8 AIS Transactions on Enterprise Systems 1 (2009) Vol. 1
S. Mohamed: Probing the Gaps between ERP Education and ERP Implementation Success Factors
Abstract
This paper compares two streams of research
related to ERP education and ERP implementation
success factors. Many of the factors found to be
associated with ERP implementation success are
covered in the normative research on desirable
skills outcomes for ERP educational programs.
However, a gap analysis suggests several “soft
skills” that are associated with ERP implementation
success factors are typically overlooked. These
gaps suggest that ERP education must place more
emphasis on change management, organizational
and employee resistance, and performance incentive
schemes. These findings have implications for the
design of ERP training programs and university-
level curriculum.
1. Introduction
Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERPs)
are now widely adopted within the business
community. A major reason for the popularity of
ERPs is their ability to integrate data and business
processes throughout an entire organization [4,13].
The dominance of ERPs in industry has created a
huge demand for ERP skilled employees. Business
schools have responded with an ERP curriculum
to deliver market-driven learning outcomes
(ERP skills). However, upon comparing the
recommended learning outcomes (job skills) from
the normative literature on ERP curriculum with
the ERP implementation success factors typically
mentioned in research literature, there appear to be
several gaps where the learning outcomes may not
address the success factors.
This paper aims to compare the normative
research on suggested skills outcomes of ERP
curriculum with research into the factors associated
with ERP implementation success. The goal of this
paper is to determine if the skills that are typically
prescribed for ERP educational programs can be
mapped to ERP implementation success factors
and if there are other skills required for success
that are not receiving enough focus in today’s ERP
curricula.
2. ERP Job Skills and ERP
Implementation Success Factors
In the late 1990s, there was a shortage of workers
with ERP related skills [9,10]. As organizations
worked to implement these complex systems,
university business schools became increasingly
interested in incorporating ERP education into
school curriculum [5]. With the growing demand
for ERP skills and the growing dominance of
the technology in industry, it only seemed fitting
that business schools adjust to the changing
needs. The ERP vendors were also encouraged
by academia’s interest in ERP curriculum, as they
felt that academic theory and ERP practice would
further the development of their products. To this
end, in 1996 SAP created their Academic Alliance
Program to promote the use of ERPs within
universities. Today, ERP curriculum has been
widely adopted in academia for over a decade
[11].
Probing the Gaps between
ERP Education and ERP
Implementation Success
Factors
S. Mohamed, T. S. McLaren
Available online www.enterprise-syst ms.net
AIS Transactions on Enterprise Systems 1 (2009) 1, 8-14

S. Mohamed: Probing the Gaps between ERP Education and ERP Implementation Success Factors
91867-7134 © GITO mbH
There has been a number of studies documenting
how best to incorporate ERP curriculum in
academic education. For example, research has been
conducted to determine the best format for ERP
content delivery: specific ERP package training,
business process knowledge in relation to ERPs,
Information Systems (IS) concepts using ERP, or
teaching general ERP issues and concepts [5]. In
general, the direction of curriculum can be placed
into four distinct schools of thought: ERP Training,
ERP via Business Processes, Information Systems
Approach and ERP concepts. The fifth school of
thought is a combination of the other four schools
of thought known as the Hybrid Approach [9].
Of specific importance to this paper are the
numerous studies that look at the specific ERP
skills that recent graduates require according to
industry needs [5, 6, 9-11]. In analyzing these
studies a comprehensive list of skills that have been
identified as most important to the success of a
graduate entering into implementations or support
of ERP systems can be compiled.
There has also been an extensive amount of
research on the drivers of success in relation to ERP
implementations. Many organizations have reported
great success with the implementation of an ERP
system while others have suffered difficulties in
aligning ERPs with practiced
business processes [1]. This
paper argues that there
have also been difficulties
in aligning ERP educational
outcomes (skills) with ERP
implementation success
factors.
2.1. Skills Required
by ERP Graduates
Various studies have
attempted to define the
educational outcomes that are
likely to be most important
for imparting ERP graduates
with the skills required for
successfully working with
ERPs [5, 6, 9-11]. Boyle &
Strong (2006) synthesized
many of the prior studies
along with additional survey-
based research to categorize
the key skills required by
ERP graduates into five
main categories: ERP
Technical Knowledge, Technology Management
Knowledge, Business Functional Knowledge,
Interpersonal Skills and Team Skills [5]. The key
skills in each category are summarized in Table 1.
These skills encompass a full ERP implementation
from back-end to front-end skill sets, from general
systems knowledge to specific ERP Knowledge,
from Technical to Business Knowledge, and from
Personal to Team knowledge.
In the ERP Technical Knowledge category a
graduate is expected to be competent in general
information technology basics such as systems
analysis and data management. Also a wide range
of ERP skills are listed as important from back-
end technical knowledge of hardware to front-end
knowledge in end-user computing support. In the
Technology Management category skills listed
are ones that should allow graduates to have an
understanding of how ERP systems can be used
to meet the strategic goals of the organization [5].
Skills from the Business Functional Knowledge
category are especially useful to have knowledge
in as ERP systems integrate all aspects of the
entire organization [4]. ERPs are based on
business processes, but business processes rely
on an understanding of business functions [5],
and thus enhances the importance of skills in this
Skills Category Required Skills for ERP Education
ERP Technical
Knowledge
*ERP Administration
*Networks
*Operating systems
*Systems Analysis
*Systems Design/Integration
*Systems Life Cycle Management
*Relational Databases
*ERP related programming language
*Data Management
*Decision Support Systems
Technology
Management
Knowledge
*Knowledge of ERP Concepts
*Ability to learn new technologies
*Ability to focus on technology as a means, not an end
*Ability to understand technological trends
Business
Functional
Knowledge
*Knowledge of Business Functions
*Willingness to learn in detail a specific business functional area
*Ability to quickly understand the needs of customers
*Ability to understand the business environment
*Ability to interpret business problems
*Ability to develop appropriate technical solutions to business problems.
Interpersonal
Skills
*Ability to deal with uncertainty
*Ability to accomplish assignments
*Ability to write coherently
*Ability to learn
*Ability to deliver effective presentations
*Ability to be proactive
*Ability to be sensitive to organizational culture
*Ability to teach others
Team Skills *Ability to work cooperatively in a team environment
*Understanding of group dynamics
*Ability to plan projects
*Ability to lead projects
Table 1: Required ERP Skills for ERP Education (Adapted from Boyle & Strong, 2006)

10 AIS Transactions on Enterprise Systems 1 (2009) Vol. 1
S. Mohamed: Probing the Gaps between ERP Education and ERP Implementation Success Factors
category.
The skills in
the interpersonal
category are
critical for a new
graduate as it is
important for
them to be able to
articulate ideas
to clients and
members inside
and out of direct
project teams
[5]. Recent research has shown the importance
of both interpersonal and communication skills.
The importance of solid technical skills is not to
be disputed but rather research is acknowledging
that soft skills also play a very important role in
effectively working in a IS environments [10].
Team Skills Category focuses on skills needed
to be effective members or managers of an IT team.
From an individual’s perspective one must be able
to work collaboratively in a team environment
[5]. From a managerial perspective, team skills
are required to reinforce effective leadership and
planning. Leadership and Planning can be rolled
up and discussed as Project Management skills.
In prior research, Project Management skills
have been ranked as one of leading skills to have
when working on ERP Implementations. In fact
Project Management ranked, by importance, as
the number one skill among non-technical skills
and number two among technical skills [10].
2.2. Success Factors for ERP
Implementation
There has
been a significant
amount of
research into the
factors that are
believed to lead
to successful ERP
implementations
[1-3, 6-8, 12-14].
Although each
research paper
presents a slightly
different view on
how successful
implementations
are evaluated,
there is a general
convergence in many of the factors which
determine the success or failure of an ERP
implementation (which we refer to as “success
factors”).
Bingi et al. (1999) identified ten critical
implementation concerns that should be addressed
before implementations begin [4]. The ten concerns
are as follows: Top Management Commitment,
Reengineering, Integration, ERP Consultants,
Implementation Time, Implementation Costs,
ERP Vendors, ERP employee selection, Training
Employees and Employee Morale [4]. Their
analysis suggests the most significant ERP
implementation success factors include people-
related issues such as: employee morale,
employee training, employee selection, and senior
management commitment.
Wu & Wang (2006) identified three critical
dimensions that summarize a user’s satisfaction in
the ERP implementation: ERP System Products,
User knowledge and Involvement and ERP Project
Team and Service. [14] As this paper is not
concerned with how to select the appropriate ERP
system, the first category, ERP System Product,
Category Name General Description Associated Criteria
User Knowledge
and Involvement
Refers to the
knowledge and
involvement of
employees
*Training
*System understanding
*User understanding
*Top management involvement
*Documentation
ERP Project Team
and Service
Pertains to end-user
relationships with
internal ERP project
team
*Interaction, association and conduct between ERP Project team and
end-users
*Communication with ERP project team and end-users
*Domain knowledge and expertise exhibited by project team
*Willingness and Commitment of ERP project team to support and
assist user adoption of the ERP system
Table 2: User Satisfaction Criteria for Successful ERP Implementations (Adapted from Wu & Wang,
2006)
Technical Problems Non-technical Problems
Team leader was not enough of an expert in the
functioning of ERP systems
Team leader did not lead team effectively
Members wanted a team leader that understood all the
business functions and how data elements flowed
through the system
Team leader unable to bring team members together
Team leaders concerned with lack of support from upper
management
No additional compensation for extra work required.
Older associates resisted ERP implementation
Older associates unwilling to adapt to change in tasks or
responsibility
IT department resisted ERP because they did not want to
administer a system where they did not have full control
IT department unhelpful in adjustment of task (i.e.,
refusal to reprogram standard reports leaving SQL work
to individual members)
Table 3: Problems in Failed ERP implementation (Adapted from Furumo & Melcher, 2006)

S. Mohamed: Probing the Gaps between ERP Education and ERP Implementation Success Factors
111867-7134 © GITO mbH
will not be evaluated further. The two remaining
dimensions along with their general descriptions
and associated criteria are listed and explained in
Table 2.
Furumo & Melcher (2006) is an example
of research into failed ERP implementations.
Results from this study indicated that the failure
had nothing to do with the ERP product itself,
but rather the organizations social structure [8].
Problems voiced from team members of this failed
project are summarized in Table 3. The majority
of the complaints were related to changes in roles
and tasks rather than issues with the technology
itself [8] (Table 3).
Similarly, Al-Mashari & Al-Mudimigh (2003)
identified five main factors that led to the failure
of an ERP implementation. The five areas of
concern were: Managing Scope Creep, Lack
of Ownership, Lack of Change Management,
Lack of Communication, Lack of Performance
Measures and Isolation of IT from business affairs
[1]. From this list it is shown that once again,
the actual ERP system or any technical aspects
were involved with the failed implementation.
Recommendations from this study identified five
core competencies for effective implementations.
The top three are as follows: Change strategy
development and deployment, Enterprise-wide
Project Management and Change Management
techniques and tools [1].
The preceding papers illustrate the success
factors typically identified in ERP implementation
success factors research. Collectively, these
papers can provide a clear picture of what it
takes to work successfully with ERP systems
and have a successful ERP implementation. A
consistent theme is that the factors associated with
failure or success of a system is related both to
the technical and organizational aspects of ERP
implementations (see Table 4).
Although it may appear that the findings
support the opinion that the importance of
technical versus non-technical factors for
successful implementations is about equal, in
fact the non-technical aspects are mentioned
much more frequently and in numerous articles
compared with the technical factors. This has
to do with the fact that ERPs are now quite
robust from a technology standpoint while ERP
project success or failure is more often related to
the ability of the organization to accommodate
the necessary changes to business processes
organizational structure [2,12] (Table 4).
3. Gap Analysis between ERP Job
Skills and ERP Success Factors
As mentioned earlier, the purpose of this paper
is to determine if the skills being taught to ERP
graduates are the ones that are most valued in
Technical Factors
Reengineering Business Processes (Bingi et al., 1999)
Integration of Data and functional areas (Bingi et al., 1999)
Engaging ERP Consultants (Bingi et al., 1999)
Implementation TimeLine (Bingi et al., 1999)
Implementation Costs (Bingi et al., 1999; Hawking et al. 2004)
Selecting ERP Vendor (Bingi et al., 1999)
ERP System Understanding from employees (Wu & Wang, 2006)
Domain knowledge and expertise exhibited by
project team
(Wu & Wang, 2006)
Strong Business Function Knowledge (Furumo & Melcher, 2006)
Strong ERP specific Knowledge (Furumo & Melcher, 2006)
Enterprise-wide Project Management (Al-Mashari & Al-Mudimigh, 2003)
Managing Scope Creep (Al-Mashari & Al-Mudimigh, 2003)
Organizational Factors
Top Management Commitment and Involvement (Bingi et al., 1999; Furumo & Melcher, 2006; Wu & Wang,
2006; Al-Mashari & Al-Mudimigh, 2003)
Identify Performance Measures (Al-Mashari & Al-Mudimigh, 2003)
Adjusted Performance Rewards (Furumo & Melcher, 2006)
ERP employee selection (Bingi et al., 1999)
Training Employees (Bingi et al., 1999; Wu & Wang, 2006)
Employee Morale (Bingi et al., 1999)
Strong Change Management (Al-Mashari & Al-Mudimigh, 2003)
User Understanding (Wu & Wang, 2006)
System Documentation (Wu & Wang, 2006)
Lack of Employee And Department Resistance (Furumo & Melcher, 2006)
Table 4:
Factors
Related to
Successful
ERP Imple-
mentations

12 AIS Transactions on Enterprise Systems 1 (2009) Vol. 1
S. Mohamed: Probing the Gaps between ERP Education and ERP Implementation Success Factors
successful ERP implementations. Therefore, we will
now analyze our finding on the skills being taught
in ERP curriculum with the key factors for success
we analyzed in the second half of the paper. Figure
1 is a graphical representation of the five main skills
categories from Table 1, drawn with lines connecting
the skills to the associated success factors from Table
4. A solid line represents a success factor that was
exactly listed in one of the skill sets, representing
a direct match. A dotted line represents a critical
success factor that would logically fit within that
skills category, but was not listed as a specific skill
in the skills list from Table 1.
The technical factors for ERP success directly
map to an identified skill category, as depicted
by the solid lines. As for the organizational or
non-technical factors for implementation success,
only two directly aligned, via solid lines, with
specific skills in the Interpersonal and Team skills
category. Skills are typically taught that would
allow graduates to Train employees and Write
clear documentation material. The Interpersonal
and Team Skills Category is also connected via
dotted lines to two other factors for success: Top
Management Commitment and Success as well
as ERP employee selection. These have been
made dotted lines based on a few assumptions.
First, graduates being taught ERP specific skills
both technical and organizational will be better
equipped to select other team members that
display the skill set needed to be successful.
Second, as many ERP graduates move directly
into implementation and support roles, they will
likely have greater influence on top management
to show the level of commitment expected from
employees. (Figure 1)
What is apparent from this chart is that there
are a number of success factors that do not map
directly or indirectly back to any of the four
skill categories mentioned. The following are all
success factors that do not link to any of the skills
categories: Department Resistance, Strong Change
Management, Performance Measures, Employee
Morale, Performance Rewards, and Employee
Resistance.
These ‘outcast’ success factors can in fact
be grouped into two separate areas of skill
deficiencies. The two groupings would be Change
StrongERPSpecific
Knowledge
Domainknowledgeand
expertiseexhibitedbyproject
team
StrongBusiness
FunctionKnowledge
ReengineeringBusiness
Processes
ERPSystem
Understanding
ERPemployee
selection
IntegrationofData
andfunctional
areas
TrainingEmployees
PerformanceRewards
PerformanceMeasures
TopManagement
Commitmentand
Involvement
EmployeeMorale
ChangeManagement
SystemDocumentation
OrganizationalResistance
EmployeeResistance
ERPSkills
Categories
Managing
ScopeCreep
EnterprisewideProject
Management
ERPSuccessFactors
withouta
Connectionto
RecommendedERP
JobSkills













Fig. 1: Authors’ Mapping of ERP Implementation Success Factors to ERP Job Skills

S. Mohamed: Probing the Gaps between ERP Education and ERP Implementation Success Factors
131867-7134 © GITO mbH
Management and People Management. Under
Change Management the following ‘outcast’
success factors would be grouped: Department
Resistance, Strong Change Management and
Employee Resistance. Under People Management
the remaining ‘outcast’ success factors would
be grouped: Performance Measures, Employee
Morale and Performance Rewards. This would
suggest that there is a current skills gap in ERP
education that does not adequately address Change
Management or People Management skills.
4. Conclusions and Discussion
This paper compares two streams of research
related to ERP educational outcomes and
ERP implementation success factors. Many of
the factors found to be associated with ERP
implementation success appear to be covered in
the normative research on desired job skills for
ERP training programs. However, a gap analysis
suggests several “soft skills” that are associated
with ERP implementation success factors are
typically overlooked. These success factors
require ERP education to place more emphasis
on Change Management, organizational and
employee resistance, and performance incentive
schemes.
This analysis would indicate that universities
offering ERP education re-evaluate their curriculum
to ensure that both Change Management and
People Management skills are being instilled into
their graduates, as both these areas present a large
number of non-technical aspects of successful
ERP implementations. Prior research has provided
us with a solid list of skills found to be most
important for ERP graduates. The breadth and
depth of these skills change based on the type of
curriculum and intensity of study. For example,
business students specializing in the ERP field
would be expected to display the majority of skills
listed in Table 1. Whereas a student studying
ERP as a course in an overall IS degree would be
expected to have much fewer ERP skills. Prior
research also documents critical success factors
for ERP implementations. These factors arise
from both successful implementations as well as
failed implementations, and they are summarized
in this paper to produce a list of areas that should
be address to ensure success.
This paper has attempted to reconcile the skills
that are currently recommended for graduates of
ERP training with the skills that are identified as
precursors to ERP success. Our analysis has shown
that technical factors for ERP success receive
adequate attention in the normative literature on
ERP curriculum design. Interpersonal and Team
skills receive similar attention; however, the
most significant gap appears to be in the areas of
Change Management and People Management
skills. These last two “soft skills” are frequently
emphasized in the literature on ERP success
factors, but are not as prominent in the literature
on ERP curriculum design. We suspect that,
in turn, many ERP educational programs do
not place much emphasis on these critically
important skills, perhaps because they require
students to have first become more proficient
in the more technical aspects of ERP. However,
as ERP technologies continue to mature and
become more standardized, configurable, and
commoditized, we argue that ERP education
should now divert some of its previous technical
focus onto the complex issues of ERP change
management and people management. While
ERP technical skills can easily be outsourced
to low cost service providers, ERP change
management and people management skills will
continue to be in high demand and command
premium wages in the job market. To remain
relevant, ERP education must continue to deliver
a mix of technical, business, managerial, and
interpersonal skills, but the relative emphasis on
each needs to be re-evaluated as the demand for
different skill sets evolves.
Our preceding analysis has some limitations.
First, in most curriculums, ERP courses are not
taught in isolation from other business courses.
It might be possible that these skills are being
delivered to graduates via other courses in the
program. Second, it is not feasible to create an
exhaustive list of all the skills delivered through
every ERP course. Our list of skills is only a
preliminary comparison of the most generic ERP
curricula. Regardless, there is a clear need for
ensuring the right skills are delivered in ERP
education. It is our hope that this paper will
stimulate further assessment of ERP curricula and
lead to new insights into how we can more closely
align excellence in ERP implementations with
excellence in ERP education.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Barry Au, the
editorial board, and the anonymous reviewers for
their assistance and suggestions for improving
this manuscript.

14 AIS Transactions on Enterprise Systems 1 (2009) Vol. 1
S. Mohamed: Probing the Gaps between ERP Education and ERP Implementation Success Factors
References
[1] Al-Mashari, M., & Al-Mudimigh, A. (2003).
ERP implementation: Lessons from a case study.
Information Technology & People, 16(1), 21-33.
[2] Aladwani, A. M. (2001). Change management
strategies for successful ERP implementation. Business
Process Management Journal, 7(3), 266-275.
[3] Amoako-Gyampah, K. (2004). ERP implementation
factors: A comparison of managerial and end. Business
Process Management Journal, 10(2), 171-183.
[4] Bingi, P., Sharma, M. K., & Godla, J. (1999). Critical
issues affecting an ERP implementation. Information
Systems Management, 16(3), 7-15.
[5] Boyle, T. A., & Strong, S. E. (2006). Skill
requirements of ERP graduates. Journal of Information
Systems Education, 17(4), 403-412.
[6] Esteves, J. and V. Bohorquez (2007). An Updated
ERP Systems Annotated Bibliography: 2001-2005.
Communications of the Association for Information
Systems (19)18, 386-446.
[7] Ferratt, T. W., Ahire, S., & De, P. (2006). Achieving
success in large projects: Implications from a study of
ERP implementations. Interfaces, 36(5), 458.
Gronau
Ordering in every bookshop or direct on
Tel. ++49(0)30/419383-64, Fax ++49(0)30/419383-67, E-Mail service@gito.de
Stantchev, Vladimir
Architectural Translucency
Web services are emerging as a dominating
technology for providing and combining func-
tionality in distributed systems. A serviceorien-
ted architecture (SOA) offers native capabili-
ties to deliver and use these services, such as
publication, discovery, selection and binding.
The concept of composite and business ser-
vices is introduced on top of them. It governs
the way applications are developed from basic
services. There are two basic aspects or a suc-
cessful service offering: to provide the needed
functionality and to provide the needed Qua-
lity of Service (QoS). Architectural translu-
cency evaluates QoS aspects of SOA using an
internal view. Contrary to typical architecture
concepts that defi ne components and con-
nections between them, this book deals with
the system levels involved in delivering of ser-
vices, particularly the operating system and the
middleware. Dynamic reconfi guration at these
levels offers an opportunity to impact the sy-
stem properties in the most advantageous way.
2008. 226 p. Paperback,
44,80 EUR,
ISBN 978-3-940019-47-9
Expertise for Practice
En
te
rp
ri
se
A
rc
hi
te
ct
ur
e
Maximilian Ahrens
Marten Schönherr
(Editors)
Series
Enterprise Architecture
Service Oriented Modeling
1st International Workshop on Service Oriented Modeling
Volume 5
Ahrens, Maximilian
Schönherr, Marten (Ed.)
Service Oriented Modeling -
1st International Workshop on
Service Oriented Modeling
In the last few years both Scientists and Prac-
titioners have been discussing the issue of Ser-
vice Oriented Architectures (SOA). Modeling
the business processes is the fi rst step to for-
malize (functional and non-functional) service
requirements. BPEL as an executable model
and the dominant standard in the SOA mo-
deling discipline does not cover all aspects of
business process modeling. Modeling business
requirements using notations apart of BPEL the
process models have to be transformed to exe-
cutable formal models which are necessary to
orchestrate services in subject to fulfi ll defi ned
business requirements. Further aspects as ser-
vice life-cycles, roles and service management
issues need to be considered.
2006. 109 p. Paperback,
29,80 EUR,
ISBN 978-3-936771-82-4
Vladimir Stantchev
Reihe
Enterprise Architecture
Band 8
Architectural Translucency
[8] Furumo, K., & Melcher, A. (2006). The importance of
social structure in implementing ERP systems: A case
study using adaptive structuration theory. Journal of
Information Technology Cases and Applications, 8(2),
39-58.
[9] Hawking, P., McCarthy, B., & Stein, A. (2004). Second
wave ERP education. Journal of Information Systems
Education, 15(3), 327-332.
[10] Kim, Y., Hsu, J., & Stern, M. (2006). An update on
the IS/IT skills gap. Journal of Information Systems
Education, 17(4), 395-402.
[11] Sager, J., Mensching, J., Corbitt, G., & Connolly,
J. (2006). Market power of ERP education-an
investigative analysis. Journal of Information Systems
Education, 17(2), 151-161.
[12] Skok, W., & Döringer, H. (2001). Potential impact of
cultural differences on enterprise resource planning
(ERP) projects. EJISDC, 7(5), 1-8.
[13] Willcocks, Leslie P. and Richard Sykes (2000).
“The Role of the CIO and IT Function in ERP.”
Communications of the ACM 43(4): 32-38.
[14] Wu, J. H., & Wang, Y. M. (2006). Measuring ERP
success: The ultimate users’ view. International Journal of
Operations & Production Management, 26(8), 882-903.