Enterprise Resource Planning Systems and Their Impact on Development and Training: A Study of Instructional Methods in North America

One of the most important issues facing the modern world today is the Year 2000 problem. One of the greatest impacts of this problem is experienced by legacy computer systems. These are the database systems that run our businesses. Legacy systems are operated by segregated software packages that may or may not be able to communicate to each other. With the globalization of the economy, business computer systems need to be able to communicate with each other. This type of situation is what enterprise resource planning software is designed to solve. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems provide a common, consistent system to capture data organization-wide without redundancies. ERP is defined as a software management system that integrates all facets of the business, including planning, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. In addition to integrating the information across functions, also provides a set of tools for planning and monitoring the organizational functions and ensuring progress towards a common organizational goal (Sudhakar, 1998). As ERP methodology has become more popular, software applications have emerged to help business managers implement ERP. The purpose of this pilot study is to identify development times and delivery methods for high-level computer technology training. This has become an issue for Human Resource Development (HRD) because of the Year 2000 situation and its resulting issues, which have compelled businesses around North America to implement these ERP systems. After circulating a survey for almost seven month, the data collection period ended in March 1999. The response rate of 47 returned surveys from 63 requests calculates to 74.6%. A total of 34, or 72%, of respondents developed training programs for high-level computer technology