Title: Horizontal integration of courses through SAP: implementation in a business school

Authors: Purnendu Mandal; Alicen Flosi

Addresses: College of Business, Lamar University, P.O. Box 10033, Beaumont, Texas, USA. ' College of Business, Lamar University, P.O. Box 10033, Beaumont, Texas, USA

Abstract: The teaching of ERP concepts and demonstration of transactions among business functional areas through ERP software such as SAP R/3 could open up wide choices in business curricula design and offerings. While vertical orientation of traditional business curricula has served its purpose, today's business education demands more horizontal integration among courses. The focus to horizontal integration in designing/redesigning business programmes may serve the following objectives: offering more value added courses to students; making the course offerings relevant to industry needs; logical integration of various courses within degree programs; improving job prospects for students. This paper illustrates how courses of a business programme have been redesigned to focus on horizontal integration. A regionally accredited business school took advantage of the SAP-University Alliances Program and changed various courses to incorporate SAP materials. The lessons learned from this exercise could be valuable to business schools elsewhere.

Keywords: ERP; enterprise resource planning; data processing systems; data processing applications; data processing products; business process integration; business schools; curriculum; curricula design; horizontal integration; functional areas; software; vertical orientation; higher education; course design; course redesign; business programmes; value added courses; business students; course offerings; relevance; industry needs; logical integration; degree programmes; universities; job prospects; student employability; regional accreditation; SAP-University Alliances Program; USA; United States; business information systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2012.045722

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2012 Vol.9 No.3, pp.343 - 355

Published online: 16 Aug 2014 *

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