Accountancy juniors emerge as runners-up in int’l simulation competition

A GROUP of five accountancy juniors placed fifth in the final round of the 2020 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Simulation Competition held on Feb. 5 via Zoom.

The team, composed of Rovi Vitug, Arden Oabel, Ephraim Salvador, Rich Anne Magsombol and Lian Mae Sulit, competed against 23 universities in the ERP Simulation Manufacturing Game, a contest where participants managed their own virtual companies and developed solutions and strategies for business and market simulations using the Systems, Applications, Products (SAP) software.

The UST team advanced to the international stage after conquering the Philippine leg of the ERP Simulation Competition Philippines last Nov. 20.

The ERP Simulation Manufacturing Game was divided into two parts: the qualification game held on Feb. 2 in which 11 teams were eliminated, and the final game which had three rounds.

Each round lasted 20 minutes, during which the participants were challenged to monitor and forecast market performance, produce products, track expenses, generate revenue and maintain a good company valuation.

“[T]he market as a whole cannot be controlled or forecasted easily and a lot of unexpected things can happen. The challenge is to trust our instincts, to improve our flexibility when it comes to advertising our products and even lowering the prices at merely just a little above our costs in order to generate sales when our inventories don’t turnover well,” Salvador told the Varsitarian.

“Nevertheless, it was a very fulfilling journey. It was certainly an incredible learning experience,” he added.

The team was guided by UST-AMV College of Accountancy faculty members Asst. Prof. Apollo Layug and Rosalina Erece.

The Islamic University of Indonesia was declared the winner. University of Melbourne and Nha Trang University in Vietnam finished at second and third place, respectively. Victoria University of Melbourne, Australia placed fourth.

The international tournament was supposed to be held last Dec. 2, 2020 but was postponed and moved to February this year due to technical glitches. C.J. Paras