Blackboard and SAP Announce Global Agreement to Accelerate Innovation for Higher Education Institutions

by PR Newswire

New Partnership Leverages SAP NetWeaver(R) to Create Interoperability and Improve Efficiencies Between Administrative and Academic Technology

Blackboard Inc. and SAP AG today announced a global agreement to accelerate innovation of business processes for higher education institutions. By leveraging the SAP NetWeaver(R) platform as the foundation to create interoperability between administrative and academic technology, teachers, students and administrators will regularly have access to the most up-to-date information they need to enhance the learning experience and improve administrative efficiency. Facilitated by Web services made possible with enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA), this offering will enable real-time business processing between applications from Blackboard and SAP. The announcement was made at EDUCAUSE 2006, being held in Dallas, Tex., October 9 - 12.

SAP NetWeaver will connect the SAP Campus Management application, part of the SAP for Higher Education & Research (SAP for HE&R) solution portfolio that supports student records at hundreds of academic institutions, and the Blackboard Academic Suite(TM) e-Learning platforms that are used by millions of students and teachers around the world. Blackboard and SAP are implementing this service-oriented architecture to help institutions deploy integrated end- to-end processes faster and with a lower cost of maintenance -- even across different applications.

"The SAP suite serves the core business needs of the university -- and Blackboard serves the core academic needs," said Fred Siff, vice president and chief information officer, University of Cincinnati and member of the Blackboard Merger Advisory Council and the SAP Higher Education and Research Advisory Council. "Bringing these critical systems into more integrated alignment represents the commitment to meeting customer needs and innovative thinking that distinguishes both companies as industry leaders. This partnership will help bring a more comprehensive suite of integrated technologies to higher education customers faster and more efficiently."

"Thousands of universities and colleges rely on technology for both administrative and academic functions," said Michael Chasen, president and CEO of Blackboard. "There is a growing demand to integrate these systems, and this partnership offers clients even greater return on investment from the technologies they rely on every day. In addition to convenience, the SAP -- Blackboard integration will equip campus leaders with the ability to better track and manage student and institutional data and outcomes, moving them further down the path of 21st century learning."

The new offering is available for higher education institutions through the Blackboard Global Services organization. All Blackboard Academic Suite and SAP clients worldwide are eligible for this infrastructure integration.

"Leveraging the power of SAP NetWeaver and an enterprise service-oriented architecture, this partnership combines the best of breed in administrative and e-Learning technology targeted at higher education customers," said Harald Pitz, vice president, Higher Education Business Unit, SAP AG. "By integrating SAP Campus Management with Blackboard's e-Learning platform, our customers will have an even more comprehensive solution for managing the complete life cycle of students, administrative outcomes and learning."