TEACHING

 

Management of Enterprise Resource Planning and Interorganizational Information Systems

For this module, there will be no lectures in the Winter term of 2023 / 2024 due to a sabbatical of Prof Reimers. However, materials for self-study are made available to interested students and a written exam will be offered. Also, the accompanying software tutorial, in which you will acquire a basic familiarity with ERP systems, will be held regularly. Since there are no lectures, student presentations that regularly count for 30% of the final grade will also not be held. As a result, the grade of the written exam will account for 80% of the total grade for this module in the Winter term of 2023 / 2024 with the remaining 20% determined by the results of e-tests for the accompanying software tutorial. Both the written exam and the software tutorial, must be passed in order to obtain the credits for this course.

If you would like to take the exam, please contact us at kirchhoff@wi.rwth-aachen.de so that we can register you for Moodle. In this way, course resources offered in the Winter term of 2022 / 2023 will be made available to you, including audio recordings of the lectures in that term. If you decide to take the exam, you have to register for it on RWTHonline separately before the due date. You will also have to register separately for the accompanying software tutorial on RWTHonline since this will be offered regularly.

Teaching resources also include a forum, assigned literature, and lecture slide from the last term. The forum makes available answers to questions students have had in past terms. Please note, however, that, due to the sabbatical of Prof. Reimers, the forum will not be actively maintained in this coming Winter term. The assigned literature and the lecture slides of the last term can be downloaded from Moodle and we also offer to prepare a reader which includes all mandatory literature as a hard copy. This could be useful as the written exam will be held as an open book exam so that all materials printed on paper can be taken to the exam. If you would like to buy a reader, which we sell at production cost for us, please contact arslan@wi.rwth-aachen.de.

If you decide to participate in the written exam, please keep in mind that your preparation for the exam must rely solely on your own study. There will be no ‘live’ support such as answering emails or questions in the forum!


Credits & contact hours

The module consists of a two-hour lecture and a two-hour tutorial. (V2Ü2)
CP (Credit Points): 5 (including tutorial), 6* (including tutorial and colloquium)

*) Only for students of Computer Science

 


Degree programmes

Business Administration (M.Sc.) General Core Elective Section
Specialized Core Elective Section: Specialization in Corporate Development and Strategy
Specialized Core Elective Section: Specialization in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Marketing
Management, Business and Economics
(M.Sc.)
Core Elective Section: Specialization in Corporate Development and Strategy
Core Elective Section: Specialization in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Marketing
Core Elective Section: Specialization in General Management
Business Administration and Engineering (M.Sc.) General Core Elective Section
Specialized Core Elective Section: Specialization in Corporate Development and Strategy
Specialized Core Elective Section: Specialization in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Marketing
Mathematics (M.Sc.) Subsidiary Subject Business Administration
Computer Science (M.Sc.) Applied Courses: Business Administration (6 CP with Colloquium)

 


Course description

Organizational information systems have been built and used for more than 50 years. Throughout this period, such systems have steadily grown in complexity and size. While initially systems were developed for individual workers and then individual functional departments, today’s systems often integrate all enterprise functions from procurement to after-sales and from concept to marketing in one single database. Such systems are called Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Moreover, information systems increasingly cross organizational boundaries in that information systems of several organizations are integrated into so-called inter-organizational information systems (IOIS).

Due to their complexity and size, all but the largest user organizations find it beyond their capability to develop the software required for these systems themselves. Therefore, increasingly so-called off-the-shelf software is used to provide the core functionality around which organizational information systems are built by configuring the software and by embedding it in organizational procedures and practices and also by adding customized software components. This process is called system implementation.

Using teaching cases, students will analyse real-life situations where implementation processes of ERP-Systems and IOIS foundered or have been managed exceptionally well. Students will have to present cases in class, preferably in teams, in which they also offer an initial analysis of the cases that serves as a basis for further class discussions.

In the tutorials, students will use an open-source ERP package to become familiar with the basic functionality of such systems as well as their administration and configuration. Students will also have to attend this tutorials and participate in online tests to ensure a basic competence in the use of ERP software.


Learning objectives

  1. Students will recognize and appreciate the specific managerial requirements related to the implementation of such large information systems
  2. Students will be able to develop effective implementation strategies and evaluate implementation results
  3. Students will understand the structure and basic principles of ERP software, be able to configure an ERP system, and to perform simple transactions
  4. Will have acquired a critical attitude towards case material

Course dates

Lecture

Tutorial

Written examination (see "Prüfungstermine")

 


Online Ressources

Course material will be made available on RWTHmoodle. You will have to register for this lecture in RWTHonline to access course material on RWTHmoodle.

We also have a seperate Forum - Forum LuF WI. You can find our courses and discussed topics here. Please follow the registration process.