rSmart Wins IBM Beacon Award for Innovation Excellence in Education

PHOENIX, Ariz. – April 21, 2008 – rSmart has been named winner of the award for “Innovation Excellence in Education” in the annual IBM Beacon Awards competition, honoring IBM Business Partners for their ingenuity, innovation, customer satisfaction and outstanding achievements in providing business solutions.

rSmart, the leading full-service provider of open source software solutions for education, provides the rSmart Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE), which supports online teaching, learning, research projects, portfolios, and more. The solution integrates IBM WebSphere Application Server and DB2 and runs on Linux, with implementation services from IBM Global Business Services.

Being based on open source software, the rSmart Sakai CLE is designed to enable institutions to provide new innovations in course management and collaboration to their constituents at lower costs without vendor lock-in. rSmart customers report saving as much as 40 percent of what they were paying for comparable solutions. Other benefits include more rapid innovation cycles, lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), flexibility to customize the application, supported community innovations with a trusted partner, lower risks of using an open source solution, predictable annual support and maintenance costs, ease of integration, and less potential for vendor lock-in.

Judges remarked that, “rSmart demonstrates innovation excellence in open and aligned learning. Its services are well respected in the global higher education market and meet the pain points associated with vendor lock-in, such as rising costs and product development.”

"As an IBM Beacon Award winner, rSmart has been recognized as an outstanding contributor to innovative online solutions for the education industry," said Ravi Marwaha, general manager, IBM Global Business Partners. "Its open-source solution for open and aligned learning gives educators a cost-effective and innovative solution that helps overcome the challenges of decreased funding and changing student expectations."

“rSmart is pleased to receive the IBM Beacon Award recognizing the value we deliver with the rSmart Sakai CLE,” said Chris Coppola, president of rSmart. “Our Sakai offerings enable educational institutions to benefit from the freedom and innovations of open source while enjoying the reliability of an accountable partner. Education is being asked to do more with less. With rSmart’s supported open source solutions, colleges and universities can accomplish this.”

About IBM Beacon Awards

More than 725 nominations were judged by a team of leading industry journalists, analysts, and IBM executives, who selected winner and finalists in 37 award categories. These IBM Business Partners will be honored during a gala event at the IBM Business Partner Leadership Conference in Los Angeles on April 30 - May 2, 2008. For more information about the IBM Beacon Awards, please visit http://www-1.ibm.com/partnerworld/pwhome.nsf/weblook/2008_awards.html.

About rSmart

rSmart is the leading open source application software company serving the education market. rSmart packages, certifies, deploys, and supports a suite of enterprise financial, collaboration and learning applications for colleges, universities, and organizations serving grades K–12. 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 educational institutions. This collaborative approach allows rSmart to offer open source applications that break the dependence of educational institutions on traditional proprietary software vendors. Please visit www.rsmart.com for more information.

IBM and its related products are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Corporation in the United States, other countries or both# # #