Teaching Business Skills in the Cloud: A Process Model for Cloud-Based Enterprise Software Integration in Higher Education

The cloud-based enterprise software (ES) market is booming due to ease of access and scalability among other factors. Within ES, all data, resources, and processes of a company are managed. Thus, ES comes with complexity that requires skilled users. Therefore, it is important to train students in cloud-based ES so that they can make informed decisions in their future professional life. So far, research on the intersection of education and cloud-based software has mainly focused on virtual labs and education software in the cloud. In contrast to that, we focus on the integration of cloud-based ES in higher education as a basis for teaching students practical and interdisciplinary ES skills. Also, we depict the role of an educational service provider (ESP) as an intermediary in that setting. In our paper, we conducted a case study within the context of a large ES company's global academic alliance program and an ESP. The requirements and procedures derived for integrating cloud-based ES in higher education teaching are transferred to a process model. This process model gives insights into how the integration is handled so far and can serve as a guide for other cloud-based ES being introduced to higher education teaching. We contribute to both research and practice by emphasizing students' transdisciplinary education in the ES domain and the role of ESPs as a linking connection between higher education and the ES industry.