Open source software to save money: Indiana U, U Hawaii, and NACUBO form Kuali to develop business software

University Business, Oct, 2004

A team of partners is working on open source financial software that may someday save colleges and universities money. The National Association of College and University Business Officers is joining Indiana University, the University of Hawaii and r-smart group in forming the Kuali Project. The four are pooling resources to create an economical but comprehensive financial system to handle general accounting, accounts payable and receivable, and other business applications.

The Kuali Project comes on the heels of the Sakai Project, which is a similar open source effort for course management. And where Sakai was loosely named after the Iron Chef who appears on the TV show of the same name, Kuali stands for "humble utensil that plays an important role in a successful kitchen."

The higher ed software administrators who are pushing these two new open source initiatives may have a sense of whimsy about their efforts, but they are dead serious about saving money. Kuali, which is modeled after Sakai, will free[y give away its source code. Higher ed institutions that use it will, in essence, eschew the licensing fees for commercial financial management systems. This could save 10 to 20 percent of the total cost of ownership for a financial system, says Brad Wheeler, associate vice president and dean of IT at Indiana. Universities pay $10 million and more to install and license such systems, he estimates.

Unlike Sakai, Kuali has not yet asked for a partnership fee. (Sakai is asking partner colleges and universities to give $10,000 per year to the project, which will entitle them to more say-so and software support.)

Kuali partners are investing $2.5 million in the project and expect to offer software within the next two years.

Learn more at www.kuali.org, or www.nacubo.org.