SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Dreamforce 2010 -–
Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB), a global leader in education
technology, today announced plans for an improved learning
management solution for corporations and other learning focused
organizations that will emphasize training for sales teams. The
announcement will be made today at Dreamforce 2010, the cloud
computing event of the year.
To support the improved solution, Blackboard will develop a new
application on Force.com, salesforce.com's enterprise cloud
computing platform that will add a range of administrative
capabilities to its flagship learning platform, Blackboard
Learn™.
Already noted for its flexibility, ease of use and low cost of
ownership, Blackboard Learn will gain stronger certification,
reporting and tracking abilities commonly associated with more
complex and costly corporate learning management systems. As a
result, customers will be able to more closely align employee
learning and development programs with key corporate initiatives
and priorities and ensure that they have a larger, more measureable
impact on employee behavior, business goals and company
performance.
"This new application combines the strengths of leaders in
education and cloud computing to provide an improved solution for
corporate learning and training that better supports business
goals," said Michael Chasen,
president and chief executive officer at Blackboard.
"Force.com provides the fastest way to bring Blackboard's
leading learning and training platform to the cloud. Now
Blackboard's customers will be armed with the tools and
capabilities of the next generation of cloud-based learning and
training," said Kendall Collins,
chief marketing officer, salesforce.com.
Blackboard Learn is currently used by thousands of institutions
worldwide including hundreds of corporations of all sizes,
government agencies, nonprofits and associations. The platform
includes a range of powerful capabilities, social learning tools
and web 2.0 innovations to more effectively engage and develop
learners, and can be enabled for use on mobile devices with a range
of native applications for smartphones and other devices including
the Apple® iPad™.
"Blackboard offers a flexible option for corporate learning that
is highly focused on ease of use and learner engagement," said
Josh Bersin, president and chief
executive officer, Bersin & Associates. "Combining the
strengths of Blackboard and salesforce.com will give sales and
service teams an easy to use learning platform designed for both
formal and informal learning. Training is one of the largest
segments of corporate learning and this solution will greatly
expand the availability of training offerings for small and
mid-sized businesses."
"With deep roots in education, our understanding of how
knowledge is acquired and shared in support of business goals has
helped us grow quickly in corporate and professional learning in
the last few years," said Tim Hill,
president of Blackboard's Professional Education group. "Working
with salesforce.com, we can quickly bring a more robust offering to
a wider range of organizations, departments and teams that seek a
more flexible solution."
Chasen will join salesforce.com CEO Marc
Benioff on stage today at Dreamforce 2010. The keynote will
be available online at www.salesforce.com/live beginning at
approximately 9 a.m. Pacific
time.
For more information about Blackboard's work to support
corporate learning, please visit
http://blackboard.com/Solutions-by-Market/Corporate.aspx.
About Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) is a global leader in enterprise
technology and innovative solutions that improve the experience of
millions of students and learners around the world every day.
Blackboard's solutions allow thousands of higher education, K-12,
professional, corporate, and government organizations to extend
teaching and learning online, facilitate campus commerce and
security, and communicate more effectively with their communities.
Founded in 1997, Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Asia
and Australia.
About the Force.com Platform and AppExchange 2:
Force.com is the only proven enterprise platform for building
and running business applications in the cloud. The Force.com
platform powers the Salesforce CRM
(http://www.salesforce.com/) applications, more than 1,000
ISV partner applications like those from CA Technologies,
FinancialForce.com and Fujitsu, and 185,000 custom applications
used by salesforce.com's 87,200 customers such as Japan Post,
Kaiser Permanente, KONE and Sprint Nextel. Force.com also enables
developers to make any enterprise app social by leveraging the
social collaboration components including profiles, status updates,
and real-time feeds available with Chatter.
Applications built on the Force.com platform can be easily
distributed to the entire cloud computing community through the
salesforce.com AppExchange 2 marketplace
http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/, now featuring the
ChatterExchange.
Any statements in this press release about future
expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard and other
statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans,"
"expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute
forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ
materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements
as a result of various important factors, including the factors
discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our Form 10-Q filed
on November 5, 2010 with the SEC. In
addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press
release represent the Company's views as of December 8, 2010. The Company anticipates that
subsequent events and developments will cause the Company's views
to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these
forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company
specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These
forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as
representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to
December 8, 2010.
Apple and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.
SOURCE Blackboard Inc.