Acquia Helps Said Business School Launch Online Community to Connect Students, Alumni With Global Initiatives

LONDON--(Marketwired - Jun 3, 2013) - Acquia, where great digital experiences begin, today announced the launch of an innovative online community for Oxford University's Saïd Business School. The online community powers the school's Global Opportunities & Threats: Oxford initiative (GOTO) and provides students and alumni with a collaborative environment that supports learning, discovery and problem solving.

GOTO is an integral element of Saïd Business School's MBA programme and its commitment to encouraging lifelong learning for alumni. Launched in 2013, the community connects students and alumni with faculty and their research to discuss and drive business ideas that address global issues. In 2013, GOTO is focusing on the implications of an aging population and changing demographics on the world.

"GOTO is a completely new online learning environment. GOTO creates and enables an online community that supports learning, discovery and problem solving. Global Opportunities & Threats: Oxford (GOTO) is an integral element of the MBA course, a commitment to lifelong learning for alumni, and a flagship School initiative," said Professor Peter Tufano, Peter Moores Dean, Saïd Business School. "We are grateful to our IT team, Acquia, One Ltd and Pronovix for their enthusiasm, commitment and creativity in delivering a groundbreaking application."

Saïd Business School selected Acquia to provide project management, Drupal consulting services and technical support for the GOTO site as well as the school's public website, executive education extranet and intranet. Drupal web development company Pronovix and design firm One joined Acquia on the project.

"We sought to identify a common platform that that could be used for current, new and future web projects -- with the flexibility to respond to changes in technology and educational delivery systems," said Sue Rogers, IT director at Saïd Business School. "With an IT strategy based on principles of open architecture, Saïd Business School encourages the use of open source software wherever possible. It was with these principles that the IT team reviewed CMS platforms, selecting Drupal for its agility, accessibility, responsiveness and web-based modules."

"It has been an exceptionally collaborative process working with Saïd Business School and partners on these projects," said Jim Shaw, European general manager of Acquia. "We are delighted to see such a pioneering educational platform being developed on Drupal technology."

Drupal is the content management system of choice for universities worldwide. Colleges and universities are increasingly moving to Drupal, including Oxford University and 70 more of the top 100 universities listed on U.S. News & World Report's World's Best Universities.

Renowned for being one of Europe's youngest and most entrepreneurial business schools, Saïd Business School is ranked number five outside of the U.S. for full time MBA programmes, according to BusinessWeek.

About Saïd Business School
Established in 1996 the Saïd Business School is one of Europe's youngest and most entrepreneurial business schools with a reputation for innovative business education. An integral part of Oxford University, the School embodies the academic rigour and forward thinking that has made Oxford a world leader in education and research. The School has an established reputation for research in a wide range of areas, including finance and accounting, organisational analysis, international management, strategy and operations management. The School is dedicated to developing a new generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs and conducting research not only into the nature of business, but the connections between business and the wider world. In the Financial Times European Business School ranking (Dec 2012) Saïd is ranked 12th. It is ranked number one in the UK (7th worldwide) in the FT's combined ranking of Executive Education programmes (May 2012) and 24th in the world in the FT ranking of MBA programmes (Jan 2013). The Oxford MSc in Financial Economics is ranked 4th in the world in the 2011 FT ranking of Masters in Finance programmes (June 2012). In the UK university league tables it is ranked first of all UK universities for undergraduate business and management in The Guardian (May 2012) and has ranked first in eight of the last nine years in The Times. For more information, see www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/

About Acquia
Acquia is where great digital experiences begin. Acquia is helping some of the world's leading brands succeed, including Twitter, Mercedes Benz, Warner Music Group, and Stanford University. Join the more than 3,800 organisations that are moving at the speed of the web with Acquia's solutions for content, community and commerce. Acquia offers developer tools, cloud solutions and global expertise to drive success the open source way.

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See who's using Drupal at http://www.drupalshowcase.com, and for more information visit www.acquia.com or call +44 (0) 1865 520010.

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