Bridging the Gap of Education and the Requirements of the Business

Best practices in Business Information Systems recognize the importance of ERPs in supporting business processes in organizations, SAP solutions being a key player in enterprise applications for large companies. Impediments in managing SAP projects in multinational companies or autochthon companies in Romania have been identified, e.g. Lack of skills/training/education; Inadequate support from executives; Data is not integrated; Poor data quality; Inadequate support from business organizations; Inadequate access to data; Inadequate support from IT. Nowadays, beyond the SAP Basis modules, the enterprise applications are enriched with Business Intelligence solutions capable for advanced analysis and reporting. Therefore, the demand of specialists is highly required, companies beginning to act as promoters of a business oriented education. The demarche is developed based on a successful university-business collaboration materialized in the Master program in Business Information Systems organized by the West University of Timisoara, Romania. The rise of a global knowledge economy has intensified the need for strategic partnerships that go beyond the traditional cooperation between university and companies. Lessons learned from this successful project can contribute to the development of further similar projects in the area of business engagement with universities over skills and training.