Datatel

Datatel, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Higher Education Technology Solutions
Founded	1968
Headquarters	Fairfax, Virginia, USA
Key people	John Speer, President/CEO (2006-present)
Revenue	$138.0 Million USD (2009)
Employees	533
Website	www.datatel.com

Datatel, Inc. is a private company that provides fully integrated software and professional services to build Enterprise Education Platforms for higher education. Founded in 1968 by Tom Davidson. It was originally a data processing service company, but has focused on higher education since 1979. Datatel focuses on building Strategic Academic Enterprises for colleges and universities that support five cross-functional domains essential for achieving institutional and student success: Strategic Enrollment Management, Strategic Planning, Institutional Advancement and Marketing, Teaching and Learning through its Intelligent Learning Platform, and Performance and Operational Management.^[1] Datatel is headquartered in Fairfax, VA, with second office in Buffalo, NY. With 533 employees, Datatel has more than 799 client institutions located in the United States, Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and Bermuda.^[2] Datatel was acquired in December 2009 by private equity company Hellman & Friedman.^[3]

History

Datatel was founded by Tom Davidson in 1968 as a data processing service bureau. The company began in the mezzanine of a suburban office supply store outside of Washington, DC. A few years later, Datatel began performing data processing for banks. In 1973, the company grew substantially when Davidson merged Datatel with Data Technology Corporation, owned by Ken Kendrick. In 2005, Datatel’s executive team – backed by Thoma Cressey Equity Partners and Trident Capital – signed an agreement to acquire the company from Davidson and Kendrick.^[4] While no longer involved with the company to this day, Davidson went on to co-found the Balance Bar food company in 1992 ^[5] and Kendrick is a managing partner and co-owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team. In 2004, Datatel acquired the LiquidMatrix Corporation,^[6] a Buffalo-based provider of student recruiting and alumni outreach Web-based software.

Timeline

• 1972: Datatel released their first product, the Silent 700, a programmable data terminal
• 1975: Became the first East Coast Microdata dealer ^[7]
• 1976: Began development of TOPS, the Total Office product system, later to be known as ASSETS
• 1979: Became first PRIME information dealer and began selling solutions for colleges and universities
  • Willamette University became first Datatel client ^[8]
  • Development of Colleague began
• 1986: San Francisco office opened
• 1987: Moved to current headquarters in the Fair Lakes area of Fairfax, Virginia
• 1988: Sold 100th Colleague client
• 1989: Changed to multiplatform UNIX
• 1990: Datatel Scholar's Foundation established
• 1991 Announced products on IBM and Sequent
  • First Canadian client - University of Waterloo
• 1996: Introduced Client/Server
• 2002: Datatel Center for Institutional Effectiveness(DCIE) formed
• 2004: Acquired LiquidMatrix Corporation
• 2005: Management buyout of founders
• 2007: Datatel reached 39th year of consecutive growth ^[9]
• 2009: Datatel was acquired in December 2009 by private equity company Hellman & Friedman.^[3]
• 2010: Datatel announces revenue of $138m in 2009 ^[10]
  • Datatel's releases ActiveCampus Portal, built on Microsoft SharePoint ^[11]

Awards

• Recipient of the U.S. Senate Productivity and Quality Award (SPQA) for Virginia in 1997
• Selected as one of The Washingtonian magazine’s Great Places to Work in 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007 ^[12]
• Recipient of the 2003 CARE Award for mid-sized companies as presented by the Northern Virginia Family Services organization ^[13]
• Recipient of the 2003 National Capital Business Ethics Award from The National Capital Chapter of the Society of Financial Service Professionals ^[14]
• Recipient of the University of Maryland’s Smith Digital Economy Award in 2008^[15]
• Top finalist for Microsoft Partner of the Year Award in Information Worker Solutions, Portals, and Collaboration in 2008 ^[16]
• Named Microsoft Public Sector Education Partner of the Year 2009, developing an enterprise CRM solution, expanding into the Teaching and Learning market segment, and introducing a mobile application for administrative and academic information on the go ^[17]

Products

• Datatel Colleague - an administrative software suite based on a single-source technology approach, coupled with data-driven, rules-based architecture. The five components of Colleague are:
  • CORE
  • ST (Student)
  • CF (Colleague Finance)
  • CA (Colleague Admissions)
  • HR (Human Resources)
• Datatel Advancement
• Datatel Mobile Access (MOX)
• Datatel Portal
• Datatel Recruiter
• Datatel WCMS
• Datatel Intelligent Learning Platform (ILP)

Professional Services

• Training and Education
• Consulting
• Administrative and Application Management
• Institutional Effectiveness
• Strategic Planning and Project Management
• Web Site Design
• Professional Executive Services
• Datatel Center for Institutional Effectiveness (DCIE) - provides strategic planning programs for administrators in higher education
• Support and Self-Service

Related information

Datatel Users' Group, or DUG, is a professional association of members from Datatel's client institutions. DUG holds annual and regional conferences.

In 1990, Datatel formed the Datatel Scholars Foundation to award scholarships to outstanding undergraduate and graduate students attending Datatel client institutions. The Foundation has awarded over 3,700 scholarships totaling more than $5.5 million.

Notes

1. ^ "Datatel and WealthEngine.Com Sign Partner Agreement," Datatel News and Events, 2008
2. ^ "Datatel, Inc." Google Finance Profile, 2008
3. ^ ^{a b} "Hellman & Friedman Acquires Datatel" Datatel Press Release, 2009
4. ^ "Datatel Executive Team Announces Management Buyout of Datatel, Inc., Backed by Thoma Cressey Equity Partners and Trident Capital," Business Wire, March 18, 2005
5. ^ Balance Bar CO Proxy Statement, February 5, 1999
6. ^ "Datatel Completes Acquisition of LiquidMatrix; Union Makes it Easy for Universities and Colleges..." AllBusiness, 2004
7. ^ "Then ... and Now: Datatel - From Original Microdata Dealer to Today's Top-Notch Provider of Solutions for Higher Education," International Spectrum, 2005
8. ^ "Join a Stable Client Community," 2008
9. ^ "Datatel Posts Record Revenue in 2007," Business Wire, April 14, 2008
10. ^ "Datatel Finishes 2009 Strong with Record Revenue" Datatel Press Release, 2010
11. ^ "Datatel Selects Microsoft SharePoint for Its Next Generation ERP Solution; Technology to Help Datatel Build the Optimum User Experience," Business Wire, 2005
12. ^ "Washingtonian Magazine Again Selects Datatel as a 'Great Place to Work,' Company Makes List a Third Time," Business Wire, October 24, 2005
13. ^ The CARE Awards Honor Roll 1992-2006
14. ^ "Datatel's Quality Milestones
15. ^ "University of Maryland Honors Datatel with 2008 Smith Digital Economy Award," 2008
16. ^ "Datatel Counted Among Top Finalists for the 2008 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award in Information Worker Solutions, Portals, and Collaboration," 2008
17. ^ "Datatel Honored as 2009 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference Awards Winner in Public Sector, Education Partner of the Year," 2009

Additional References

1. Company website
2. "Datatel Offers Web-Enabled Management Software," Campus Technology, August 12, 2002
3. "Company Profile for Datatel, Inc." Reuters, 2008
4. "Great Places to Work: The List," Washingtonian magazine, 2005
5. "Microsoft Announces 2008 Partner of the Year Awards Finalists and Winners," 2008
6. "Great Places to Work: Where to Feel at Home," Washingtonian magazine, 2007