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The rSmart Group Teams With IBM on Open Source Financial System - Kuali

Posted on: Tuesday, 11 July 2006, 06:00 CDT

The rSmart Group, the leading open source application software company serving education, today announced it is teaming with IBM in support of the Kuali Financial System. The Kuali Foundation creates software that provides a comprehensive suite of functionality to serve the financial systems needs of all levels of colleges and universities. An important element of the Kuali software is its modular architecture. Institutions can implement only those functional elements that meet their needs. This modularity and a highly flexible Chart of Accounts will enable the software to be scaled to meet the needs of complex multicampus research-intensive institutions as well as small private, liberal arts or community colleges. Select companies like rSmart -- who was a co-founder of Kuali in August 2004 -- and IBM have been invited to join the Kuali Foundation as commercial affiliates to provide world-class development and customer support for Kuali software.

Chris Coppola, president of The rSmart Group, said, "The higher education software market is changing as colleges and universities reassert control over their software destiny, and rSmart is working in and through higher education's leading open source projects as a contributing member of these communities. We provide the commercial support options that make these 'of, by, and for higher ed' software projects the best solution for institutions of all sizes." Coppola added, "We are excited that IBM has joined the Kuali Foundation and look forward to accelerating the pace of development and adoption and distribution of Kuali software, an important contribution to higher education."

Paul Racioppo, IBM Global Business Services' higher education leader, said, "IBM believes open source projects based on open standards are critical to achieving the innovation and productivity that educational institutions are seeking today. By combining our talents and resources with rSmart's, we will contribute to the continued success of both Kuali and future open source projects."

"IBM's commitment to open source solutions and a services oriented architecture creates a synergy that benefits both companies," said Ray Barker, CEO of The rSmart Group. "The rSmart group is a leader in providing subscription based application support for education institutions that run Kuali and Sakai, an open source collaboration and learning environment. Our combined products and services allow these institutions to control and customize product design, lower costs, and more efficiently deliver mission critical enterprise IT systems. We intend to fully leverage this unique combination of capabilities to bring valuable open source solutions to the market."

About The rSmart Group

The rSmart Group is the leading open source application software company serving the higher education market. rSmart packages, certifies, deploys, and supports a suite of enterprise financial and collaborative learning applications for colleges and universities. As an active member of open source projects like Kuali and Sakai, rSmart is able to provide its clients with software applications specifically designed to meet the unique needs of institutions of higher education. This collaborative approach allows rSmart to offer colleges and universities open source applications that break their dependence on traditional proprietary software vendors. Please visit www.rsmart.com for more information.

About IBM

IBM, the world's largest consulting, services and information technology company, helps improve education throughout the world. For more than 80 years, IBM people and solutions have been helping schools and institutions of higher education innovate for greater achievement, productivity and efficiency. IBM draws on its world-class portfolio of services, software and hardware solutions to help clients realize the full potential of their technology investments. For more information about IBM's solutions and experience in education, please visit: www.ibm.com/industries/education. For more information about IBM's long-time support of the open source movement, please visit: http://www-130.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource. For information on partnering with IBM, please visit: www.ibm.com/partnerworld.

About Kuali

The Kuali Financial System, a landmark venture to create an open-source financial system for the higher education community. The Kuali Foundation, begun through with a collaboration involving Indiana University, the University of Hawaii, Cornell University, San Joaquin Delta College, Michigan State University, University of Arizona, the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), and The rSmart Group, and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Kuali Financial System is based on the proven financial system design that has been used at Indiana University (IU) for over 10 years. Its modular design includes a base system of Chart of Accounts, General Ledger, Transactions, Reporting, and Workflow.

Source: Business Wire

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