An exploratory study of the key skills for entrylevel erp employees

This research identifes the key skills (e.g., business, team, communication) that industries expect for entry level positions involving enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Based on a review of the literature, a number of possible core skills that ERP entry level employees should possess are identifed. To identify the relative importance of these specifc skills, a web-based survey involving IT professionals from 105 organizations is conducted. Analyzing the fndings using exploratory factor analysis and scale reliability analysis indicates four specifc and signifcant factors representing the major key skills that industry expects from entry level ERP positions labeled for this study such as systems analysis and integration, team skills, project management, and business and application understanding. Various common technical skills (e.g., programming, networks) were found to be signifcantly less important than the business and team skills. This study should assist companies in developing criteria for evaluating potential candidates for entry level positions in ERP systems, as well as universities for evaluating the relevancy of their IT and Business programs.