Founded in 1997, Blackboard is one of the leading providers of enterprise software applications and services to the education industry throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia. It provides the Blackboard Academic Suite, which is an engagement and assessment solution that includes Blackboard Content System, Blackboard Community System, Blackboard Portfolio and Blackboard School Central applications. The company also offers the Blackboard Commercial Suite solution, which supports commerce and accesses online and campus transactions. It utilizes the Connect-ED technology, which deals in the areas related to flu outbreaks, evacuations, career advising, disaster recovery, business continuity planning and enrollment management. Blackboard serves several primary and secondary schools, colleges, universities, government agencies and corporations, as well as textbook publishers and student-focused merchants. Its partners include Agilix Labs, Hewlett-Packard, IMS Global Learning Consortium, Trivantis Corporation, Macromedia and Sun Microsystems. Blackboard maintains a location in Phoenix.