The deliverance of educational content is greatly impacted by the recent development in technology. There occurred a quite frequent technology up-gradation within this industry in the recent past. There are many technology providers in this market, and they are taking strategic jumps to sustain their competitive advantage. Let’s look at a few smart moves taken by the industry players in the recent past.

Ellucian, the global provider for higher education software and services, is developing a new technology to allow its clients to access remotely. The company has recently acquired Helix Education’s learning management system, to provide more enhanced analytics solutions for colleges and universities to keep a track of students.

Blackboard Inc. had acquired Schoolwires, one of the educational website. Schoolwires is a hosting and content management provider to K-12 schools and districts. This acquisition helped smooth flow of content management. In 2012, the company had acquired Moodle rooms and Netspot, and it is consistently working on communications and engagement. Recently, Blackboard Inc has been rated as one of the most aggressive players since it has bought out several smaller Ed-tech companies. The company has captured more than half of K-12 districts in the United States.

Jenzabar, Inc., which is again the provider of software, strategies, and services for higher education, is working on entirely different set of features. Recently, the company came up with The Jenzabar College Readiness Inventory, which is an online student survey and analysis tool that uncovers the hard-to-find non-cognitive factors impacting retention, persistence, and completion at a particular institution and tells whether the student is all set for the course or not.
Gaggle has recently partnered with Amplified IT on New Google Apps eBook, and many schools are making the switch to Google Apps for Education (GAFE). Teachers still continue to experiment with Google Classroom on their own. To help technology facilitators and classroom teachers ensure safe adoption and use of GAFE for students, Gaggle and Amplified IT have created a new eBook, for safe adoption of the technology. Yet another smart move in the market, to attract a major share.

Overall, there have been many mergers and acquisitions recoded in the recent past. This fragmented market is becoming more and more organized with a few major players enjoying major chunk of market share within the industry. Tech vendors like Triz Innovation, Smart Technologies, Canvas, Blackborard, Ellician, Jenzabar, are making every possible move to capture a decent pie of this highly potential market. Mergers & Acquisitions, Innovations within the product category or adding new features within the product are the recent trends.

These big league companies wanted to sustain their competitive advantage and are consistently strategizing. Meanwhile this gives in indication for the start up firms to make look into this market as the market is in its nascent stage. More and more players have become interested to join this race but ultimately it’s all about the horse that finishes a neck ahead wins the race.

This Blog is written by Lekha Gyanchandan. You can reach her lekha@dartconsulting.co.in