The Status of ERP Integration in Business School Curricula: Results of a Survey of Business Schools

Although a growing number of business graduates are involved in the selection, implementation, and use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, many schools are slow in adopting and integrating these systems into their business curricula. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many schools perceive the integration of ERP software into curricula to be too complex, and the resulting costs to outweigh the benefits derived. Other schools question the relevance of ERP skills and knowledge to students. However, an increasing number of schools are joining ERP vendor alliance programs, offering ERP tracks in various departments or even building their business programs around ERP software. The apparent divergence of opinions regarding incorporating ERP into business curricula lends itself to a fruitful area of inquiry. The current study presents the results of a survey administered to information systems faculty at 94 colleges and universities that examines the current status of ERP integration in the classroom. All but three of these schools are in the US. Topics addressed in the survey include extent of ERP use in the classroom, reasons why schools did not adopt ERP for teaching purposes, implementation issues, and pedagogical uses. In addition, based on the authors’ recent experiences in implementing ERP for classroom use, benefits and challenges of ERP integration into curricula are discussed. The study’s results are informative to those schools wanting to benchmark their efforts against other schools, as well as to non-adopting schools that are considering undertaking this initiative.