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Student teams from ������ý����'s College of Business Administration took second and third place in the first Northeast USA Inter-Collegiate ERPsim Competition on Friday, Nov. 11.

The competition consisted of 15 teams from five different universities. Nine ������ý���� students made up two of the teams. They managed a virtual manufacturing company in a fast-paced, real-time business simulation game called ERPsim. These innovative games take a "learning-by-doing" approach to teaching enterprise resource planning (ERP) concepts.

For ������ý���� students, the experience combined classroom learning with real-world application. "It was a great learning experience, competing against other schools while basically running your own company," says junior Stephen Murray. "This is what ������ý���� is about."

In the simulation, teams of four or five students operated a make-to-stock cereal manufacturer. They interacted with suppliers and customers by sending and receiving orders, delivering products, and completing the entire cash-to-cash cycle. The company with the highest company valuation in the marketplace at the end of the game was the winner.

The ������ý���� students who competed included Adam Chojnowski, James Damiano, Sarah McMekin, Stephen Murray, Bianca Rodriguez, Kamalika Sharma, Ethan Stout, Timia Thomas and Andrew Vastardis. They are all learning to use popular business software called SAP and dashboard analytics this semester in GSC-385 Information Systems for Supply Chain Management, one of the three required courses for the SAP Student Recognition Award at ������ý����.

"It was an overall great experience and I improved my SAP skills from it," junior Sarah McMekin says.

Teams from Delaware State, Penn State, ������ý����, Widener, and the University of Delaware, all members of the SAP University Alliance program, competed remotely from their own campuses by logging into a SAP system server that was connected to the ERPsim simulation game. Widener hosted the event using the web conferencing platform Zoom, which enabled everyone to see each other, as well as the game results.

The College of Business Administration (CBA) has an affiliation with SAP through its University Alliance program. Through this partnership, CBA students are exposed to live versions of SAP ERP systems.

SAP is one of the largest providers of business systems across the world. In fact, 87% of Forbes Global 2000 companies utilize SAP software. ������ý����'s affiliation with SAP allows students to receive hands-on, engaged learning opportunities before even entering the workforce. SAP is integrated throughout CBA's curriculum with four classes utilizing the software in some capacity. In addition, CBA offers a SAP Student Recognition Award certificate that appears on their academic transcript for completing a set of classes.

“It was a fun and competitive experience,” says junior James Damiano. “I feel like everything I learned in the classroom is the reason why we came out in the top three.”

For more information about the SAP Student Recognition Award, contact Dr. Lauren Eder at eder@rider.edu, faculty coordinator for the SAP University Alliance program at ������ý����.