Thomas Wilder is the Executive Director of the Chico State Academic Hosting Center.
In 1996, Chico State became the SAP software corporation’s first university partner in North America in what would later become the SAP University Alliance Program(opens in new window).
SAP is the world’s largest business software company, with over 70% of the world’s business transactions touching an SAP system. Leading universities and their business partners worldwide recognize the ERP-based pedagogy provided at CSU, Chico as a current best practice. The Chico State College of Business and the BSIS Department operate one of six global SAP University Competence Centers (UCC). The Chico State Academic Hosting Center serves the needs of more than 180 school systems from Nova Scotia to Argentina and more than 100,000 students annually.
Thomas Wilder, Executive Director of the Academic Hosting Center, helps Chico’s UCC support thousands of these systems each year. Due to the large volume of systems supported by Chico’s UCC, there is a high level of support needed. Luckily for Wilder, Chico State has an auxiliary department off-campus called the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. Wilder claims that RESP takes care of all accounts receivable and accounts payable, writes and approves all contracts, sends out the invoices each year and tracks all customers and funds. This is a service that would otherwise require him to “hire a full accounting staff and a legal team. The ease of having RESP there for us whenever an issue arises is invaluable.” All programs at Chico State are able to take advantage of RESP to secure grants and funding they may need to provide resources to students and push the limits of university programs’ potential.
