Leiden University, Netherlands, Expands Its Relationship by Outsourcing to Blackboard's ASP Datacentre
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Leiden appoints Blackboard to ensure 24x7x365 availability for students and staff
Washington, DC, May 09, 2007 - Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB), a leading provider of enterprise technology to the education community, today announced that Leiden University--one of Europe's top universities and the oldest university in the Netherlands--has selected complex hosting services delivered by Blackboard's ASP Datacentre operations in Amsterdam. Leiden has been Blackboard's client since 1999 and opted for Blackboard ASP services as part of its drive to provide anytime/anywhere access to the university's 17,000 students and 4,000 staff across 9 faculties.
For almost a year Leiden carefully evaluated the pros and cons of continuing hosting its campus Academic Management System (AMS) in-house, versus hosting via Blackboard. With 10,000 regular Blackboard users at Leiden and an increasing number of 'guests' (such as secondary schools who come onto campus to evaluate HE courses, teacher training and ad-hoc courses), the university was convinced that Blackboard's global ASP Datacentre was the ideal solution to provide a cost effective 24x7x365 access to students and staff.
Marc Dupuis, Leiden University's e-Learning Programme Manager and Counselor to the Board, commented, "Across all faculties, our students want access to learning any time, any where, so it's vital that we are always available and that there are no bottlenecks to reduce the speed of our service. Having evaluated the options, we felt that the environment and support services Blackboard offer are second to none and will satisfy not only our existing needs, but also the future demands of the university."
Leiden University is the first university in the Netherlands to select Blackboard ASP to provide its next generation managed services. However, increasingly universities are realising the benefits of ASP services and recently the University of Exeter selected Blackboard's ASP Datacentre.
Both Blackboard and Leiden believe that it is only a question of time and other institutions will soon embrace this mature model.
Tim Collin, European Vice President at Blackboard said: "We're delighted that Leiden University has chosen to adopt hosting services via Blackboard's European ASP Datacentre. We have a strong working relationship with the university and look forward to providing a secure
and robust environment for its mission critical systems."
Blackboard's ASP Datacentre enables European customers to host their Blackboard e-Learning initiatives in Europe, and complements the two successful datacentres in the United States, which host more than 330 institutions. The European Datacentre is a 24x7x365 Tier 1 facility, providing a highly reliable, secure and cost effective hosting environment for teaching, learning, and research.
About Leiden University
Leiden University is the oldest university in the Netherlands and one of the top ranking universities in Europe. They are in top position in a great many fields, including natural sciences, life sciences, medicine, arts, social and behavioural sciences, international law, astronomy and non-Western languages aiming for an internationally recognised position as a top-ranking research-intensive university within the European Higher Education and Research Areas.
For more info on Leiden see http://www.leiden.edu/
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. With two product suites, the Blackboard Academic Suite (tm) and the Blackboard Commerce Suite (tm), Blackboard is used by millions of people 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 and Asia. Blackboard is the parent company and owner of WebCT.
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