Session 6.5: Enhancing student learning of enterprise integration by deploying industry-based software products into business curriculum

Seethamraju, R.

Several reviews of higher education by practitioners as well as experts have been pointing out the lack of a multidisciplinary view of business graduates and strongly recommended incorporating cross-functional perspectives, business process orientation and multidisciplinary integrated view of business in business curriculum (Porter and McKibbin 1988, Karpin 1995, Michaelsen 1999, Cecez-Kecmanovic et al 2002, BCG 2001, Ehie 2002 and Trites 2004). Though some of the pedagogical strategies such as integrated case study, team teaching, capstone group projects and simulation games are used to teach multidisciplinary perspective to business students, the effectiveness of these strategies were empirically measured and not known widely. Achieving an integrated view of business is an ongoing process and achieving an expert status requires a high degree of self-awareness, critical thinking and deep learning (Quinn et al 2003). Apart from helping the business graduates to function effectively in a work environment later on, pedagogically this cross-disciplinary perspective is also expected to encourage students’ deep learning and better understanding of intersections and interactions of the traditional disciplines such as marketing, operations, accounting and human resources (Burrack & McKenzie 2005).

With its focus on business processes and information sharing/transfer the discipline of business information systems in general, and the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems software products in particular, provide the most common link between traditional functions such as marketing, operations, accounting and human resources (Duplagia & Astani 2003, Leidner & Jarvenpaa 1995, Hershety et al 2002). In spite of such persistent demand for graduates with integrative skills and multidisciplinary perspective, the adoption of enterprise systems software into the business school curriculum has been relatively slow. The uncertainty of its pedagogical benefits and non-traditional assessment methods, and, administrative and academic challenges of incorporating and continuous updating of such complex best practice industry software solutions into business curriculum has been affecting the ability and motivation of many business schools. Recent attempts of integrating software products such as SAP R/3 appear to be contributing to the development of integrated cross-disciplinary perspective and deep learning and move the business curriculum closer to the ‘real world’ environment (Cannon et al 2004, Seethamraju 2004, Fedorowichz et al 2004, Hawking et al 2004, Johnson et al 2004). In this background, SAP R/3, one of the most popular industry standard ERP solutions software product was incorporated into one unit at the post graduate level in the year 2003 as a pilot in the business school at the University of Sydney. Based on anecdotal feedback from students and graduates, the course so far proved to be the “most useful at the workplace” and appears to have “significantly enhanced their multi-disciplinary perspective and employability.” Considering the successful pilot, it is proposed to extend its usage in the design and delivery of integrated curriculum that spans the disciplines of Business Information Systems (BIS), Accounting, Work & Organizational studies and others in the Business School.

This study discusses the results of the pilot study and describes the approach taken in extending the usage of SAP R/3 software solutions to other units offered by the discipline of business information systems and other disciplines such as Work and Organizational studies and Accounting. Employing focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews of students, graduates and practitioners, and self-assessment of the knowledge and skills gained in the course, the effectiveness of the curriculum design and delivery will be analysed.