School of Business offers new ERP courses, joins SAP University Alliances program

The School of Business recently joined the ranks of 170 college campuses nationwide through its membership in SAP’s “University Alliances” program.

SAP is the global leader in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Their University Alliances program provides universities with resources to teach ways technology can integrate business processes.

Wayne State students and faculty gain access to ERP software and extensive curriculum materials.

ERP software integrates information from an organization’s business functions such as human resources, accounting, marketing and sales into a single database. Because of their coordinating capabilities, ERP systems are said to be the “backbone” of management information systems in most enterprises today.

Several business professors, including Arik Ragowsky, Pamela Schmidt, Toni Somers and Myles Stern have research interests in ERP. They are working together to assimilate ERP projects into business school courses across disciplines.

Stern recently developed new courses that incorporate two ERP software programs commonly used in organizations large and small.

The new courses, ERP Systems: Concepts and Practice, are cross-listed between Accounting and Information Systems Management at the undergraduate level as ACC/ISM 5200. The graduate-level version of the course is ACC 7148.

The courses provide an introduction to ERP systems. Students learn how to use the software packages while exploring the business processes the software supports.

According to Stern, the courses will help students better understand business processes though business simulation games, extensive hands-on exercises and case studies using the software.

Both courses are scheduled on Wayne State’s main campus during the winter term. For more information about the courses or ERP, contact Myles Stern, associate professor of accounting, at ac8360@wayne.edu.

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