AACSB and six other leading higher education associations have joined with Microsoft Corporation in launching Partners for the Advancement of Technology in Higher Education (PATH). The partnership aims to assist colleges and universities as they address the range of issues raised by the greater incorporation of information technologies into institutions and as they capitalize on the potential of information technologies.

"In order to affect change among their members, associations themselves need to exhibit the behaviors they wish to promote," said Jim Ptaszynski, strategic relations manager in the higher education group at Microsoft and founder of the PATH initiative. "Many associations face both fiscal and technological limitations. Microsoft is making monetary contributions, as well as contributions of technical expertise, to help the associations involved in PATH "ramp-up" their own technology and prepare them to assist their membership in accomplishing the same."

PATH partners receive the latest Microsoft software and related staff training in return for promoting technological standardization and helping Microsoft learn to better serve the higher education market. The associations benefit by saving dollars, gaining expertise and providing new services to their member institutions.

The partnership couldn't have come at a better time for AACSB, according to Milton Blood, AACSB managing director. "We had begun working on a strategic plan to upgrade technology even before Microsoft extended an invitation," he said. "Before, we were working with a variety of hardware and software and we were spending too much time getting these systems to work together. We realized we needed standardization and recognized that we needed to be proficient with a number of communication tools to better serve our members."

"This partnership approach is very different for all the organizations involved," said Ptaszynski, who was associate dean of the Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University before joining Microsoft. "Overall, we think it can represent a new way of thinking about relationships between profit-making and non-profit organizations. In the partnerships envisioned through PATH, we expect an evolving collaboration, based on our shared purpose and shaped by our respective interests and contributions."

PATH associations will engage in three types of activities: developing the capacity of the respective association to understand the potential of the heightened use of technology in higher education, assist colleges and universities in understanding and improving their appropriate use of technology, and assessing the impact of the partnership. "We hope that underlying this partnership are the shared beliefs that the integration of information technology into higher education is an urgent priority," said Ptaszynski, "and that this integration can ultimately result in both improved learning and greater cost -effectiveness, and that a PATH member can assist colleges and universities in ways that the institution might not be able to do as effectively on its own."

Microsoft's criteria for selecting the partnering associations included:

• An outward enthusiasm for the integration of technology in higher education;
• A sense of urgency that information technology must be better integrated into higher education;
• A realization that the association itself needs improved adaptation of technology and a commitment to use its resources to achieve it;
• A commitment to assist its membership to plan, implement and integrate the use of appropriate information technologies;
• A broad, national, constituency that respects the association and its work;
• A willingness to partner with Microsoft to achieve these goals.

Russell Garth, executive vice president of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), said the PATH partnership came at a good time for his organization, too. "A year ago, we decided that we needed to upgrade our systems internally," he said. "We'd already been helping member colleges upgrade and we decided it was time we did the same. We were excited to get some help from Microsoft."

James E. Morley Jr., president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Colleges and University Business Officers (NACUBO), said PATH fits nicely with upgrades already under way within his association. "We already worked with a lot of Microsoft products," he said. "But we do feel the project has helped us reach our business goals."

Ptaszynski believes the partnerships will help staff members at each organization understand how technology can streamline their offices and, in turn, help them better serve their members. PATH members agree.

"At AACSB, we have more than 100 member institutions outside the United States," Blood said. "Using the Web and electronic mail is very important in breaking down time differences when we communicate with them. Using technology this way doesn't confine you when you're trying to make contact with somebody in Southeast Asia."

CIC's Garth said, "We really want to make use of this partnership to link our member colleges together to help them share information more effectively. We've been playing around with the idea of an electronic CIC and this will help us clarify our vision for that electronic organization."

CIC member colleges are an entrepreneurial group and share information regularly, said Garth. "The improved technology will just make it easier," he said. "We would like to create the infrastructure that will allow members to develop a 'best practices' Web network. The presidents of our colleges already are talking to each other. The next step is to compile comparative databases such as financial information, endowment information and student statistics in one place like the Web."

"We hope that our membership sees our operations as seamless," said NACUBO's Morley. "If anything, we'd like them to feel like we're operating more efficiently because of the Microsoft partnership."

Ptaszynski said one of the most significant contributions Microsoft is making to PATH is allowing the organizations access to Microsoft managers. "It's important for an association member to be able to call up a Microsoft manager and get an answer to a problem right away. That's unheard of in any other type of corporation - you don't call a GM manager when you have a problem with your car."

But access doesn't end with Microsoft executives. PATH members are looking forward to learning from each other. "Anything that helps a nonprofit organization like AACSB in terms of funding is helpful, but even more important is the support we're receiving from Microsoft and the sharing of information among the members of PATH," Blood said.

Garth emphasized that saving money is not the most significant aspect of his organization's participation in PATH. "Doors are opening to other organizations that might not otherwise have opened so quickly," he said.

"Higher education groups are fairly fragmented because they don't communicate with each other very much," said Blood. "We'd all be better off if we communicated more effectively, and I think PATH might have an important impact on the higher-education community. To me, one of the real values of PATH is that we'll be learning from each other." Already, NACUBO and CIC are discussing plans for a joint project in the future.

Microsoft's major contributions to PATH members free up funding for other needs. But, conceptually speaking, Microsoft's contribution of software and support allows the organizations the luxury of understanding how technology upgrades can benefit their organizations specifically and higher education in general.

Blood said the new technology is changing the way AACSB conducts everyday business and is making it more effective as a member-driven organization. "We've realized that not only must we be good at what we do, we also must be good at learning new ways to do our jobs," he said.

"The Microsoft partnership has allowed CIC to experience increased power in a number of ways: additional capacity, faster working time and a better overall understanding of technology," said Garth. "PATH has allowed us to enhance our conceptual understanding of technology and what it can do for us."

According to Ptaszynski, "Paradigms are shifting for higher education and PATH will help higher education change with them."