Bangkok (Thailand), October 7-8, 2017 --- It was about the right strategies and the right decision makings over the weekend, when students from institutes of higher learning in the Southeast Asia region gathered at Kasetsart Business School on Kasetsart University campus for the semi-final and grand final of MonsoonSIM Enterprise Resource Planning(MERP) Competition Thailand Grand Final 2017.
Coming off a better overall performance, GARUDA of Universitas of Budi Luhur, Indonesia emerged as Champion followed by YOLO of Kasetsart University, Thailand, and CHEVERE of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand in this year's final competition.
MERPC, an annual business competition co-organised by Kasetsart Business School of Kasetsart University, Zonix Service Co., Ltd.(MonsoonSIM Thailand), SAP and Monsoon Academy, and hosted by Kasetsart University, aims to encourage students to learn about Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) via gamification and to incubate future ERP talents.
Through the fun and interactive cloud-based Monsoon Simulation (MonsoonSIM) platform, the students experience managing virtual companies in real time, and learn how 12 different business modules – retail, wholesale, finance, production, material requirements planning, warehousing and logistics, forecasting, procurement, asset maintenance, marketing, human resources, and customer service – are interlinked.
More than 2,500 students from over 60 universities in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand – a significant increase in the number of participants from the previous two years of the competition – have been competing in teams of five since the beginning of 2017. The teams worked towards the objective of running a successful virtual enterprise as they applied the right strategies on business concepts learned, and reacted quickly to situations based on practical constraints similar to real-life situations. The criteria included were the strategy of execution, productivity, and profitability of a business.
Following multiple campus playoffs and country finals, 12 teams – two each from Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, and four from Thailand – qualified for the semi-final.
Delivering the opening address and welcome speech, Dr. Puchong Uthayopas, acting Vice President of Kasetsart University, spoke of the challenges ahead and emphasized the importance of IT in our era and disruptive learning to the audience. He hopes the MonsoonSIM competitions would raise awareness for Experiential Learning so that more educators can help more students to become more adaptable to today's marketplace.
The competition kicked off in the morning after briefings by Dr. Ek Anong, Head of the Department of Management, Kasetsart Business School. A highly intense morning that was anticipated saw the 12 semi-finalists: Junny Moto and Capitalists of National University(NU) of the Philippines; Garuda and TMNT of Universitas Budi Luhur of Indonesia; Budak Gedah and Kenchang of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia(UTM); Team Laksa and The Average of Singapore University of Social Science(SUSS); FabuliciousFive and Chevere of Chulalongkorn University; and YOLO and GGWP of Kasetsart University(KU) battling it out over 150 virtual days... six teams, including Junny Moto, Garuda, TMNT, FabuliciousFive, Chevere, and YOLO moved on to vie for the top prizes in the final held on that Saturday afternoon.
The panel of judges comprising Ms. Ana Chua, assistant PHINMA(Philippines Investment Management) Education Network Chief Operations, Mr. Suwanchai Lohawatanakul, Executive Director, Thailand-Japan management Institute, and Mr. Sutirapan Sakkawatra, Executive Vice President Head of Marketing at Siam Commercial Bank Thailand, had a challenging session on Sunday morning as all the final teams were very good. Nevertheless, they managed to give the right points which constituted 25% of the total score to each team based on its strategy & Implementation, understanding of the market competitions, adaptation to changes and challenges, and teamwork with impartiality.
At the end, with the three judges' scores added onto the gaming scores of Saturday afternoon's final, the order of the day was GARUDA as Champion winning the top prize of SGD4,000, YOLO as 1st runner-up winning SGD2,500, and Chevere as 2nd runner-up winning SGD1,500. The 3rd runner-up FabuliciousFive, 4th runner-up Junny Moto and 5th runner-upTMNT all won a prize of SGD200 each.The rest of the finalists also came away with medals and certificates. A total of SGD10,000 was sponsored by SAP Southeast Asia – a long-term partner of MonsoonSIM supporting its platform and experiential learning.
The day concluded with much picture takings and a sumptuous lunch again provided by Kasetsart University on top of the Gala Dinner the previous night.
This regional universities competition came about through strong collaboration between SAP Southeast Asia, Kasetsart University, Zonix Service Co., Ltd., and Monsoon Academy. It has been many months in the making. Monsoon Academy is very appreciative of the hard work and effort of Kasetsart University's IT and technical personnel as well as students volunteers led by Dr. Ek Anong.
Thanks to all the CTs for helping to facilitate MonsoonSIM in their respective country finals, and all the lecturers of participating schools: Dr. Johnathan and colleagues of SUSS; Dr. Gonzales, Miss Stephanie and Miss Arlene of NU; Sir Rizki and colleagues of UBL; Dr Shah and Dr. Shaifudin of UTM; Sir Wiriya of CU for leading their students to Kasetsart.
Thanks to Sir Paramintara Yaoyuenyong of MonsoonSIM Thailand for facilitating the Competition.
Thanks to our guests especially those from Hong Kong who traveled all the way to observe the competition.
Thanks to all the judges for presenting trophies and medals, and Mr. Alex Ong of MonsoonSIM Singapore for presenting prize money.
A very special thanks to Dr. Ek-Anong and Sir Paramin for their concerted effort... The preparation, the coordinating works, the food, the show, the cooking lesson, and so on. For without their passions and determinations, the whole event would not have been successful.
It was a great weekend!
Congratulations to all the Winners!
See you next year!!!