Microsoft Dynamics
Customer Solution Case Study
University Helps Graduates Gain ERP
Expertise, Boosting Their Career Prospects
Customer: Faculty of Organisation and
Informatics, University of Zagreb
Website: www.foi.hr
Number of Employees: 120
Country or Region: Croatia
Industry: Education—Higher education
institutions
Partner: RECRO-NET
Customer Profile
The Faculty of Organisation and
Informatics at the University of Zagreb
teaches students in its computer science
degree courses about enterprise resource
planning software, with particular
relevance to the workplace.
Software and Services
 Microsoft Dynamics
− Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0
“The increased interest from our students and
employers shows the importance of learning through
real business processes and case studies in Microsoft
Dynamics NAV.”
Ruben Picek, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Organisation and Informatics, University of
Zagreb
The Faculty of Organisation and Informatics (FOI) in Croatia
wanted to show students in its graduate programme how
enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is used in industry.
The Microsoft Dynamics Academic Alliance (DynAA) offered
Microsoft Dynamics NAV software and support, and
recommended IT firm RECRO-NET. Students now graduate with
knowledge of the software that employers increasingly use,
significantly improving their career prospects.
Business Needs
The University of Zagreb in Croatia is the
oldest university in south-eastern Europe.
It comprises 29 faculties—serving more
than 50,000 full-time undergraduate and
postgraduate students—including the
highly regarded FOI.
For more information about other
Microsoft customer successes, please visit:
www.microsoft.com/casestudies
The faculty wanted to customise its
graduate computer sciences curriculum to
meet the needs of local employers, which
were increasingly looking for graduate
recruits with expertise in business
management software. In 2008, Ruben
Picek, Assistant Professor, Faculty of
Organisation and Informatics, University of
Zagreb, started looking at how to give his
students hands-on knowledge of ERP
systems, helping them acquire the skills
required by local employers.
He says: “We wanted our students to look
at ERP systems from different
perspectives—as senior managers,
employees, consultants, project team
members, and IT developers. The faculty
needed a two-year course that would take
the entrants from being students to ERP
specialists.”
The faculty began looking for a partner to
help design the practical course content.
Picek wanted the partner to provide real-life
case studies and controllable results so the
university could award grades according to
levels of attainment in practical and
theoretical assignments. In addition—
anticipating increased demand for the
course—he needed the business
management software provided as
infrastructure as a service (IaaS), running in
the cloud as well as in a physical
environment.
Solution
The FOI approached the DynAA, which
offers universities free Microsoft Dynamics
software, support, and training courses with
Microsoft Croatia at the local Microsoft
Innovation Centre—through which they also
gain access to Microsoft and its partners.
Picek says: “The first step was visiting the
DynAA Academic Preconference at the
Microsoft Convergence event to hear about
best practices worldwide.”
Microsoft Croatia then organised a
Microsoft Dynamics NAV technical academy
and invited Picek to obtain certification and
examine the product’s functionality in detail.
It also put Picek in touch with Microsoft
Gold Certified Partner RECRO-NET, which
offers comprehensive information and
communications technology solutions for
large and medium-sized information
systems.
Milan Komorčec, Senior Consultant at
RECRO-NET, says: “Our focus was to help
cement the strategic alliance between
DynAA and the university, and to recruit
graduates. Specifically, we’re supporting the
university by preparing every-day business
tasks in Microsoft Dynamics NAV in each
functional area of the course. This helps
students build on their understanding of
basic concepts and theory.”
During the course, students were divided
into groups of 15, becoming employees of
a virtual company. All students had their
own Microsoft Dynamics NAV software
and learnt to use it through the Microsoft
Sure Step Methodology, submitting
projects assignments each week.
RECRO-NET supported curriculum delivery,
with guest lectures to supplement
teaching and learning. And Microsoft
helped put on three-day training
sessions—at its Innovation Centre in
Varaždin—for students after they
completed their examinations. These
sessions feature trainers from the largest
local Microsoft Dynamics partners in
Croatia, opening up more opportunities
for students to gain employment. Students
with the best performance in these
training sessions successfully pass the
certification examination.

Benefits
The FOI at the University of Zagreb now
has wide-ranging support from Microsoft
and an experienced local partner to
support its teaching programme for
computer science students. Three
graduates have already been given work
experience at RECRO-NET, one of whom
has a permanent job. In July 2011, another
student successfully applied for a job at
another partner organisation. The course
has proved popular, with 212 students
enrolling in the first two years.

Employers benefit from the DynAA by
gaining skilled recruits. Picek says:
“Microsoft partners are not the only
organisations that want to recruit
graduates with hands-on skills in
business management software. The
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
SUMMARY.
Document published August 2011



increased interest from our students and
employers shows the importance of
learning through real business processes
and case studies in Microsoft Dynamics
NAV.”
Students gain certificates for ERP
specialisations. As well as getting their
degree certificates from the university,
students can also qualify for Microsoft
certificates for different segments of ERP
systems, making them even more
attractive to potential employers. The
additional workshops focus on
preparation for official Microsoft
Dynamics NAV certification
examinations.
Infrastructure as a service helps
reduce operating costs. By using cloud
computing in its own University
Computing Centre, it got even better
performance from the software and
catered easily for a larger number of
students. The cloud solution and
reusable content will help the university
keep costs low because the solution
works from university IP addresses.
University seeks further academic
collaboration with Microsoft. In the
future, the university hopes to engage
with Microsoft and RECRO-NET in
providing more content for its advanced
post-graduate courses.
Technology integrates with other
line-of-business applications.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV integrates
easily with the faculty’s open-source
learning environment Moodle, where all
the PDF and video materials used in the
ERP case studies are stored.