Reflecting back on the ERPsim Competition
Central Michigan University students, faculty members, competitors, alums, visitors,and more all gathered to cheer on the competing teams. Besides a few technological glitches along the way, which ended up delaying the two games that were played by forty-five minutes, all spectators had a lot to look forward to as competition was tight this year. Spoiler alert: Auto-Owners took home the big prize as the team and its mentors placed first. Auto-Owners ended up beating 19 other competing teams and their mentors.
The ERPsim is a simulation game. Twenty teams ended up competing this year. All twenty teams had mentors from various well-known companies, including but not ranging to GM, Volkswagen, and Harley Davidson. The twenty teams managed their own companies in a simulated competitive market in McGurick Arena. The game this year was a Logistics Dairy Game. What happened is that six dairy products had to be sold in three regions (South, East, and West). The ERPsim competition ended up hosting two games. The team that accumulated the most Net Profit dollars would be the winner.
According to http://www.auto-owners.com/, Auto-Owners "has been dedicated to the independent agency system for over 95 years". The company has been ranked among the Fortune 500 every year for the past 12 years and their written premium is over $5 billion. The mutual insurance company is among the leading property and casualty insurers in the United States. Auto-Owners continues to dominate as an insurance company since it is divided into six sectors: Auto-Owners Insurance Company, Auto-Owners Life Insurance Company, Owners Insurance Company, Home-Owners Insurance Company, Property-Owners Insurance Company, and Southern-Owners Insurance Company.
Auto-Owners won by coming in first place while General Motors 1 placed second, and Consumers Energy 2 placed third in Server GM3. In Server GM7, Deloitte 2 came in first place, Tata Consultancy 2 placed second, and Rockwell Collins 1 placed third.
The day of the competition was filled with both stress and enthusiasm. According to a CM Life article that was recently published, Martin Porea, an ERPsim competitor for the PricewaterhouseCoopers team stated, “You don’t get this kind OF experience in the classroom. We felt prepared, but you never know what’s going to happen. You come in with a plan and two days later, your plan goes out the window because the market changes. As prepared as you may be, you have to be really flexible as well.”
Many spectators, students, alums, and competitors were caught off guard when President Ross showed up for a surprise visit the day of the competition. President Ross showed up to show support towards the competing teams and their mentors plus for the competition itself. According to the CM Life article, “Seeing corporate partners viewing the students during the event ‘brings together highly intelligent students’ through hard work and teamwork ‘encouraged’ him” to stop by for a quick visit and in order to show support. President Ross stated at the competition:
As I look across these groups and see the diversity in the groups that are full of male and female students, international students and students who appear to be American students, I just think that we talk a lot about diversity and the strength of team building and decision making and knocking down stereotypes and it’s happening right now in this competition (Twiddy).
Overall impression of the competition:
My partners and I worked the Second Shift for the ERPsim competition. We live tweeted from 2:30-7:30 P.M. We divided the work for the six companies that we were assigned between the three of us. I ended up tweeting for the teams whose mentors were Dayco and Deloitte. My first impression of the competition was that it was quite active throughout the entire day. Upon showing up, I did not know what to anticipate. I thought for sure that each social media person would be sitting with their assigned teams but that did not end up happening. The McGurick Arena was tightly set up since over twenty different teams were competing. Half of the Arena was set up for the competition while the other half was set up for the formal dinner that would be held at 7:30 P.M. when the awards would be presented to the top competing teams. Personally, I would have preferred to sit with my team because then I would be able interact with them better when they had time off from competing and playing the simulated game. Sitting in the bleachers and going around the Arena when it was necessary to tweet was a little uncomfortable as no formal relationship had been well established with my three teams.
Although I experienced some sort of discomfort with tweeting and capturing quotes plus images of the teams that I was representing, it was not as difficult as I expected. I felt like I was a journalist on a mission. I had the opportunity to interview some of the teammates from the Deloitte 2 team and the Dayco team. It was a great way to interact with the members and capture their perception on the competition. I enjoyed that bonding aspect of the competition.
Overall, the teams that I represented for the social media aspect of the competition ended up performing well I believe. I did not get the opportunity to constantly interact with my teams but their sense of enthusiasm and passion for the simulation game showcased in the way their performed. I enjoyed being given the opportunity to live-tweet the ERPsim competition. It was great practice for me as I haven’t always had the expertise in tweeting. This competition provided me with the tools necessary to successfully tweet and represent the competing team members, my teams, the mentors, spectators, alums, and visitors.
For other future competitions, I have a few suggestions that I think will make the experience better. First, I would suggest either changing the venue so that way it is not so crowded. Implementing both the competing space and dinning space in the same location made it difficult to move around. Second, I would suggest implementing Instagram and other social media channels into the competition. Social media representatives should implement as many social media channels as possible in order to reach a wider target audience and make the competition appear more viral. Lastly, I would suggest adding another seat to each table where the competing teams are sitting so that way, social media representatives are more involved in the competition and get to experience it fully just like the competitors.
Twiddy, Brianne. ERPsim Invitational competitors sought after by company recruiters. Central Michigan Life, 19 Feb. 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2015. <http://www.cm-life.com/article/2015/02/erpsim-competition>.
