Houten, October 3, 2002 - Blackboard Inc., the leading software infrastructure company for e-Education, and SURFdiensten, the principal organization responsible for licensing software and services on behalf of the Dutch Higher Education sector, announced an expanded nationwide agreement to supply the Blackboard e-Education Suite™ to Higher Education institutions in the Netherlands.
For the past three years, SURF and Blackboard have had a very successful partnership working to serve the needs of academic institutions throughout the Netherlands. Already, more than 60% of colleges and universities in the Netherlands have purchased Blackboard software to power their e-Education initiatives. This latest agreement expands the companies' existing relationship.
"This is a significant breakthrough for the Dutch Higher Education system," said Professor Wim Liebrand, CEO of the SURF Foundation. "By contracting with Blackboard for all of Dutch Higher Education we provide a proven platform for cooperation between institutions around the innovative concepts of e-Learning. We expect that national initiatives for authentication, libraries of digital content, and new ways of providing flexible education will be facilitated by this opportunity for standardization."
For a period of three years, participating institutions have the opportunity to purchase the Blackboard Learning System and services at very favorable terms, providing an incentive for cooperation between institutions around the Blackboard platform.
Bert Wiersema, Education&IT Director at the University of Groningen
commented: 'We made a start with Blackboard sept. 2000. We now have more then 40% of all teachers working in Blackboard and nearly all students. A nationwide investment in an e-Education future with this easy to use Blackboard solution fits perfectly with the needs of those who really create higher education: students and teachers'.
Peter van 't Riet, ICT Director at Windesheim University for Higher Vocational Education in Zwolle, says: "The Blackboard system offers an ideal way to collaborate with all institutions for higher education in our country, as well as around the world. Making it available at favorable terms to the entire sector is an idea whose time has come and will facilitate many institutions to implement e-learning not only on the scale of departments but also on an institutional level."
"Through our agreement with SURFdiensten Blackboard can become the e-Education standard in Dutch Higher Education," said Andrew H. Rosen, EVP for the International Markets at Blackboard Inc. "The Dutch continue to be one of the most innovative users of e-Education technology in the world. Blackboard remains steadfastly committed to serving the needs of Dutch institutions, as evidenced by everything from our international headquarters here in Amsterdam to our pending release of the Blackboard Learning System ML in native Dutch."
For more information about Blackboard please visit http://global.blackboard.com/worldwide/eur/nl/en/index.htm
For more information about the agreement and the terms & conditions for participating institutions please contact SURFdiensten.
About Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. was founded to transform the Internet into a powerful environment for the education experience. The company offers a complete suite of enterprise software products and services that power a total "e-Education Infrastructure" for schools, colleges, universities and other education providers. Blackboard solutions deliver the promise of the Internet for online teaching and learning, campus communities, auxiliary services and integration of Web-enabled student services and back office systems.
Blackboard's Learning, Community Portal and Transaction Systems are consistently ranked by industry analysts as the market share and customer satisfaction leaders for thousands of academic institutions and a leading number of the Internet's most popular consumer education sites. The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices and staff across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. Please visit www.blackboard.com for more information.
About SURFdiensten
SURFdiensten is an intermediate between ICT-suppliers and the Dutch (higher) education and scientific research. We conclude agreements with ICT-suppliers, so called SURF-licenses, in which we make special arrangements about user rights, prices, materials and support. Main goal is that we offer the education market a very advantageous offer for buying ICT products. At this time SURFdiensten has agreements with more than 100 ICT-suppliers. Almost all institutions in (higher) education and research in the Netherlands make use of at least one SURF-license.
Together with partner organisations SLBdiensten and APS IT-diensten the entire education market in the Netherlands and Belgium is represented: SURFdiensten supplies (SURF-)licenses to the higher education and scientific research community, SLBdiensten to the vocational, further- and secondary education sector, APS IT-diensten to the primary education sector. More information: SURFdiensten: http://www.surfdiensten.nl, SLBdiensten: http://www.slbdiensten.nl, APS IT-diensten: http://www.apsitdiensten.nl.
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CONTACT:
Michael J. Stanton
Blackboard Inc.
202-463-4860 ext.305
mstanton@blackboard.com
Audrey Visscher
SURFdiensten bv
0031 (0)30 298 3003
visscher@surfdiensten.nl