OVERCOMING ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS EDUCATION

DEFICIENCY

A Simulated Laboratory Pedagogic Approach

A. D. Jaffar, P. R. J. Campbell and F. Ahmed

College of Information Technology, UAE University, U.A.E.

Keywords: Enterprise systems, Enterprise resource planning, Simulated business enterprise laboratory.

Abstract: Despite various initiatives concerning undergraduate industrial internship, students from the Enterprise

(Information) Systems and E-Commerce tracks (Programs) within the College of Information Technology,

United Arab Emirates University lack sufficient exposure and knowledge of the basic operations within a

typical business enterprise. By and large, their internship programs lack focused activities due to student

insufficient knowledge of enterprise organizational operations. Case studies supporting theoretical

foundation within most enterprise systems or information systems related courses, lack realistic student

learning experiences and therefore fail to impact in-depth concept articulation. While students are aware of

advancement in technology, their appreciation on its extensive application and capabilities leading to

effective organizational competitive advantage is superficial. Rather than mere concept appreciation in

lectures, supported by Microsoft Dynamics Navison business enterprise systems application, students’

practical laboratory simulation of typical enterprise operations provided the much-needed realism in

experiencing real-life enterprise operations. Students’ problem-based active learning experience on core

enterprise operations typified in small-medium size Electronic-Enterprises were initially incorporated within

selected basic courses. Positive student feedbacks on its impact to their learning outcomes encourage further

extension of such initiative to other courses within the program track. An accompanying SWOT analysis on

this approach indicated that the beneficial opportunities outweigh the potential threat of not implementing

this initiative. This paper presents the research approach for identifying the problem in students learning,

soliciting its research hypothesis and the eventual proposed Enterprise Systems Laboratory Framework in

overcoming the identified research problem. It also discussed an overall future program plan as an extension

to the proposed framework. This includes active industrial partnership beyond regular student internship to

enhance further students learning experience as well as preparing them for potential employment.

1 INTRODUCTION

As a nation very much dependent on its wealth in oil

production, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is

progressively developing into an economic

powerhouse due to its stable and viable nationhood

that supports its growing industries. Within 10 years,

from a mere desert state, the nation’s vision of being

a leading regional hub for countries within the Gulf

Corporation Council in particular, is evolving at a

tremendous speed. This outpaced the norms

experienced by most other developing countries.

This is made possible with the influx of foreign

expertise to facilitate and hasten its progress. A

major drawback though, is in the capabilities and

readiness of its own people (Emirati nationals) to

learn and absorb modern work ethics and

professionalism as practiced in the western and far

eastern part of the world. They are very much

embedded within their own tradition and very much

conservative work practices. Due to the nation

intention in prioritizing it’s nationals employment

status (Emiratization Program), young Emirati

graduates are placed into management positions

without significant exposure to life experiences,

living in a structured yet formalized modernity that

is common within an industrialized society. They

have yet to experience the industrial revolutions of

past eras, which shaped the mentality, and working

attitude that the foreign expertise brings. While it is

arguable for such needs, such mentality and

experiences are essence in the infrastructure and

operations of today’s modern enterprise, worldwide.

These enterprises computerized their operations by

513

D. Jaffar A., R. J. Campbell P. and Ahmed F. (2010).

OVERCOMING ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS EDUCATION DEFICIENCY - A Simulated Laboratory Pedagogic Approach.

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Computer Supported Education, pages 513-520

DOI: 10.5220/0002866505130520

 SciTePress

optimizing extensive use of advance technology to

achieve globalised competitive advantage.

The local educational system is in the frontline in

facilitating such rapid progress. While technology

can be imported, mental development and work

ethics through education is an evolutionary process

that requires nurturing within the appropriate

environment. Traditional lecturing approaches are

employed within the College of Information

Technology (CIT), United Arab Emirates

University. However, these approaches need to be

reconsidered in order to incorporate the use of

innovative technology, moving away from reliance

on strictly theoretical concept appreciation (Bradford

et.al, 2003; Antonucci et.al, 2004). Western case

studies incorporated in active and collaborative

learning methods without the use of advance

technology is insufficient to equip Emirati graduates

with enterprise operational readiness. Furthermore,

most of the western industrial practices typified

within these case studies have yet to become

commonplace experiences in UAE. There is a need

to better prepare graduates beyond the theoretical

concept by incorporating industrial operational

experiences equipped with application of advance

technology within a simulated classroom

environment (Joseph & George, 2002). Its

effectiveness can be further optimized by

incorporating a direct partnership with local

industries that are using similar technology. While a

generic industrial internship is a practice within

higher educational institutions, such industrial

interaction and collaboration should be based on an

objective specific course learning outcome. Such

outcome is directed at cross appreciation of theories

covered in lecture applied to a simulated scenario

based laboratory environment (Watson & Schneider,

1999; Johnson et.al, 2004). Finally, a more focused

internship of applying what has been learnt through

participation in a guided operation in the industry.

This paper will highlight the findings on

students’ apprehension in working with modern

enterprise, in particular private entities. It also

includes a SWOT analysis justifying the needs for

such changes in the education approach before

introducing the proposed framework to incorporate

simulated business enterprise as part of the core

laboratory learning outcome. This will proceed with

the initial evaluation on the implemented proposal

with a discussion section to project the research

future initiatives

2 EDUCATIONAL FACTORS

AFFECTING EMPLOYMENT

READINESS

A likert scale based survey that hypothesized

migration of IT skilled work force from foreign

countries into UAE for employment purposes

revealed the feeling of apprehension among majority

of the young Emirati graduating students in securing

employment within the private sector. The findings

highlighted factors favouring their employment

within their government ministries as their

responsibilities there are confined to addressing

domestic organization operational skills. Such an

environment is more accommodating than the

internationally dynamic and complex environment

characterized in typical globalized business

enterprise within the private sector. The surveyed

sample population consisted of graduating students

from the Information Systems and E-Commerce

tracks who are in their final semester. They were

specifically chosen because they form the majority

of student population within the College of

Information Technology who would most probably

find a job in relation to the use of Enterprise

Systems application within typical business

operations. While the survey main intention was to

solicit feedbacks on their preparedness to join the

workforce, among other things, it also revealed

needed improvement in their education system

especially towards assimilating them into privatized

business enterprise. Among the questions relevant to

this research were confined towards how well

students are trained with IT skills and their level of

confidence in using them. The latter focused on

whether their interest or expectation in acquiring IT

skills has changed from before they joined the

College of Information Technology as compared to

at the point of finishing their studies. Their

employment preference was correlated with these

questions to assert definite pattern of behaviour.

Other adjacent influencing factors affecting their

choices were also solicited.

The findings revealed that 61% of the surveyed

population did not believe that the various courses

taught while they were in the college of IT have

converted them to be an IT savvy. They believed

that it will take them at least another 5 years before

they are confident to be at the same level of IT skill

among the “imported” foreign expertise. Among the

population, 68% had a changed of interest in IT due

to various reasons. Among them, 63% of the male

students found difficulties in learning the subjects.

The findings recorded that 37% of the surveyed

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514

population blamed extensive lecturing on theoretical

concepts rather than hands-on practical

appreciations. Other accompanying reasons are poor

teaching techniques, lack of proper resources and

29% of the votes cited variety of dissatisfactions that

led to their changed of interest towards IT. A

question on whether IT courses taught will prepare

students for an IT career, revealed a worrying result

where 44% of the population were unsure of the

relevance and appropriateness of these course since

they could not associate the taught theoretical

fundamentals with what being applied in the

industry. Another 18% of the population strongly

agreed that majority of the courses have no

relevance to their choice of career path. The findings

also highlighted that male student could earned

better salary of more than 30% in Engineering and

Business related positions with a correlation of a

better employment career path in these sectors than

IT.

In preference towards employment, 84% wanted

to work in their government ministries instead of

private business enterprise. Among the reasons

correlated to the above findings are better salary

scales within the government sectors that have a

stable career path. In addition, such environment

adopts traditionally habituated working ethics

typically practice within Arab society that they can

associate themselves very well. On the contrary, the

private sectors are more prone towards a

cosmopolitan working atmosphere where majority of

the Emirati nationals is not familiar and not

comfortable with. In the age of globalised enterprise,

such former preference is very difficult to

accommodate. Most globalised enterprise would

optimize variety of expertise in a mixed male-female

and cross-culture environment. These have yet to be

well accepted within the UAE society. On another

extreme, cost of labor, particularly employees from

most Arab countries, Indian sub-continent and the

less developed central Asia are very low as

compared to the Western employee. Since much of

the enterprise operations within UAE are still

manually done adjacent to high cost for automation,

large majority of enterprises are less motivated to

fully innovate with advance technology.

These findings highlighted a need to revamp the

current pedagogic approach in preparing young

graduates for employment especially into a more

dynamic and versatile business enterprise

(Seethamraju, 2004a). There is a need to heightened

students appreciation and level of confidence

through extensive practical hands-on in IT

application usage and its capabilities beyond

textbook case studies. By assimilating students into

in-class real life enterprise application simulation of

various business case scenarios typified in local

business operations, would provide the realistic

appreciation and in-depth familiarity that will

facilitate their transition into the real world of

business enterprise. In addition, further alignment

with a focus internship programs, in-line with such

simulated exposure, can only elevate their self-

confidence, informed perceptions of enterprise

working environment as well as potentially achieve

a much effective internship experience. These called

for a new pedagogic approach in providing students

with such applied knowledge to better prepare them

for the real world. There is a need for a simulated

business enterprise laboratory to provide students

with such experiences.

3 SWOT ANALYSIS ON

SIMULATED ENTERPRISE

SYSTEMS LABORATORY

The proposal is to develop a business enterprise

systems laboratory to simulate typical business

enterprise operations. This laboratory will be

equipped with state of the art enterprise business

application suites together with relevant supporting

hardware. The learning outcome will be patterned to

simulate local enterprise business case scenarios for

student easy articulation of the given theoretical

concepts to be covered against its practical

applications.

The strength of this proposal is with a supportive

partnership with industries particularly providers of

the business enterprise application as well as

companies that are optimizing such application in

their enterprise operations. In-line with the above

objectives to resolve the identified problems, a full

sponsorship estimated at US$200K from Microsoft

Dynamics (Enterprise software application provider)

and Dynamic Vertical Solutions (Solution

Consultant) for developing this lab were solicited.

Simultaneously, a direct collaboration with

industrial partners who optimizes such application is

necessary to exploit an effective internship

programs. The sponsorship includes

hardware/software with licenses as well as

periodical consultation services to facilitate the lab

and course materials developments. In addition to

our external partner’s strength, the CIT Information

System (IS) track consists of a team of self

motivated teaching faculty members, strategizing

this initiative, its development and eventual

implementation. The potential weakness is without

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515

the consultant facilitation, the development time for

this initiative will be significantly long and

laborious.

The opportunities benefiting CIT students,

college and university, are not limited to students

exposure to the application of such technology; but

also the immersive learning experience of the

operational electronic-enterprise which compliment

the theoretical concepts. Students will participate

and experience firsthand a typical business

enterprise operation within the core functional areas

of Sales, Purchase, Accounting, Inventory as well as

Information Technology departments. They will be

progressively introduced to the various laboratory

modules that featured the numerous functionalities

within the enterprise application systems as used by

each department. Depth of coverage will be

intensified as student progress from core level

courses into the junior and subsequently senior level

courses. This will be mapped to the various course

learning outcomes as defined within each course

curriculum. The lab will also be progressively

extended to include all courses within IS track.

Potential senior students who have completed

significant number of laboratory modules will be

encouraged to attend free-of-charge professional

workshops and training sessions organized for

sponsors’ industrial partners. This will enhance

further their industrial exposure through networking

with participants from industry. Students will also be

encouraged to enroll for Microsoft Dynamics

certification where ever possible. CIT collaborations

with sponsors will also lead to student internship

with their industrial partners who adopt such

technology within their organizations. Such a

progressive pedagogical approach will also prepare

our students for potential employment with these

industrial partners. These benefits will provide

added value to the college as a whole and act as a

differentiator for the IS track when compared to

similar programs at other establishments.

The threat of not implementing the plan will

mean the above identified stigma will continue and

eventually the Emiratization initiative by the

government will be much longer to achieve. Failure

to implement this proposal may also lead to

continued reduction in student number and interest

in studying courses within the IS track. The long-

term impact, IT professional will remain to be

dominated by foreign talents instead of the local

Emirati workforce.

4 MICROSOFT VERTICAL

ENTERPRISE SYSTEM

LABORATORY

While it could be claimed that this proposed

pedagogic approach is nothing new, its essence is to

supplement taught IS theories with technical-cum-

hands-on experience for student in preparing them to

be IS specialist. Student learning experience is

categorised into 4 phases of Appreciating Business

Operations & its Application of IS/IT, Appreciating

Integrated E-Enterprise, IT Governance & Systems

Development and finally, Strategic Management of

IS/IT. This didactical design simulates a scenario of

student being employed by a Retail SME IT

department and progressively learning new IS/IT

skills throughout their 3 years studying within the

college. Student will be introduced to SME

functional operations which are aimed at providing

knowledge on how business operates. This includes

introduction to elementary application programming

and databases that typically support a computerised

business operations. Subsequently, an integrated

ERP will extend student appreciation towards an

electronic-Enterprise that optimises state-of-the-art

IS/IT. This is followed by various responsibilities

performed by an IT department in maintaining and

supporting organisation used of IS/IT. It will include

IT governance, analysis and design of user’s new

IS/IT requirements. The final phase emphasised on

how IS/IT can be aligned to support business

competitive advantage through business intelligence

for management purposes.

The developed Microsoft Vertical Enterprise

System Laboratory (MVESL) provided a simulation

environment depicting a typical real-life business

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) operation

within a medium size enterprise [Rosemann &

Watson, 2002; Hawking et.al, 2004). It will be

equipped with advance technology necessary to

operate an electronically integrated retail business.

The initial targeted students are from the

Information Systems and E-Commerce tracks within

the CIT. The lab can also be optimized by students

from the College of Business and Economics,

majoring in Business and Accounting and/or

Management Information systems. Based on guided

role-play, these students will be exposed to a typical

functional business operation simulating a day-to-

day transactional processing for such organization.

In rotation, student will perform scenario-guided

business activities typically done by employees in

various departments. They will optimize various IT

devices supported by Microsoft Dynamics Suite, in

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particular Dynamic Navison and its related business

applications in running these operations. Dynamics

Navison for retail industry has been chosen due to,

in a larger extend, student familiarity with such

enterprise operations especially whenever they visit

established supermarkets within UAE. This

laboratory could also be extended to include

business intelligence tools for managers to analyze

business information for the purpose of daily

operational as well as short-term decision-making

facilitating organizational strategic initiatives.

Figure 1: Hardware and Software Setup.

The vision of this laboratory, with the direct

support from Microsoft Dynamics and its Gold

Certified partner, Dynamic Vertical Solution Inc., is

to provide a simulated real-life integrated

Electronic-Enterprise business operation. With

guided facilitation from faculty members, students

can apply the various theoretical concepts covered in

lectures into a simulated IS/IT environment

essentially optimizing the full spectrum of Microsoft

Enterprise Resource Planning software and its

related supporting technologies. The targeted

benchmarks are to overcome the research identified

stigma with additional bonus of accrediting students

with specific Microsoft certification programs in-

line with the learning outcomes for this laboratory.

These can be achieved by addressing short-term and

long-term goals. Within the former, apart from

implementing the various supporting hardware and

software equipments (see Fig.1), specific training

sessions with a consultant from Microsoft partner

will train faculty members as trainers as well as help

to prepare laboratory syllabi for students’ practical

lab sessions. These sessions instruct on how various

theoretical concepts can be applied and

demonstrated within the various functionalities

featured in Microsoft Dynamic Navison. The long-

term goal is to revamp, in phases, the lab

components for all of the courses within both tracks

in line with the full spectrum of Microsoft Enterprise

software and related supporting hardware

technologies.

While the laboratory should not be vendor

driven, exposing student to a specific line of product

suites ease the complexity in different terminologies

and potentially business jargons advocated by

different vendors. The intended outcome is to

emulate an advanced and sophisticated business

environment for student to have a 1

hand

experience on Microsoft lines of products in

supporting business operations. In progression, the

building block (see table 1.) that frame student

learning will be initiated with the introduction of

business operations emphasizing the main roles and

responsibilities of each functional department within

a typical business enterprise setup.

Table 1: Proposed Laboratory Curriculums.

At this foundation level, student will be exposed

to introductory programming skills using Microsoft

.NET. Basic database concepts and the application

system back-end databases will also be introduced.

In addition, students will be exposed to basic

Dynamics Navison navigational GUI to provide

appreciation of typical IS application systems used

in an enterprise. Such combination provided the link

for student to appreciate the programming syntax, its

corresponding logic which supports the running of

the application interfaces that student see as well as

how data is being captured in the system back-end.

The junior level designed as laboratory tutorial, will

guide students with various elementary and

intermediary features and functionalities of the ERP

system as performed by the various departments.

Using the Dynamics Navision, student will be given

various business cases to perform. The tutorial is a

OVERCOMING ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS EDUCATION DEFICIENCY - A Simulated Laboratory Pedagogic Approach

517

step-by-step walkthrough laboratory exercises for

student to emulate the various business case

transactional activities. Such laboratory activities

will be mapped to the various theoretical concepts

covered in lectures. In their senior level, various

aspects of IT governance will be introduced. The

intention is to expose student to the core operation

within an IT department in maintaining such

systems. This will be followed by project based

system analysis and design to simulate extension of

new ERP functionalities as typically requested by

the various departments. The final phase involves

introducing business intelligence within the syllabi

by emphasizing various management reporting tools

and data mining analysis for tactical management

decision-making process.



Microsoft

Dynamics

Appreciate Basic

Business Ops

1 Lecture

Indv. Customer

Scenario Base

2 Lab Sessns

Pre-Sales

Quotation

Convert S/

Order

Checking

Inventory

Receive / Delivery

Prepare

Invoice

Update

Acc Receivable

S/Order

Processing

Prepare

P/Order

Receive / Delivery

Prepare

Invoice

Pre-Sales

Quotation

Checking

Inventory

Update

Acc Receivable

Elementary

ERP

(ITBP312)

Intermediary

ERP

(ISBP410)

Practical:

Multiple Scenario

Pre-Sales

Quotation

Inventory

Receive/Delivery

S/Order

Processing

Order

Receive / Delivery

Prepare

Invoice

Accounts:

Receivable &

Payable

P/Order on

Inventory

Mgt

Reporting

Figure 2: Sample Laboratory Details.

The Fig. 2 highlights sample breakdown

coverage for the selected courses that have been

implemented within the simulated laboratory. For

instance in the Elementary ERP module, supported

by business process workflows, student will

walkthrough a typical core business operation. This

will help them to appreciate the various transactional

activities necessary in performing for instance,

completing a sale cycle. Subsequently, in groups,

student will perform a tutorial based step-by-step

business operation with the Dynamic Navison

application software. Starting with simple master

record data-entries, student will progress into

processing sales order, record posting and Inventory

management. This will progress into a much

elaborated multiple scenario business cases at the

intermediary level.

Fig.3 projects the laboratory physical layout

resembling typical departments within a business

enterprise environment. These departments are

separated using office divider to encapsulate sub-

organizational activities that differs from that in

another department.

5 FRAMEWORK

IMPLEMENTATION

ANALYSIS

The lab implementation described above was

implemented during summer 2009 and deployed to

the first cohort of students during the Fall semester

of 2009. The first course to make use of the

laboratory was a senior level ERP (Enterprise

Resource Planning) course. The course had

previously been delivered in dual lab and lecture

mode, with the main focus being on the theoretical

application of ERP in a business enterprise.

The lab component of the course made use of ERP

vendor developed training material, which provided

a guided tutorial on various elements of ERP

functionality. As identified in literature it is this

process of successfully integrating applications such

as ERP into the curriculum that present the greatest

challenges for faculty and lab engineers [Fedorowicz

et.al, 2004; Seethamraju, 2004b].

The revised approach employed the MVESL to

immerse the students in a simulated business

environment. The cohort, consisting of 20 students

were divided into groups and assigned to initial

functional areas; accounting; sales; purchasing etc.

The students were then given a defined set of tasks,

which exposed them to the typical functions of each

area within the simulated business. During the

semester the students spend three weeks in each of

simulated departments generating data in each

department, which was then used by other groups in

the simulated environment. The immersion in the

virtual business environment allowed the students to

gain a more detailed understanding of how a retail

enterprise functions and to experience how data is

generated, managed and used with such an

enterprise.

Students performed a broad range of tasks

ranging from booking items into inventory, to

invoice matching, sales order processing and

supplier purchasing. Such experience could not have

been gained in a typical classroom setting and woul

have been difficult to achieve with industrial visits

or internship, given the live nature of business and

the inexperience of the students. The laboratory

component of the course was also expanded to cover

2 hours per week rather than the typical 1-hour and

as a result the lecture component of the course was

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518



Figure 3: Simulated Enterprise Systems Laboratory Layout.

reduced to 1 hour. The change in time division

between lecture and lab was made possible by the

transfer of material from lecture to lab. For example,

the discussion of the sales order process, from

enquiry through to order processing was moved the

lab component and rather then simply describing the

process students had to physically provide details for

a customer enquiry, price the quotation, process the

order and invoice the customer. As a result of this

simulation the students could physically see the

effect of their actions (relating to this sale) on the

enterprises inventory and accounts.

The lecture component of the course was used to

discuss the pure theoretical aspects of ERP and its

evolution. Lectures also provided opportunities for

students to examine case studies, which reinforced

the knowledge, which they had developed during

hands on sessions. A survey was conducted with the

cohort following completion of their studies and the

results indicated that students gained positive

experience in a number of key areas as a direct result

of the changes to the delivery style and

implementation of the MVESL. Table 2 below

shows the responses of students in relation to the

question “I am familiar with the business processes

performed by a typical sales department in a retail

SME setting”, indicating that students who

completed the course using the MVESL approach

felt more comfortable with the basic concepts and

operations of a sales department. These figures

correspond to over 60% of the respondents, who felt

they had a firm grasp of the business processes

involved. This compares to just 20% for students

who had taken the course during the previous two

years (2007-2008). Similar response rates where

recorded for all aspects of the business processes

covered in the ERP course.

Table 2: Sample MVESL Implementation Analysis.

2007/2008

Traditional Lecture

Approach

2009

MVESL Approach

Strongly Agree 2 4

Agree 10 13

Neutral 17 5

Disagree 11 2

Strongly Disagree 3 0

Total

Respondents

43 25

6 DISCUSSION

The previous sections of this paper have described

the problems faced in the providing enterprise based

education to students in the College of Information

Technology at the United Arab Emirates University

and the design and implementation of a laboratory to

equip students with an environment in which they

can develop an understanding of how a real

enterprise functions. The first cohort of students

have completed their education within the laboratory

and this section of the paper presents a discussion of

the lessons learnt as a result of this experiment.

Feedback from students indicates that they

gained a significant benefit from a more hands-on

immersive approach to the course and that perhaps

more importantly they enjoyed the process of

learning. Responses to the questionnaires from

2007-2008 students indicated that whilst they

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519

covered the lecture material and were aware of the

issues involved in ERP deployment in an enterprise,

they continued to struggle with the practicalities of

business processes. As educators we are able to

explain through textual and diagrammatic the sales

order process and the functional areas involved and

affected. However, it is only through practical

exposure that students are able to experience and

physically see the wide-ranging interactions within

the organization that a single business process

produces.

Students have gained significant insight into the

daily operation of an integrated IS and have

developed a more detailed understand of how

theoretical business processes are practically

implemented. Unlike a semester long internship

program, this approach strictly matched theoretical

coverage with the comprehensive simulated practical

skills acquired in lab throughout 3 years. Internship

program is not comprehensive enough to provide

such intended skills as acquired in the lab.

Furthermore, while some industrial partners

provided limited working exposure, most are

sceptical in students’ ability to perform and

contribute to their minimal level of expected

productivity. Mostly, students are given trivial

responsibilities that do not require much training and

attention yet fulfil the minimal internship

requirements. Henceforth, skills acquisition in such

simulated lab are far extensive than internship

programs.

The immediate future will extend the laboratory

usage to include Microsoft certification programs in-

line with the courses offered in Enterprise System as

well as Electronic Commerce (EC) Track throughout

students’ progression into their senior year. This will

prepare students for the necessary Microsoft

certification exams before their graduation. In due

time, we intend to introduce strategies which will

allow students in majors such as Business and

Accounting in the College of Business and

Economics, to avail of the laboratory and the data

which is generated from the lab sessions. This will

also incorporate professional courses for external

entities from industry for training opportunities that

may lead to further certification outcomes.

7 CONCLUSIONS

This paper presented an implementation of a virtual

enterprise in a university setting, with the aim of

equipping UAE National students with the required

level of hands-on skills and business practice

knowledge in order to be confident of their

successful integration into private sector

employment in the UAE. We highlighted the unique

challenges faced by national students when entering

the private sector, focusing on the barriers to their

entry. The design and implementation of the

MVESL was discussed and the initial results from

the first cohort of students studying under the new

conditions were presented. The results of the new

approach are encouraging and the authors believe

that sustained use of the facility will enable

Enterprise Systems students to flourish in the private

sector in subsequent years. The authors would like to

thank Microsoft (Gulf) and Dynamic Vertical

Solutions for their continued support of the MVESL

project.

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