Forum .LRN Q&A: 10K filed by BlackCT: Theme that might resonate with some of the firms that have been pushing .LRN in universities

From a recent 10K filed by Blackboard:

“The sales cycle between our initial contact with a potential client and the signing of a license with that client typically ranges from 6 to 15 months. As a result of this lengthy sales cycle, we have only a limited ability to forecast the timing of sales. A delay in or failure to complete license transactions could harm our business and financial results, and could cause our financial results to vary significantly from quarter to quarter. Our sales cycle varies widely, reflecting differences in our potential clients’ decision-making processes, procurement requirements and budget cycles, and is subject to significant risks over which we have little or no control, including:

- clients’ budgetary constraints and priorities;

- the timing of our clients’ budget cycles;

- the need by some clients for lengthy evaluations that often include both their administrators and faculties; and

- the length and timing of clients’ approval processes

Potential clients typically conduct extensive and lengthy evaluations before committing to our products and services and generally require us to expend substantial time, effort and money educating them as to the value of our offerings.”

This certainly resonates with me as I push a .LRN/OpenACS pilot to broader audience within our "very large academic health center" (a colleague at work familiar with my experience waiting for internal response to proposals forwarded it to me).

International audience asks (per email), "What is a 10K?".

A 10K is the annual report of corporate performance required by law of public companies that is filed with the <acronym title="Securities and Exchange Commission">SEC</acronym> (the US federal regulatory agency for the securities industry).

Why is it called a 10K? Not sure (maybe the name of the form?).

I'm not sure why this would be interesting, but if people wants to see the report:
http://investor.blackboard.com/

interestingly the last one is from 2004

R