CMU Business Students World Champs In ERP Competition

MT. PLEASANT (WWJ) -- Four SAP business management software students from the Central Michigan University College of Business Administration are world champions after winning the fifth annual International ERPsim Competition last week.

CMU's team competed against teams from 156 universities from around the world to qualify for the final round. Ten teams from universities such as Colorado State University, Purdue University and Universitas Islam Indonesia competed virtually from their campuses.

CMU team members Ashley Hall of Taylor, Ryan Vanneste of Washington Township, Jeremiah Primeau of Auburn and Nicole Ladouceur of Escanaba won CMU's first annual ERPsim Invitational competition on campus this spring. Consumers Energy sponsored the team at CMU's competition.

ERPsim is a simulated competition replicating a high-stress business environment. During the competition, students run their business using SAP, the world's leading business enterprise software. More than 38,000 companies in 120 countries, as well as 850 of the Fortune 1,000 companies, use the software. CMU is a world leader in SAP certification.

The championship event was hosted by the ERPsim Lab at HEC Montreal, one of Canada's leading business schools.

"To be successful you have to want it as much as you want to breathe," Vanneste said after the competition. "As a team, we were at that point today. We wanted to be successful that much."

College of Business Faculty Dana McCann said the simulation brings together every aspect of business.

"This experience is not just teaching students how to use SAP software," said McCann. "They're learning about the integration of all the business processes and the impact all business disciplines have on running a company and how one decision can affect the whole organization."

The four students each received a $500 scholarship from the College of Business Administration.

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