Putting Enterprise Systems in a Larger ICT Context - A Pedagogical Framework

Many business schools are attempting to integrate their curricula with enterprise software, particularly enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Although the introduction of ERP into the undergraduate academic curriculum offers students a potentially deeper under-standing of business processes, it cannot by itself provide for students a connection between the adoption of robust information systems and a paradigm shift in the way that business organizations operate in a global, information-centric environment. Connecting a new global economy with enterprise systems requires a course much broader than ERP that places enterprise systems in a much larger information-communication technology (ICT) context. This chapter presents a teaching model that provides that context, emphasizing the critical role of systems components and relationships, the central function of information in problem solving, and business perspectives of information from infrastructure to applications.