Second Wave ERP Education

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.