Sakai saves money in hard economic times

Are you experiencing your own economic crisis on campus?

If you are, rSmart may be able to help. Switching from your expensive proprietary LMS to our fully supported open source Sakai can save you a lot of money.

Don't worry-we're not going to tell you that open source software like Sakai is free. That was last year's misconception, and it was a pretty common one. Even though there are no license fees for Sakai, there are ongoing costs for support and maintenance. These costs can be all over the map, so a debate has arisen about whether using open source really saves any money at all. We're here to show you that it can.

Perhaps you've heard that using open source software like Sakai requires legions of IT staff to support. Well, it doesn't have to. This misconception stems from the spreadsheets of institutions that choose to invest heavily in the direct development of the software and then support it themselves. Anxious competitors sometimes generalize from this data and spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about all open source implementations. For institutions that simply want to use the software, there is a lower cost alternative available-purchasing support and maintenance services for Sakai from rSmart. Dozens of colleges and universities are already doing this and are recognizing considerable savings over what they've paid for expensive, proprietary software from the "blackboards" of the world.

Since we're often asked, "Can rSmart Sakai CLE really save us money?" we want to share an analysis that demonstrates that yes, the rSmart Sakai CLE can save most colleges and universities money. Not that saving money has been the primary motivation for most of institutions that choose Sakai (more control and better, more rapid innovations are usually cited as the main reasons). Even so, in today's climate of economic malaise it's increasingly prudent to save dollars where possible. And many colleges and universities are discovering that switching to Sakai from expensive legacy systems like Blackboard and WebCT can save thousands of dollars each year while providing better support than they get from their current provider!

So, how much can an institution save each year by moving to rSmart Sakai CLE? Consider these three examples*:

East coast, private research university

Carnegie Class: RU/VH
FTE: 19, 500

Southwestern, state university

Carnegie Class: Master's M
FTE: 6, 200

Midwestern, state university

Carnegie Class: RU/H
FTE: 23, 500

Let's clarify something here. These are real examples, but we mask them because, quite frankly, what proprietary software vendors charge is supposed to be a secret. Our pricing, on the other hand, is anything but a secret: It's in black and white on the pricing page on our website (http://www.rsmart.com/sakai/learn-more/pricing). You can use the figures given there to compare the cost of your current LMS (whatever it may be) to the cost of the rSmart-supported Sakai CLE. We're confident that our supported open source package can save you money, while providing equivalent (or better!) support and the same assurances you receive from your current vendor.

Contact rSmart today for more details.

* In these examples

1) We assume that at each institution, staff and hardware requirements are similar for each solution. These are reasonable assumptions based on feedback from rSmart's clients who have implemented the rSmart Sakai CLE.

2) The price quoted for rSmart includes full hosting of the application. Since the hosting price includes the cost of the IT infrastructure, it's an even better value.

3) Each school transitioned from one system to another. Transition costs, however, aren't included in this analysis. We assume that the cost of transitioning to Sakai is similar to the cost of transitioning to any other new system.