Academic Institutions Across the United States Turn to Blackboard for Complete Campus Service Solutions; Fourteen Academic Institutions Join the Blackboard Commerce Suite(TM) Community
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 23, 2006--Academic institutions
around the nation are being tasked with providing greater services,
efficiencies and conveniences for their campus populations. Towards
this end, many are turning to Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB), a
leading provider of technology to the education industry, for a
complete solution. Blackboard announced today that 14 campuses from
across the United States have recently joined the Blackboard(R)
community, licensing software and hardware products from the
Blackboard Commerce Suite. The Blackboard Commerce Suite includes
three enterprise software applications that support cashless
transactions on-campus, off-campus and online, linked to university ID
cards.
Campuses which have recently licensed software solutions from the
Blackboard Commerce Suite include Merrimack College, High Point
University, College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Davidson County
Community College, Framingham State College, Randolph Macon Women's
College, Guilford College, Howard Hughes Medical Center, Cuyahoga
Community College District, Dowling College, Arcadia University,
Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, Montclair State University
and Southwestern University of Georgetown.
All of these new clients are implementing The Blackboard
Transaction System(TM), the heart of the Blackboard Commerce Suite,
which manages the administration, processing, and reporting functions
for a variety of campus services. The Blackboard Transaction System is
used by hundreds of colleges to securely process millions of
transactions involving payments, data transfer, physical access
control and activity authentication, 24 hours a day, seven days a
week, 365 days a year.
"Davidson County Community College, which is 50 years young, is
excited to implement the Blackboard Transaction System(TM) as the
school's first one-card system connecting 16,000 students across 11
campus buildings and two satellite education centers," said Rusty
Hunt, Director of Financial Services at Davidson County Community
College. "We look forward to the enhanced services we will be able to
offer our community with this new system, including greater security
and the ability for students and faculty to access vending and
activity options with their college ID cards."
High Point University, a private liberal arts college in North
Carolina, initially considered Blackboard technology as a vending
services solution for students, but quickly recognized the wide range
of additional benefits their campus community would realize by
implementing the complete Blackboard Commerce Suite.
"We are really excited about developing and fostering
relationships with the business community on and off campus, through
the BbOne(TM) Program," said Wellington DeSouza, Director of
Information Technology at High Point University. "Not only will this
new program help generate revenue for our campus and local businesses,
but it provides an excellent benefit to students and faculty, who can
now use their ID cards to make purchases at a host of stores
throughout the community."
"Blackboard's clients are the ones really driving the innovation
of campus commerce and we are pleased and privileged to partner with
them on this journey," said Michael Chasen, president and CEO of
Blackboard. "It's particularly exciting to see how far the Blackboard
Commerce System has evolved in recent times and we look forward to
continuing down this path with the newest members of the Blackboard
community."
About Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) is a leading provider of enterprise
software applications and related services to the education industry.
Founded in 1997, Blackboard enables educational innovations everywhere
by connecting people and technology. Millions of people use Blackboard
everyday at academic institutions around the globe, including
colleges, universities, K-12 schools and other education providers, as
well as textbook publishers and student-focused merchants that serve
education providers and their students. Blackboard is headquartered in
Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Australia and
Asia. Blackboard is the parent company and owner of WebCT, and
develops and maintains software and services for all Blackboard and
WebCT products.
Blackboard
Educate. Innovate. Everywhere.(TM)
Any statements in this press release about future expectations,
plans and prospects for Blackboard and other statements containing the
words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and
similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the
meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such
forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors,
including the factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our
Annual Report on Form 10-Q filed on August 9, 2006 with the SEC. In
addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press
release represent the Company's views as of August 23, 2006. The
Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause
the Company's views to change. However, while the Company may elect to
update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future,
the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These
forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing
the Company's views as of any date subsequent to August 23, 2006.
CONTACT: Blackboard Inc.
Senior Manager, Public Relations:
Melissa Chotiner, 202-463-4860 ext. 2404
mchotiner@blackboard.com
or
Media Contact:
Fleishman-Hillard Inc.
Amy Storey, 202-828-8819
storeya@fleishman.com
SOURCE: Blackboard Inc.