4 ms·

Absolutely stunned by the cost of Blackboard referenced here: http://bit.ly/pjCNow http://bit.ly/pjCNow. No software that is as poorly made as Blackboard should

by rglover 15y ago

Absolutely stunned by the cost of Blackboard referenced here: http://bit.ly/pjCNow http://bit.ly/pjCNow. No software that is as poorly made as Blackboard should ever cost that much. Glad to know my now former university is ditching BB for a different service.

bmelton 15y ago
The thing with Enterprise software or, any software that finds a niche, really, is that it doesn't HAVE to be brilliantly made. I'll be the first to agree that Blackboard is, pretty much, terrible. But it isn't cheap, and sells really well. What that tells you is that everyone screaming 'release, release' is right. If your product works and solves a problem, it doesn't have to be amazing to make money. Their terribleness might open the doors to competition, but they're easily the market leader for a reason.
jh3 15y ago
Oh my, THAT'S how much Blackboard costs? I despise using this software. ANGEL is just as horrible if not worse. I do not know what else to say...
reemrevnivek 15y ago
After seeing that figure, I'll be writing a letter to my current university asking them to ditch BB for a different service. What options should I suggest? For those who don't want to click the bit.ly link, The 5-year contract is for $4,228,812.50 and can be seen at http://wwe1.osc.state.ny.us/transparency/contracts/contracttransactions.cfm?Contract=NMP0141&Agency=70000&entitytype=Agency http://wwe1.osc.state.ny.us/transparency/contracts/contractt...
- _delirium 15y ago
  That's not too unusual, unfortunately, and not entirely the fault of one side. Selling to a system like CUNY, and the kinds of reporting, maintenance, and support requirements they have of these kinds of contracts, is hardly worth it unless you get big money. Maybe $1m/yr isn't the minimum for it to be worth it, but if you sell one of these big systems as a hosted enterprise solution and you're only getting $100k/yr, you'll have trouble breaking even. Just the trips out to meet with the various IT Strategy Boards and Educational Technology Review Panels and whatever will cost you $10k in travel, as one cost among many, and then there's some liability insurance to protect against things like security holes leaking grades, etc.
- rglover 15y ago
  I haven't looked into other options that much, but I know they're switching to something called Canvas: http://www.instructure.com/ http://www.instructure.com/
iskander 15y ago
That's about $8 per CUNY student for both software and 5 years of hosting. Doesn't seem so bad to me-- I'd be surprised if a competitor would be much cheaper.

by rglover 15y ago

bmelton 15y ago

The thing with Enterprise software or, any software that finds a niche, really, is that it doesn't HAVE to be brilliantly made. I'll be the first to agree that Blackboard is, pretty much, terrible. But it isn't cheap, and sells really well. What that tells you is that everyone screaming 'release, release' is right. If your product works and solves a problem, it doesn't have to be amazing to make money. Their terribleness might open the doors to competition, but they're easily the market leader for a reason.

jh3 15y ago

Oh my, THAT'S how much Blackboard costs? I despise using this software. ANGEL is just as horrible if not worse. I do not know what else to say...

reemrevnivek 15y ago

After seeing that figure, I'll be writing a letter to my current university asking them to ditch BB for a different service. What options should I suggest? For those who don't want to click the bit.ly link, The 5-year contract is for $4,228,812.50 and can be seen at http://wwe1.osc.state.ny.us/transparency/contracts/contracttransactions.cfm?Contract=NMP0141&Agency=70000&entitytype=Agency http://wwe1.osc.state.ny.us/transparency/contracts/contractt...

_delirium 15y ago
That's not too unusual, unfortunately, and not entirely the fault of one side. Selling to a system like CUNY, and the kinds of reporting, maintenance, and support requirements they have of these kinds of contracts, is hardly worth it unless you get big money. Maybe $1m/yr isn't the minimum for it to be worth it, but if you sell one of these big systems as a hosted enterprise solution and you're only getting $100k/yr, you'll have trouble breaking even. Just the trips out to meet with the various IT Strategy Boards and Educational Technology Review Panels and whatever will cost you $10k in travel, as one cost among many, and then there's some liability insurance to protect against things like security holes leaking grades, etc.
rglover 15y ago
I haven't looked into other options that much, but I know they're switching to something called Canvas: http://www.instructure.com/ http://www.instructure.com/

iskander 15y ago

That's about $8 per CUNY student for both software and 5 years of hosting. Doesn't seem so bad to me-- I'd be surprised if a competitor would be much cheaper.