Rafter(TM) Launches First Course Materials Network for Students, Educators and Administrators

SAN MATEO, CA--(Marketwire - Feb 28, 2012) - Rafter, a new education technology company that launched today, unveiled the industry's first Course Materials Network for students, educators, and college administrators. The Rafter Course Materials Network™ serves as the essential campus platform for students to obtain course materials, educators to research, compare and adopt them, and administrators to manage the entire process. Offering a comprehensive solution for schools to manage all facets of their educational materials, the network houses a complete set of cloud-based supply, pricing, commerce and loyalty services.

"College administrators are working hard to address the affordability, accessibility and effectiveness of course materials while managing the ever-increasing complexity of the course content market," said Mehdi Maghsoodnia, CEO of Rafter. "BookRenter has become a standard platform for more than 500 colleges across the country, and, in the process, the team has identified the core technology needs of schools to effectively manage their educational content. Rafter, through the Rafter Network™, will provide all of the tools schools need to give students improved access to educational content at better prices and a better educational experience overall."

Rafter supports the entire process of choosing, sourcing, obtaining and delivering course materials to students, all while keeping costs low and logistics simple. The Rafter Network builds on the technology formerly known as BookRenter Store Services and is comprised of transparent, supplier-and-content neutral tools that address the three major areas of course materials management:

Rafter Discovery & Adoption
Rafter Discover™ provides a wealth of information to educators never before assembled in one website. By tapping the company's eight years of adoption, bibliographic, and economic data, Rafter Discover provides a free, transparent guide to the adoption patterns, prices and content for more than 11 million textbooks and other course materials without publisher bias. Rafter Discover includes information on editions, publication dates, inventory, life-cycle, adoption patterns and current market pricing.

Rafter Supply & Pricing
Rafter Supply IQ™ gives schools and stores access to the nation's largest cloud-based source of real-time textbook pricing and inventory data, providing better tools to help them be more price competitive.

Rafter Supply Network™ enables schools to acquire, rent, sell, deliver, and liquidate textbooks and digital content more economically and faster than ever before by leveraging national sources of supply and demand. This cloud-based textbook source offers inventory from hundreds of book suppliers and college stores, providing massive economies of scale, the lowest prices, and the widest selection of titles.

Rafter Commerce & Loyalty
Rafter Cloud Commerce™ and Rafter Local Commerce™ offer students the best shopping experience on the planet by allowing students to purchase new, used, and digital books, or rent these titles, either in-store, online, or from a mobile device. Students get the options and flexibility they want with features like local pickup of online orders. Rafter's commerce solutions help stores build loyalty with traditional CRM tools, online and in-store marketing programs, and by delivering new customers from BookRenter.com, both in-store and online thereby growing stores' market share.

"Access to Rafter's Course Materials Network will allow us to effectively manage more aspects of our school's course materials process, and the impact of our improved efficiency will be evident in the student experience," said Jared Ceja, Director of Auxiliary Services for Chaffey College. "We will be able to source materials and deliver them to our students faster, more flexibly, and at better prices. This will be a significant enhancement and true differentiator for our school."

About Rafter
Rafter is an education technology company and the leader in course materials management. Rafter offers a cloud-based Course Materials Network (CMN)™ that enables schools to significantly improve the affordability, effectiveness and accessibility of their educational materials. The Rafter Network™ leverages the latest technology to connect students, educators, administrators and content providers -- changing the course content experience from a burden to a rewarding process for all constituents. Rafter partners directly with more than 500 schools to improve the educational experience for students. Rafter owns and operates BookRenter.com, a destination site for students to rent and buy textbooks at up to 80 percent off. To date, Rafter has saved millions of students more than $175 million and counting and provided more than one hundred thousand books to children in support of early literacy. Rafter, headquartered in San Mateo, CA, is a privately held company. To learn more visit www.rafter.com