CollegiateLink Focuses on Software to Enhance Campus Life at Colleges and Universities

Boston, MA, September 23, 2005 --(PR.com)-- In January 2002, longtime high school friends Mark Greene and Aaron Severs were eating at a Wendy’s in New Hampshire. Both were highly involved in student leadership activities at their schools, the University of Rochester (Rochester, NY) and Wentworth Institute of Technology (Boston, MA) respectively, and this particular lunchtime conversation centered on their college experiences.

As a computer science major, Greene had become involved in administrative committees governing information technology at Wentworth, and was surprised at the lack of affordable, high quality software that was available for campuses. Severs, an economics major, talked about his endeavors to re-start the UR Sailing Club, an organization that had been inactive for several years, and how difficult it was to locate historical information about its membership and finances. This was how the initial idea for CollegiateLink and the company’s first product, SA LINK(TM) began.

For several months, Greene and Severs researched the software available to the higher education market, and they came to several conclusions. "We found that there were a lot of nice products out there for course management, career services, and alumni relations in particular. What amazed us, however, was the lack of offerings for the co-curricular side of things. Campus unions, student leadership, and athletics were particularly in need of quality software," Severs said.

"In general, we also found that software for colleges and universities was higher priced and of lower quality than that offered to businesses. We felt that affordable technology should be available that is effective, easy to use, and feels like it’s actually been updated since the '90s." Greene said.

They immediately went to work on a business plan, raised startup capital, and began the development of SA LINK, a complete enterprise system for student activities department administration. SA LINK was deemed ready for beta testing in April 2005, and after a successful pilot at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, CollegiateLink plans to release the 1.0 version this fall.

SA LINK will be offered in two packages. SA LINK Enterprise(TM) can be purchased as a customizable software application, ready to run on any standard Windows server. SA LINK TurnKey(TM) is a subscription service where CollegiateLink provides the server and system administration. Either way, customers' data is secure and only accessible by them. "By offering two ways to acquire SA LINK, we are hoping that every college and university with a co-curricular program will be able to benefit from our work," Severs said.

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