At the same time we wanted to provide some balance. So we called Adam Newman over at Eduventures, a leading, Boston-based, independent research firm dedicated exclusively to the coverage and service of learning markets. Newman directs the Research Group for Eduventures, overseeing the development of all company products and services. He has written extensively about vendors that provide e-education services to the higher education marketplace.

EP: What are some of the key drivers pushing e-education vendors to provide adequate products and services to higher education?

Newman: If you look at the vendors in the space - whether they are e-learning infrastructure providers or whether they are back-office ERP vendors, or enterprise portal solutions - they are trying to create a much more seamless computing environment. So one of the real critical things, and one of the reasons why you see so much partnership activity across the last 18 to 24 months, is because there isn’t really a set of standards that is really forcing the vendors to ensure interoperability. And the customers themselves, the institutions, don’t seem to be driving that discussion in the same way that the corporations are in the e-learning space.

Nevertheless, what the vendors are finding is that they are walking into environments, where not only are institutions maybe not inclined to work with 3rd party vendors, or at least weary of third party vendors, but they are also very concerned about the transportability of information and content from one system to another. So the ability for these systems to link seamlessly, ideally with one another - is becoming increasingly important. That’s why the services side of the equation, to the extent that these solutions don’t work together yet quite as seamlessly as the vendors would like - the real dollars for a lot of these companies serving the market are still in the services ensuring effective implementation and integration.

All you have to do is surf this via some of the CIO listservs and some of the associations to find out what a lot of the real questions are, and integration and compatibility are the huge issues with the CIOs.

EP: So, the vendors who can provide products and services that integrate seamlessly with the other parts of an institution’s IT infrastructure -- are these the companies that will most likely succeed?

Newman: Yes, I think they’re seeing such services as a critical differentiator.

EP: Do you think all these claims by vendors, that their products and services have been enhanced to accommodate higher education’s technology needs, are valid?

Newman: When you start to connect these systems together - that’s when folks find out. I think it would be dangerous for firms to be marketing that sort of functionality and compatibility if they weren’t going to deliver it. Now will it be as seamless as customers want? The early versions of new software never run nearly as smoothly and efficiently as everyone would like them too. So I think it’s inevitable that there are going to be some pick-ups along the way.

What will be interesting is to see how patient the customers are in terms of dealing with the early versions and bugs of these solutions. Training and support is going to be critical.

EP: Do you see the elearning vendors whose primary markets are in the corporate space moving their marketing efforts into the higher education arena?

Newman: I don’t at this point and time. I think they, by the performance of some of these firms of late, have got their hands full focusing on the corporate market and figuring out both the challenges of identifying who the key decision-makers are for those purchases as well as simply the difficult economic climate. I don’t see them in the near term all of a sudden turning to a new market opportunity, because I think there is still lots of opportunity in the corporate market, where the dollars should theoretically be a little bit easier to extract.

Eduventures