(Posted 4-17-00)
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News Service Contact: Steve Gilliam, 336-334-5371
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BRYAN SCHOOL RECEIVES TWO GIFTS FROM
RF MICRO DEVICES TO START ERP PROGRAM
GREENSBORO--An enterprise resource planning (ERP) program is being created in the Joseph M. Bryan School of Business and Economics through two gifts totaling $45,000 from RF Micro Devices Inc. of Greensboro and from one of the technology manufacturing firm's executives.
The two gifts were announced by Dr. James K. Weeks, dean of the Bryan School. William A. "Dean" Priddy Jr., the company's chief financial officer and vice president for administration, gave $20,000 to the school. The company has given another $25,000.
"I was extremely pleased to learn of the Bryan School's decision to implement an enterprise software curriculum," said Priddy, who received both his bachelor's (1983) and MBA (1986) degrees from the Bryan School. "As the CFO and VP for Administration of a rapidly growing technology company, I have witnessed the increasing importance that information technology plays in how businesses are run.
"Required skill sets are changing and the Bryan School at UNCG is poised to facilitate and prepare students for those changes. An enterprise software curriculum would put UNCG at the leading edge in preparing future business leaders."
In business and industry, ERP is a highly integrated software system that allows a business to manage and coordinate a broad range of activities across different divisions and on national and multinational levels. It can take into account such international manufacturing aspects as measurement, currency and time differences. ERP is being used widely in large businesses which need to more tightly coordinate their processes.
"With this gift, RF Micro Devices and Dean Priddy have opened the way for the Bryan School to help our students acquire a unique set of skills that are now very much in demand in the business world," said Weeks. "In addition to helping the school add cutting-edge technology to its curriculum, the gift from RFMD also includes an offer of a strategic partnership with one of the country's leading technology companies."
Weeks said that the funds from Priddy and RFMD will allow the Bryan School to set up the instructional infrastructure for implementing the new ERP curriculum this fall. The school is a member of the SAP University Alliance program, the only SAP University Alliance member in the Triad and one of very few in the state. SAP America Inc., the current market leader in ERP software for business, also works with universities to help them use that software as a tool for teaching.
Triangle Business Journal recently named RF Micro Devices the state's fastest-growing technology company and the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche named RF Micro Devices one of the state's top 50 technology companies. RFMD, with about 800 local employees, is a leading provider of microchips for cellular telephones and other wireless communication devices. In September, the company broke ground for a new $200 million microchip plant in Greensboro
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