UB was seeking a company that could host their software externally, provide technical support on a 24x7x52 basis, train faculty in how to use a CMS, and assist with course development while having faculty maintain complete ownership of their instructional materials. UB also wanted at least one FTE to reside on campus "so that people could bring their questions and we could have an on-demand training, management and maintenance environment," Legon adds.

An RFP was put out, and Eduprise won the contract. At the time Eduprise was affiliated with Collegis but not officially merged with them.

In January of 1999 UB launched its fully online MBA program. "They really worked extensively with us," Legon says. Groups of faculty went to CollegisEduprise (CE) headquarters near Raleigh, NC for training. CE staff went to UB to provide one-on-one faculty training. CE built the home site for the program and also assisted with the development and maintenance of the administrative back-end. One and one half program support personnel were screened, hired (with UB’s approval) and now work for CE on the UB campus. Both are recent alumni of UB graduate programs, one from the school’s MIS program and another from its publication design program. "They knew the institution from the inside and were able to integrate into the campus operations very smoothly," Legon says.

Initially UB utilized CE’s Rapid Course Development and Delivery System (RCDDS) for its CMS, but about nine months ago they switched to Prometheus (now part of Blackboard). "Our faculty compared the various platforms and they liked Prometheus a lot," says Legon. CE did a features comparison and analysis of the tasks required to transition over to the Prometheus platform and also worked with UB to convert all the courses. With the recent merger into Blackboard, Legon says "the future is a little bit murky right now." However, he adds that CE provides all the CMS support they need under a sub license agreement. "So we are kind of buffered from the changes that are occurring at Prometheus."

Legon explains that UB is pleased with the services being provided by CE. "They have established a very close rapport with the faculty," he says. "It really feels more like a partnership or collaboration than a typical client/vendor type of relationship." He believes the good relationship developed because CE’s core group came out of academia. "There was that university culture that they were marrying to the corporate culture," he adds.

UB’s overall online education program has grown to include a fully online undergraduate business degree program. Also, many existing courses offered throughout the UB campus have been web enhanced. The fully online MBA program started out with nine students in January of 1999 and today enrolls 175 students. "We have a large business graduate program, and more than half of the credit hours are being generated in fully online courses," says Legon. "We are growing at a very rapid rate; the main limitation is how quickly we can scale up our faculty resources to handle the demand."

Concerning the topic of return on investment (ROI) as it relates to the overall implementation and development of UB’s online education efforts in collaboration with CE thus far, Legon says "we’re not looking at this to be a cash cow for the university. Our goal really was to attract more students and to charge rates that would at least compensate the university for its efforts at the margin."

Nonetheless, in 18 months, Legon adds that marginal revenue has surpassed the break-even point. "It has been growing beyond that ever since. It is a profit center for the university, but not huge dollars. And every dollar of it gets reinvested in expansion efforts. We are in this for the long haul. We’re looking to reach out and attract students from a greater distance, and the web seems to be an efficient way of doing that."