Optimized Learning and rSmart Announce Strategic Partnership

By combining the strengths of rSmart’s commercial support for its Sakai CLE application and the security of OLi’s Tier 4 hosting abilities, the two companies are able to offer academic institutions a true turnkey solution for implementing, hosting, and supporting the powerful new option for teaching, learning, and research. rSmart sees the partnership as a natural fit. Dan Barber, rSmart’s Vice President of Sales said, “Working with a trusted hosting and networking resource like OLi really allows us to offer our educational clients a much more robust solution. As a team, OLi and rSmart can offer the entire spectrum an institution needs to implement open source e-learning.”

OLi will be providing the hosting services for rSmart’s CLE products, while rSmart offers its customers the day-to-day technical support, maintenance, and training that help institutions embrace the new open source technology. Both companies are committed to helping academic institutions achieve a seamless transition from using a proprietary online learning vendor to the lower cost and flexibility of the new open source e-learning solutions. OLi, in particular, acknowledges that the new partnership furthers its own corporate mission. The company was founded to help small to mid-size colleges and universities move towards open source technology, a movement that is rapidly changing the way schools facilitate online learning for students. In the new arrangement, OLi will continue to deliver the hosting and networking expertise it’s well-known for, and rSmart will provide technical support, maintenance, and training for its CLE. This combination of solutions enables institutions of all sizes to get up and running with the rSmart Sakai CLE in a very short time frame.

Butch Porter, CEO of Optimized Learning said, “We are very excited to be working with the rSmart team. Their supported Sakai solution is one that is gaining recognition in the academic community. Our mission at OLi is to help schools succeed in the new open source universe, and by working with rSmart we are able to eliminate a major concern of our clients – ongoing software support. The partnership with rSmart plays to both companies’ strengths, and at the end of the day the real winner is the customer. We’re enthusiastic to be working with rSmart as their preferred hosting partner.”