Simha R. Magal, Ph.D., is professor of management (MIS) and director, ERP initiative, in the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University. He received his doctorate from the University of Georgia. His primary research interests include e-business and enterprise systems. Dr. Magal's articles have appeared in such publications as MIS Quarterly, Journal of MIS, and Information and Management, among others, and he has served on the editorial boards of several journals. Dr. Magal has taught courses related to business processes and enterprise systems that utilize SAP for more than a decade. He is an SAP-certified associate consultant and a TERP10 academy instructor.

Jeffrey Word, Ph.D., is vice president of product strategy at SAP AG. He is responsible for defining SAP's future product strategy and for fostering product innovation within SAP. Dr. Word has worked for several Global 1000 companies in the high-tech industry for nearly 20 years, specializing in business consulting and IT strategy. At SAP, he has driven the evolution of the company's enterprise technology strategy, with a special focus on corporate process improvement initiatives and services-based IT architecture design. Dr. Word earned his Ph.D. in information systems at Manchester Business School in England.