Big Sky Times

Five Montana Technological University students recently qualified for an international business competition after placing third out of 26 teams in the North American competition.

The SAP ERPsim International competition challenges students to use business software to run a simulated fast-paced and competitive marketplace for a virtual company, according to NBC Montana.

“I was just hoping our team would qualify to make it to the final round,” Associate Professor of Business, Rita Spear, said in a Montana Tech press release. “I couldn’t believe it when the final scoreboard was posted, and our team was in third place. I am incredibly proud of these students.”

More than 100 students from the United States and Canada participated in the 2023 North America SAP ERPSim competition which was organized by HEC Montreal, the University of Montreal’s business school. During the competition, teams use software to simulate running a business and use SAP S/4 HANA to operate a virtual corporation and make business decisions based on data analytics.

“The opportunity was rewarding in so many ways,” said Heaven Dagel, a business student from Great Falls, Montana. “I was shaking so bad waiting for the results.”

The SAP University Alliance is comprised of 16,000 universities around the world, including Montana Tech. SAP’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is the most widely used in the world, and the company's customers generate 87% of total worldwide commerce ($46 trillion), according to the release.