rSmart’s Sakai CLE & Support Solution Chosen by Johns Hopkins University, UC Davis and Other Leading Educational Institutions

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--rSmart, the provider of enterprise support for open source application software in education, today announced impressive growth for its rSmart Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) software and support services. Fourteen new academic institutions, including Johns Hopkins University, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz and University of the Pacific, as well as the open source Kuali Foundation, have implemented the rSmart solution this year. The rSmart Sakai (CLE) is the company's enterprise-ready and supported version of the open source Sakai software that includes a unique capability to support teaching and learning, project collaboration, group interaction and ePortfolios across the academic enterprise, all from a single platform. rSmart is exhibiting its products in booth #1081 at the EDUCAUSE 2009 Conference being held in Denver, Nov. 3-6, 2009.

“We could not have moved to Sakai from our old system if we did not have a partner like rSmart”

“We could not have moved to Sakai from our old system if we did not have a partner like rSmart,” said Dr. Lois Veath, Vice President of Academic Affairs, Chadron State College. “Our computer and technical services team is stretched to the limit. rSmart provides our team with the support we need to be successful with Sakai. We are delighted with the kind of support we are getting from rSmart, the capabilities that Sakai provides, and the money we are saving as a result of our move.”

“More institutions are choosing Sakai as a path to meet the increasing demands of academic technology. The difficult economic times make Sakai’s lower cost even more attractive, but the real driver is Sakai’s fit with the needs of education,” said Chris Coppola, founder and CEO of rSmart. “This year is especially exciting for rSmart because our customers are deploying the rSmart Sakai CLE to serve the enterprise and earlier departmental pilots are growing to benefit the entire institution. I’m delighted that the rSmart team provides our customers with the support they need, so that they can focus on innovations in teaching and learning with technology—this is the kind of partnership that I believe can help institutions adapt and thrive through the challenging times ahead.”

The 15 organizations noted below join the world's largest base of commercially supported Sakai installations. Most rSmart Sakai CLE customers are replacing an existing enterprise LMS such as Blackboard or WebCT, and all rely on rSmart to support and, in many cases, host their deployments.

Recent rSmart Sakai CLE and Support Clients Include:

● Chadron State College

● College of the Redwoods

● Johns Hopkins University

● U.S. Department of Defense - Joint Foreign Area Officer Program

● Kapi'olani Community College

● Kuali Foundation

● Learners Edge

● Naval Postgraduate School (NPS)

● Palo Verde College

● Progressive Business Publications (in support of a private-label, online MBA program)

● STAR Academy (K-12)

● UC Davis

● UC Santa Cruz

● University of the Pacific

● West Liberty University

About the rSmart Sakai CLE & Support Solution

The rSmart Sakai CLE is the company's fully packaged, tested and supported distribution of the Sakai software, similar to the way RedHat distributes and supports the Linux operating system. The rSmart Sakai CLE is available immediately for hosted or on-site deployments with dedicated Sakai support engineers, full-time documentation writers, Java developers, release engineers, quality assurance personnel and other support staff that allow institutions to use and consume Sakai as a commercial product. The company also provides professional services including Sakai evaluation and assessment, configuration planning, training, installation, customization, integration and data migration to complement its support offerings. Anyone can experience the rSmart Sakai CLE for free at: mysakai.rsmart.com.

About Sakai

The Sakai Project is a landmark venture to create a comprehensive open-source course management, collaboration, ePortfolio and online research environment for the education community. Started in 2004 by a collaboration of the University of Michigan, Indiana University, Stanford and MIT, the project is now run by the Sakai Foundation, and includes over 100 members, representing universities, colleges and institutions of learning around the world. For more information, visit www.sakaiproject.org.

About rSmart

rSmart is the provider of enterprise support for open source application software in education. The company develops, certifies, tests, deploys and supports a suite of enterprise financial and collaboration and learning applications for colleges, universities and institutions serving grades K-12. As an active member, contributor, and commercial affiliate of open source projects like Kuali and Sakai, rSmart is able to provide its clients with software applications and commercial support specifically designed to meet the unique needs of educational institutions. This collaborative approach allows rSmart to offer open source applications that break the dependence educational institutions have on traditional proprietary software vendors. For more information, visit www.rsmart.com.

rSmart is a registered trademark of rSmart, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.