Most organisations, large and small, now buy and customise software (such as ERP, CRM, and SCM systems) rather than build systems internally from scratch. Therefore, the importance of managing the selection, implementation, and commissioning of significant software projects is extremely high. Enterprise Systems in the Digital Business Era projects involving such software usually brings huge changes to business processes and organisational structure, and careful management of the change processes is critical to the success of what are usually very expensive and organisation critical projects.

This course deals with issues of managing such software projects with lectures, a group project, and hands-on practicals on the latest SAP Enterprise systems - S/4 Hana. The practicals do not require programming language skills. The course is mainly about Enterprise systems, which is an industrial standard internationally, particularly for any mid-sized to large organisations. The SAP ERP system, which is the most widely adopted enterprise system by major business in 200 countries, is used in the practicals to provide hands-on experience and to build experiences and familiarity with the user interface. The content is not about the enjoyment of software but to know what would be in the real complicated industrial situation and thus to prepare for entering the job markets.

DIGIB304 is offered in FLEXI mode this trimester.

The lectures will be available online in FLEXI mode. Interactive class discussions will be conducted in the on campus labs, while practice can be done in the labs as well as by remote lab access and the web interface. It is essential to have access to the lab materials in order to learn the content. For students taking the paper in FLEXI mode please note that due to the nature of the computer software that is used, the level of support provided is not as comprehensive for students who are not able to attend physical (on campus) labs.

Materials are available via Moodle, released before the online lecture and lab hours. Students are expected to use the material provided through the course only as a starting point and are expected to take on the responsibility to practice and learn from other related sources to develop both their self-understanding of the topic areas. Unless you have previous practical SAP ERP experience in the industry, the online lecture is essential for you to understand what you are doing in the lab and to prepare for the assessments. You are expected to take initiative and responsibility for your own self-learning.

The paper involves practical labs and the ongoing works from Week 1 are checked by the lab tutor as part of the assessment. Thus, students are expected to go through all class materials from Week 1 and we highly recommend enrolment in the paper before the commencement of the trimester to benefit the most from the expected learning processes.

A student can do the practice anytime in the lab or via remote lab access but practical questions are normally answered via the dedicated lab hours on-site. Lab issues usually require close help from the lab tutor, so it can be difficult to solve a particular problem via remote distance, such as an email. It is also encouraged that you can discuss and learn from your group mates to synthesise the learning experiences. Periodically, the lab tutor will check system records for each student's progress for assessments.

Labs are the practical sessions to use SAP S/4 HANA. The labs are mainly designed for practices while the background explanation is in the lectures.

Lab A and B are for the on campus lab sessions and synchronised Zoom sessions for Q&A.

Every student can register to participate in a lab via Moodle. Lab arrangement will be finalised in the first week and the details will be provided in Moodle. This will be your dedicated lab session for on site lab support. For anyone who needs extra support, please let the tutors know in Week 1 or 2.

While the tutors can try to reply to your questions via email, please note that due to the complexity of the software, tutors can mainly help with resolving SAP problems on campus. This is because they have to see your process of works on the screens in order to find out the possible problems. In any case, they can provide you the directions to diagnosis the problem. Therefore, try to be careful in the exercise. As long as caution is placed in the steps, the tasks should be smooth. In most cases, if you get stuck in a step, it can be resolved by checking previous steps to see if there are any missing inputs/wrong figures.