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rSmart Group Teams With IBM on Open Source Kuali Project

PHOENIX, June 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The rSmart Group, the leader in open source applications for higher education, and IBM jointly announce their collaboration to support the Kuali Project, an open source project based on Indiana University's Financial Information System. Together they will focus on the long term success and market adoption of Kuali -- a powerful combination of open source code, open standards and an open architecture that defines the next generation of administrative applications for higher education.
The rSmart Group founded the Kuali project along with Indiana University, the University of Hawaii, the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), Cornell University, San Joaquin Delta College, Michigan State University, and the University of Arizona. The $7.2M project is funded by the founding institutions as well as a $2.5M grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

"rSmart's vision and the rapid innovation of Kuali along with IBM's passion for open solutions and deep financial systems knowledge creates a formidable offering that challenges the competitive strategy of higher education's proprietary software vendors. IBM's commitment to this industry combined with rSmart's presence as a developer and community leader of this project ensures that together we will be able to offer higher education the key elements of validation, integration, testing, support, and service that will allow our customers to adopt Kuali with confidence," said Ray Barker, CEO of rSmart.

Upon announcing the collaboration with The rSmart Group Patrick Carey, IBM Business Consulting Services higher education leader, said, "in addition to our support of Kuali as an open source development project, IBM will also bring to bear the world's largest consulting organization with unparalleled experience implementing and integrating financial systems. The success of any financial system implementation is built upon effective change management as well as integration with other key applications within the institution. We believe that combining rSmart's knowledge of the Kuali application with IBM's expertise in implementing financial systems will provide higher education with a very persuasive alternative to the shrinking number of proprietary financial systems available today."

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 OSPI, 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 information about IBM's solutions and experience in education, please visit: www.ibm.com/industries/education. For more on IBM's 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 The Kuali Project

The Kuali Project creates software that provides a comprehensive suite of functionality to serve the financial systems needs of all Carnegie Class institutions. It includes such functional elements as Flexible Chart of Accounts, General Ledger, General Accounting, Accounts Receivable, Capital Asset Management, Pre and Post-Award Administration, Purchasing, Accounts Payable, Cash Receipting and Disbursement, Travel Requisition and Reimbursement, Auxiliary Accounting, Web-based e-Commerce, Budget Construction and Administration. The design is an enhancement of the proven functionality of Indiana University's Financial Information System. A critical element of the system is the XML-based OneStart(C) workflow for routing and approval of financial transactions. Extensive data warehousing and decision support tools will are an integral part of the system.


Source: The rSmart Group

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