Modo Labs Acquires RojoServe

On January 18, low-code app building platform Modo Labs announced its acquisition of integration company RojoServe. The purchase comes several months after the companies partnered to create XCampus, a modern integration solution allowing Modo Campus Apps to integrate with Oracle PeopleSoft Campus Solutions student information system. Students using these products can now access their registration status, course schedule, financial aid, and other essential information and workflows from their campus app.

Tambellini spoke with Modo Labs regarding the RojoServe acquisition. Like other campus app vendors, Modo Labs works with multiple integration partners to support their clients regardless of which administrative systems they are using. However, Modo Labs is bringing their preferred PeopleSoft integration team in-house. The decision signals a firm commitment to the continued development of XCampus, PeopleSoft-related integrations, and the conviction that PeopleSoft will continue to be a significant and relevant landmark in the higher education landscape for the near future.

Modo Labs joins a growing number of vendors affirming their long-term commitment to on-premises student systems. By developing robust data integrations, modern user interfaces, multi-channel communication capabilities, and next-generation analytics and reporting wraparounds, they are extending the life of these legacy systems. As a result, institutions can take incremental steps towards modernization while cloud-based student system offerings mature.

COVID-19 propelled campus apps and web portals into the spotlight as campus leaders sought effective strategies for supporting and communicating with students from a distance. (This Tambellini blog post discusses how systems navigation has become essential to student success.) With a modern campus app, a student can check their class schedule, message their instructor, click on a map for walking directions, scan their digital ID to enter the building, access the learning management system, place a mobile lunch order, and schedule an appointment at the tutoring center—all within a single workflow. A seamless user interface across campus systems saves students time, reduces their cognitive load, and keeps them from falling through the cracks.¹

How Modo Labs offerings will evolve as more higher education institutions transition to modern cloud-based student systems (and modern cloud-based systems develop similar, native functionality) remains to be seen. Finding innovative ways to leverage or transform RojoServe’s expertise could be critical to Modo Lab’s long-term success.

¹ Although undeniably powerful, some leaders caution that campus apps are not a silver bullet for campus-wide communication. Some students cannot or will not download a mobile application. This is one factor driving the trend towards web portal and mobile application alignment, as a unified approach will reach more students where they are.