Datatel Honors Alliance of Community Colleges for Electronic Sharing; Higher Education Consortium Receives Award for Exemplary Leadership and Collaboration.

BOSTON -- Datatel(R), Inc., a leading provider of enterprise information management solutions for higher education, today announced that it has awarded its 2005 Award for Exemplary Leadership and Collaboration in the Community College to the Alliance of Community Colleges for Electronic Sharing (ACCES).

The award was presented to Mick Starcevich, president of Kirkwood Community College, at Datatel's annual Presidents' Dinner, held during the 2005 American Association of Community Colleges Convention in Boston. Datatel hosts this event every year to bring together community college leaders of Datatel client institutions, and thank them for their dedication and support. ACCES is the 17th recipient, and the first consortium, to receive the award. As part of the recognition ACCES also received a $5,000 unrestricted gift from Datatel.

Award recipients are active in the Datatel client community and take a leadership role in the advancement of issues important to community colleges. They also exhibit an innovative approach to implementing technology practices, and demonstrate a clear commitment to improving services for faculty, staff, and students. The Award for Exemplary Leadership and Collaboration in the Community College was introduced by Datatel in 1989.

Comprised of nine community colleges from Iowa and Illinois - Kirkwood Community College, Eastern Iowa Community College District, Hawkeye Community College, Iowa Lakes Community College, Lake Land College, Northeast Iowa Community College, Northwest Iowa Community College, Southeastern Community College, and Carl Sandburg College - ACCES has aggressively implemented Datatel Colleague - Datatel's enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for higher education.

In deploying the ERP system, ACCES carefully evaluated the best methods for each institution to receive training, and utilized consolidated training rooms at two of the campuses to minimize training expenses and travel costs. Working closely with Datatel consultants, ACCES evaluated and instituted industry best practices, and used a decentralized application management that has allowed members to become individual owners of their systems.

"Since becoming a Datatel client in 2003, ACCES and Datatel have become true partners in collaboration," said H. Russell Griffith, Datatel president, CEO, and COB. "Their extensive involvement in process and data mapping has greatly helped the consortia better meet the overall needs of each institution and enriched their knowledge and understanding of Colleague, yielding truly magnificent results."

About Datatel, Inc.

Datatel, an employee-owned company, is a leading provider of fully integrated enterprise information management solutions for higher education. Headquartered in Fairfax, VA, the company has more than 650 client institutions throughout North America. For over 25 years, Datatel has exclusively focused on meeting the needs of colleges and universities, helping institutions operate more efficiently so they may better serve their constituents. For more information, please visit www.datatel.com.

(C) 2005 Datatel, Inc. All rights reserved. Datatel and Colleague are registered trademarks of Datatel, Inc. All other names, products, and services mentioned are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.