E-skills: the next hurdle for ERP implementations

Many large companies around the world have made considerable investment in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to support their business processes. Many of these companies are now positioning themselves to take advantage of the new Internet economy. But what does this "positioning" entail? Is it the purchasing and implementation of the right technology? Is it the redesign of business processes? What skills are needed by these organizations? Recently there has been call in the Australian marketplace for information systems (IS) professionals to possess skills that can handle the move into e-business and e-commerce. In accordance with this we sought the views of information systems professionals working with ERP systems in the Australian and New Zealand marketplace about the skills mix necessary in the "E" world. The main results of this survey showed that the teamwork and deadlines dominated the business skills whilst knowledge of e-business/commerce models dominated the technical skills.