances, not be available to students like myself. SAP software has a reputation for being expensive and not user-friendly. The SAP Analytics tool showed that this is not the case; the tool is simple to use and able to provide rapid and relevant information that would otherwise be remain very complex data.

In today’s market it is vitally important to have the right information at the right time. This realization can only be achieved with data analytics due to the volume of data, thus learning the SAP Analytics tool is a great boon for me and a marketable job skill.

Wonga: Now I know how to create what-if scenarios and transform business data to show the wow-factor and knowledge in using this tool. I know how to optimize the user experience using the dashboard. However, there is still substantial information to learn (e.g. connecting to web services in Xcelsius 2008) in ensuring that my skills are more marketable as reflected on my updated CV.

University Alliances (UA) spotlights University Competence Center (UCC) Associate Director Ross Hightower from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who shares his background and UA experiences including teaching TERP10 and developing mobile curricula.

The goal of this series is to exchange insights with UA professors, lecturers, and staff from around the world and share their experiences. View UA Spotlight blog posts.

Tell us a bit about yourself. Where you live? What university and department you’re currently a professor with? A fun fact or hobbies that you’d like to share with the community?

I was born, raised and lived most of my life in the south but I find myself living in Wisconsin where I joined the staff of the UCC at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) as the Associate Director. Although I know winter is coming (as everyone I meet in Milwaukee reminds me), it’s been a long time since I’ve experienced a real Fall and, so far, I’m loving it. It’s been a busy time but I still find some time to brew some beer, a personal passion.

You have had an interesting career and SAP journey from Florida to Texas and now Milwaukee; How long have you been active as a UA professor? Tell us how you have made SAP-related connections along the way.

When Bob Szymanski and I volunteered to take on the ERP initiative at the University of Central Florida (UCF) we really had no idea what we were getting into but it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my career.

My first experience with SAP at the Curriculum Congress in Atlanta was overwhelming. I wasn’t sure where to begin but we dove in and have been learning ever since. Bob and I had a blast building a successful ERP program at UCF and along the way we found in the University Alliance a passionate, friendly, supportive community.

Unfortunately, UCF decided that MIS was not in their future and Bob and I went our separate ways. I found myself at Texas A&M for two years teaching ERP classes in the Supply Chain Management program. About a year ago Dave Haseman approached me about moving to UWM. I’m excited about the new opportunity and feel very fortunate to be in a position to give back to the University Alliance community.

Based on your experience in teaching the certification academy, “TERP10” (a.k.a. Integration of Business Processes in SAP ERP), how do you see it preparing students to have a competitive advantage in the marketplace?

Not long after I started teaching the TERP10 I was talking to someone with 15 years experience using SAP. While I was explaining SAP University Alliances I described the TERP10 certification. He had never heard of it but after hearing what it was about he decided to take the class himself. His reaction to the class was that he wished he had taken it at the beginning of his career. Despite his years of experience, he never understood the underlying logic of SAP ERP. TERP10 gives students the broad perspective that helps them rise above the small details to see the larger scope of the business processes embedded in the system. That gives them a competitive advantage.

You have been co-developing Mobile curricula; at a high level, how do you think it will help professors and students around the globe?

There is no doubt the world is going mobile. Being able to develop enterprise class applications in a mobile environment is a key skill set for management information systems and information technology students entering the workforce. While the tools available in the SAP Mobile Platform are powerful and easy to use, the initial learning curve can be daunting. We hope the new mobile curriculum will allow professors to quickly introduce mobile development into their courses and allow students to gain a solid foundation for more advanced learning.

How can students benefit from the UAC and UA Career Resource Center? What do they enjoy most about the new Jive platform?

I have so many students come to me asking how to get a job in the SAP world. One thing I tell them is to develop an appreciation for the SAP Ecosystem. One way that any student can do that is by getting to know the SAP Community Network. It’s a big site and can be a little daunting but I start them out by showing them the UA Career Resource Center. It lets them learn a little about what kinds of careers are possible with SAP and get's them familiar with the SCN site.

University Alliances (UA) spotlights Garima Nagpal a young professional working for KPMG India. Garima took UA program courses during her MBA studies at Symbiosis Centre for Information Technology (SCIT) and is now applying these skills in her work with SAP-related clients.

The goal of the UA Spotlight Series is to exchange insights with professors, lecturers, students, researchers and the entire SAP ecosystem and community.

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Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you currently located? A fun fact or hobbies that you would like to share with the community?

My name is Garima Nagpal. I graduated from Symbiosis Centre for Information Technology (SCIT), Pune and now work as an Associate Consultant in IT Advisory, Management Consulting Practice of KPMG, India. Currently I live in Bangalore, Karnataka India.

I am an avid reader who enjoys fiction books. Apart from that, I have interests in playing chess, arts & crafts activities, listening to music and cooking.

Which university did you graduate from? What was your major? When and how did you first hear about SAP? Which classes used SAP software and/or curricula in the classroom?

Completed my MBA and previously specialized in IT Business Management where I was studying in Symbiosis Centre for Information Technology. The institute is part of Symbiosis International (Deemed) University, Pune.

First heard about ERP as a concept during the introduction sessions at SCIT in 2010. It was a new term and I was curious to know more about it. I opted for an ERP course as an elective in my first semester during my MBA studies and it was through this course that I came across SAP for the first time.

Studied Finance and Controlling (FI-CO) modules using the SAP software. This ignited my interest in the subject. It also encouraged me to opt for this subject in the subsequent semesters. I also learned Sales and Distribution (SD) and Materials Management (MM) modules in the following semester under the guidance of our esteemed teacher, Professor SVK Bharathi.

Later, in line with my interest and experience with SAP, I opted for an Extended ERP course in my penultimate semester at SCIT where I came across another product of SAP called SAP Business ByDesign.

Where do you work now (name of organization or identify it by the industry – i.e. major manufacturing organization)? What SAP-related skills do you use in your job? How have your experiences with SAP solutions in the classroom helped you in your current job (and career)?

Working at KPMG, a leading provider of risk, financial & business advisory, regulatory & compliance services, audit & corporate governance.

In my charter as an Associate Consultant, I engage with clients from an assortment of industries across the country and provide them advisory, audit, assessment and assurance related services in the IT field. Often SAP ERP systems are part of my projects. With a thorough and engaging hands-on experience in SAP at SCIT, I am able to have a better understanding of my clients’ domain and operations, which helps me to maximize my efforts to provide the best-in-class solution to the clientele.

My experiences with SAP solutions have not only helped me in projects related to SAP ERP solutions but also other ERP solutions, like Oracle Suite. With an in-depth understanding of conceptual framework together with the hands-on operations in SAP solutions under Professor SVK Bharathi’s supervision in the classroom sessions, I had gained a clear insight on the functioning and work-flow of other ERP vendor solutions.

What do you like most about your University Alliances experiences? How does this help improve your SAP knowledge? Would you refer it to a friend or colleague?

My journey started from the point where I had no knowledge or concept of ERP, to where currently I have had a thorough understanding of not only ERP but also the role of a market leader in ERP and business software solutions: SAP.

Thanks to the splendid faculty including Professor Bharathi, I had the privilege to experience hands-on SAP ByDesign during the end of my MBA program. Today, I am able to showcase my ground-level understanding of the SAP interface, work flow, and operations in the SAP environment which positions me above my colleagues who have just a conceptual understanding of ERP.

It has been a great experience working on SAP solutions utilizing UA program curricula and software; I can proudly say that I am reaping the benefits of it in my career.

Yes, I will surely refer it to a friend or colleague.

University Alliances (UA) congratulates the “Dashboarders” team in taking first place in the Brazil Dashboard Design Competition.

Tiago, Lucas and Gregory spent a portion of their most recent semester designing a Dashboard for the World Cup. Each team member is from a different university in Brazil; they met during an internship at SAP and worked through competing exam schedules to deliver the dashboard and showcase it to SAP executives.

The goal of the UA Spotlight Series is to exchange insights with professors, lecturers, students, researchers and the entire SAP ecosystem and community.

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Tell us a little bit about your experience building your dashboard. What was the goal of the project?

Tiago: It was a great experience! We were able to build a dashboard with a very helpful tool: SAP Crystal Report. Even though we had some previous access to it, we had to learn a lot about some new functionality so we could create the best dashboard possible within the circumstances. Our goal was to show as much relevant information we could in a very interactive and friendly way!

Lucas: In addition to creating a dashboard in accordance with the requirements, our goal was to use as many different features as the tool offers. At the same time, ensuring it would be practical and user-friendly was an importante consideration.

Gregory: It was an amazing experience. We already had contact with the Dashboard tool in the past so we could focus on the business problem and develop a solution that showcased most of the functionalities the tool provides.

What were you most successful at? What was your greatest challenge? Were there any obstacles you had to overcome? If so, what steps did you take?

Tiago: We were most successful in the way that we tried to implement almost all of the features to optimize the dashboard’s capabilities. We knew that we had to be great to win this competition. We had some difficulties with the timing of the competition as we were taking our finals at our universities at the same time. So, we had to conciliate university work (we all were interns here at SAP) and our teaming for the competition. We were able to concentrate our efforts on our tasks and help each other so we could deliver the best solution.

Lucas: The greatest challenge was that the competition took place at the same time as our college exams. In spite of the time constraint, thanks to the team effort, we managed to complete the tasks in time.

Gregory: I believe the biggest challenge was the time constraints we faced. Although the team members work at the same company, it was hard to find free time to discuss the Dashboard project. We study at different universities and one of the team member’s lives in a different city. Even with this challenge we performed excellent team work.

The skills you grew and gained from working with SAP’s Analytics solutions are highly valued in the marketplace. How did your experiences with the competition help advance and further your knowledge of SAP’s Analytics solutions and your marketable skills?

Tiago: This experience was very valuable in many ways. In addition to using a very powerful tool which is very valued in the market; we valued sharing this experience with other students around Brazil. Also, we had to present the dashboard to very important people inside SAP, such as board members, which represented a unique opportunity.

Lucas: The competition helped me learn more about the SAP’s Analytics solutions. I find it useful to turn raw data into meaningful information and I am impressed with its wide applications.

Gregory: The team work was one of the most important skills we were able to improve. Since different people think differently, it might become a problem while a project is being developed, however, it allowed us to have broader collaboration and ideas. Another positive skill we explored was the planning; in other words, stop and think about the proposed problem in order to avoid unpredictable or rework situations. In addition, we learned more about a very interesting Analytics solution provided by SAP.

University Alliances (UA) Research spotlights Professor Pierre-Majorique Léger from the HEC Montreal who has co-developed the acclaimed simulation game, ERPsim, to help students learn ERP-related concepts.

The goal of this series is consistent with the goal of the UA Spotlight Series, to exchange insights with UA professors, students, researchers and others linked to universities from around the world.

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Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you currently located? What university and department are you affiliated with? A fun fact or hobbies that you'd like to share with the community?

I am currently a Full Professor, in the Department of IT, at HEC Montréal were I have worked for the past 10 years.

Learning with games is extremely efficient. I relate this interest to my work as well. I like to create engaging experiences in the classroom which bring students to be in an active learning mode.

Ironically, there are no video games at home! For an evening of good family fun, instead I prefer to play board games with my kids.

Share a bit about your SAP, UA and UA Research background and history.

I was first introduced to SAP during my Ph.D. studies, in industrial engineering, at École Polytechnique de Montréal. At the time, my research adviser, Dr. Louis A. Lefebvre, was also on the Advisory Board of the UA Program. These experiences with SAP have benefited me; when I looked for faculty positions my SAP background was an important factor in joining HEC Montréal.

Early in my academic career, I realized that teaching ERP systems to undergrad students was quite challenging. Along with my colleagues Jacques Robert and Gilbert Babin, both full Professors at HEC Montréal, as well as Bret Wagner, from Western Michigan University, and Robert Pellerin, from École Polytechnique de Montréal, I have developed a simulation game called ERPsim which aims at engaging students in the learning of ERP-related concepts.

In ERPsim, students must operate an enterprise within a simulated economic environment using in real time a real-life ERP system, namely SAP. Over the years, we have developed a series of games that address various pedagogical needs in ERP training.

Tell us about your current research projects. What projects are you working on? What do you hope or expect to find out through your research projects?

I am currently Director of ERPsim Lab, and Co-Director of Tech3Lab. ERPsim Lab is developing a series of serious games needed to learn IT, and, more specifically, ERP systems.

Since 2004, ERPSim has been used as a pedagogical approach by over 200 professors, lecturers, and professional trainers in over 160 universities worldwide.

Between September 2009 and June 2011, more than 3,000 simulation games were played by 16,398 teams  composed of university students across the SAP University Alliances (teams typically being composed from 3 to 5 members). Since 2008, ERPsim is also used commercially by SAP customers to train their employees via Baton Simulations and SAP Education.

Our latest innovation is called ERPsim BI. It enables the game to be functional under SAP Business Objects Technologies. SAP UA will be able to play games under SAP Crystal Reports and Crystal Dashboard.

I am also the Co-Director of Tech3Lab. Recently financed by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Tech3Lab allows advanced research into the decision-making processes of individuals and groups using information technologies.

The laboratory will have neurophysiological and oculometric tools for studying collaboration and decision-making among users of business applications and decision making by Internet consumers.

Among our current research projects, we have just been granted, along with seven other professors issued from different faculties at HEC Montréal, an important research fund from the Social Science Research Council of Canada in conjunction with SAP to study mobile business user experience.

One of my main research interests is related to the training of end user in ERP systems. There is a great synergy between my two Labs on this topic. At Tech3Lab, we learn from our research how people learn IT; these experiences are also applicable to our game development at ERPsim Lab. The ERPsim community, both academic and commercial, directly benefits from this value chain.

What do you like most about the University Alliances Community on the new Jive platform? How does this help/improve your SAP knowledge? How does this improve your regular UAC activities? How can (or do) your students benefit from the UAC?

Engagement into the community.

Every year, I teach, along with Gilbert Babin, a capstone course for IT major undergrad students at HEC. In this class, students work with a real-life customer which provides a live case study.

The students are given a 12-week period to review the situation and develop a solution and prototype. At the end, they must showcase their solutions to the “customer.” These presentations are opened to the HEC Montréal IT community to meet with our most recent graduates.

During this project, the students are using the SAP SCN forum to interact with real-life consultants and business users. Not only do the students learn more about the technology and techniques, but they also learn how to solve problems, and, most importantly, develop and broaden their network.

When they have job interviews, they can share their experiences, and tap into the network. SAP is the only solution being used in the classroom that has a network like this available.

University Alliances (UA) Research spotlights professor David Douglas from the University of Arkansas.

The goal of this series is consistent with the goal of the UA Spotlight Series, to exchange insights with UA professors, students, researchers and others linked to universities from around the world.

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Tell us a bit about yourself.

I am a University Professor of Information Systems in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas located in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Fayetteville has a population exceeding 70,000 and the University expects more than 24,000 students for the fall 2012 semester.

My undergraduate, masters and Ph.D. are in Industrial Engineering but I have been a faculty member in the College of Business for most of my academic career. I serve as the SAP Faculty Coordinator and Director of Enterprise Systems for the College. I teach undergraduate courses but mostly graduate courses in our Professional Master of Information Systems, which is a blended program of face-to-face and online components. I also teach an MBA class with emphasis on enterprise systems and analytics.

Our family farm where I grew up is near Bentonville, Arkansas—the headquarters for Wal-Mart and where I graduated from high school. My wife Stacey and I now live in Elm Springs, a small town near Fayetteville where we designed and had a house built on a 2.5 acre lot—we moved into the new house in 2007. We greatly enjoy traveling and I have taught courses in Australia, China, France, Greece, and Vietnam.

Share a bit about your SAP and UAC history.

The Information Systems Department began developing its ERP curriculum (with SAP as the software) in 2000. It took several years and the efforts of many for our ERP curriculum to evolve into three undergraduate and three master level courses -- ERP I, ERP II and ERP III.

ERP I’s focus is on processes and integration, ERP II covers configuration and ERP III focuses on modification and business intelligence. Initially, we developed our own materials for the ERP II and ERP III courses and were self-hosted. We are now dual-hosted; we use the UCC at Chico to host our ERP I courses and we self-host our ERP II and ERP III courses. All ERP I courses include the manufacturing ERPsim simulation game.  A number of other SAP University Alliances schools use our SAP BW system for their classes. Our SAP implementation runs in Linux on an IBM z10 with DB2 as the database.    

Currently, the ERP I and ERP II courses carry a business college course designation instead of an information systems course designation. We believe these courses are as important for all business majors as they are for information systems (IS) majors.

Enrollment in both the ERP I and ERP II courses at the undergraduate level are much higher for non-IS majors. Further, students that pass all three of the ERP courses earn a SAP endorsed ERP Certificate.

Further, we have an Enterprise Resource Planning minor at the undergraduate level which includes taking the three ERP courses. We have great industry support for our ERP program and students that take these courses are in great demand when they graduate. Gary Cooper, CIO at Tyson Foods, made a short video recommending students take the course. The video is on our website as well as the UAC website.

Several years ago, Dr. Paul Cronan began promoting ERP research including use of the ERPsim simulation game. We have developed an on-line instrument to collect pre-post self-assessed responses for perception of attitudes and learning. Using this instrument, data has been collected for several years for all our ERP I classes. Some other universities have used the instrument for collecting research data.

A forth-coming Journal of Computer Information Systems article by Cronan and Douglas, “A Student ERP Simulation Game: A Longitudinal Study”, details the student results and research findings.

Further, we have collected research data with employees from several varied industries. Moreover, we are expanding the research to include the cross-culture impact on attitudes and learning as well as have incorporated the culture dimension into the data collection instrument. We plan to include universities in Asia, Africa and South America in this research effort. Universities have been contacted in each of these continents for possible research cooperation.

What do you like most about the University Alliances Community on the new Jive platform? How does this help/improve your regular UAC activities?

A network of faculty teaching SAP plus announcements coupled with the new platform results in an exceptionally valuable resource. Faculty can extract a variety of items that they can use directly in their classes or modify to meet their needs. The site also provides a great source for upcoming events and in general helps us keep abreast of SAP vision and direction.

How can or do your students benefit from the UAC?

The most direct benefit for students centers on the Career Resource Center where they learn about new career opportunities. We regularly discuss with students the importance of ERP for career opportunities and the companies that hire students with ERP knowledge and SAP skills. This is reinforced when industry speakers do presentations for classes and at advisory board meetings.