VingCard PERSONA Announces Interoperability Agreement with Blackboard Inc

February 26, 2002, New Haven, CT – VingCard PERSONA, the commercial division of the VingCard Group, the world’s leading provider of electromechanical locking solutions, and Blackboard Inc., the leading software infrastructure company for e-Education, have signed a partnership agreement that will make the companies’ systems interoperable through Blackboard’s Building Blocks Program.

Under the agreement, VingCard PERSONA joins Blackboard’s Building Blocks Program (B2), which provides an open set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and developer services for creating extensions to Blackboard’s Transaction, Learning and Community Portal Systems. The two companies are exploring the development of interfaces between the Ving PERSONAÔ system and the Blackboard Transaction System.Ô

VingCard PERSONA provides an Advanced Stand Alone door access and locking system dedicated to the Higher Education Residence Hall marketplace. Interface with Blackboard’s Transaction System provides a strong compliment to Blackboard’s existing on-line door access system deployed on more than 150 campuses. VingCard Persona has already been deployed in a test or implementation mode on several Blackboard-powered campuses.

“The integration of the VingCard PERSONA system with the Blackboard Transaction System will be a significant benefit to our clients,” said Jim Hermens, General Manager of Blackboard Transaction Systems. “We are very pleased to see VingCard PERSONA join the increasing number of technology companies participating in Building Blocks.”

The partnership will benefit higher education institutions looking to implement security access solutions. Schools will now be able to provide students, faculty and administrators with expanded card services, while simultaneously reducing costs associated with traditional key locking systems.

”We are pleased to be offering our industry leading security systems to the higher education market in conjunction with Blackboard,” said Tor Baekkelund, Vice President of VingCard PERSONA. “We anticipate great success through this initiative and have already received a tremendous response from current Blackboard clients.”

With locks installed on nearly 3 million doors in more than 15,000 hotels in 135 countries around the globe, the VingCard Group is the established world leader in hotel locking systems. Since inventing the recodable door lock in 1979, VingCard has dominated the market for over 20 years by continuously introducing new, state-of-the art locking technology and related products. In 1996 VingCard developed an advanced Stand Alone Access locking solution to meet the higher security needs for campus environments. For more information, visit www.vingcardpersona.com .

The VingCard Group is a global network consisting of 11 subsidiaries and 75 distributors. World headquarters for the group are located near Oslo, Norway, and PERSONA Divisional Headquarters as located in New Haven, Connecticut. VingCard is a subsidiary of the ASSA ABLOY Group.

The ASSA ABLOY Group is the world’s leading manufacturer and supplier of locking solutions dedicated to satisfying end-user needs for security, safety and convenience.
Current sales for the Group are in excess of SEK 22 billion (approximately USD 2 billion) and the number of employees is approximately 24,000 worldwide.

Blackboard Inc. was founded to transform the Internet into a powerful environment for teaching and learning. The company offers a complete suite of enterprise software products and services that power a total “e-Education Infrastructure” for schools, colleges, universities and other education providers. Blackboard solutions deliver the promise of the Internet for online teaching and learning, campus communities, auxiliary services and integration of Web-enabled student services and back office systems.

Blackboard’s Learning, Community Portal and Transaction Systems are consistently ranked by industry analysts as the market share and customer satisfaction leaders for thousands of academic institutions and a leading number of the Internet’s most popular consumer education sites. The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices and staff across North America, Europe and Asia. Visit www.blackboard.com for more information.

For more information contact:
Michael J. Stanton, Blackboard Inc. (202) 463-4860 ext. 305
Tor Baekkelund, VingCard PERSONA, Phone (203) 781-3241