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RightNow Technologies is model for university,
community partnership
by Anne Pettinger
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| While he acknowledges RightNow's responsibility as a steward in the community, Gianforte is frank that the company benefits greatly from having Montana State nearby. |
When then-33-year-old Greg Gianforte moved to Bozeman in 1995, he planned to retire. He had just sold a successful software development company for more than $10 million and had fallen in love with the area during a backpacking trip as a kid. Gianforte thought Bozeman would be a good place to ski, fish and raise a family.
What he hadn't expected was that, though he loved retirement, Gianforte wanted to go back to work. After researching a few ideas for new businesses, he founded RightNow Technologies, an Internet software company, in 1997. From marketing automation software to business intelligence software, RightNow's products are aimed at improving customers' experiences.
The company has grown to an estimated 650 employees worldwide, including about 400 employees at its Bozeman headquarters, making it the largest commercial employer in the city.
RightNow is noteworthy not only because it offers relatively high-paying jobs in the Gallatin Valley and regularly recruits alumni from Montana State, but also because of the relationship it has developed with the university.
That long-term relationship with Montana State includes a new distinguished professorship. RightNow has pledged to give $80,000 a year for the next three years to help fund the RightNow Technologies Distinguished Professorship in Computer Science.
The distinguished professor will be in charge of growing the graduate program, building bridges between computer science and other departments on campus and raising the department's research profile, said Michael Oudshoorn, head of the computer science department.
"It will help us become more the kind of department we want to be," Oudshoorn said.
Gianforte hopes the professor will have a research interest that is at least loosely related to work that RightNow does, but that qualification is not required of the person hired. Still, the professor might benefit RightNow in other ways.
"One of the reasons we're helping to fund this computer science position is to hire an experienced computer science professor who has a history of attracting computer science grants," Gianforte said, recognizing that grants for the university might result in research that relates to the company.
RightNow also has funded 10 scholarships for computer science students and has employed 26 interns since 2003.
Further, Gianforte estimates that more than 40 percent of RightNow's employees are graduates of the Montana University System, the vast majority of whom are graduates of Montana State.
Gianforte and other top company executives also contribute to MSU's intellectual life through stints as adjunct professors and by serving on advisory boards. They also give lectures, such as last year, when Gianforte delivered a keynote lecture at the College of Business.
The myriad ways that RightNow is involved with MSU serve as an example of a productive relationship between a company and the university, said Linda Wyckoff, senior director of development in the College of Engineering. "The best partnerships are multifaceted," she said. "I can't think of anyone who does a better job partnering with the university."
For Gianforte, partnership is the key idea. While he acknowledges RightNow's responsibility as a steward in the community -- the company pays its employees to take a week off to do community service, it matches financial gifts, and delivers literally tons of food to the food bank -- Gianforte is frank that the company benefits greatly from having Montana State nearby.
"The computer science program being healthy and prosperous is directly related to our long-term health," Gianforte explained. "It's extremely important for us that MSU have a vibrant computer science program."
"We couldn't have located in Bozeman if the university hadn't been here. The capital in a software company is human capital," Gianforte added. "It's enlightened self-interest."
Endowed and distinguished professorships enrich the university community
Just as the $240,000 RightNow Technologies has pledged to help fund a new distinguished professor in computer science should help land a top-notch person for the position, other funds and endowments also work to the university's benefit when searching for distinguished faculty and endowed chairs.
Distinguished and endowed professorships are important to the university for several reasons, said Provost David Dooley.
First, they allow administrators to recruit distinguished faculty to campus, whom they would otherwise have trouble attracting.
"In many areas we're not competitive nationally in terms of funding," Dooley said. Extra funding helps bridge that gap.
Endowed and distinguished professorships also allow university administrators to reward and retain faculty who are already on campus, and they enhance the competitiveness of the faculty in general, Dooley said.
This year, such well-known people as David Quammen, a science writer, and William Yellowtail, a Crow Indian who was once the regional director of the Environmental Protection Agency and candidate for Congress, have been named endowed chairs. Whether teaching, mentoring graduate students, giving public lectures or conducting their own research, their contributions are important to the university.
In fact, as proof of its commitment to faculty support, Montana State has significantly increased its endowments and the amount it has spent on endowed professors in the last several years. In 2005-2006, MSU spent more than $320,000 on disbursements for endowed chairs and professorships, an increase of more than $250,000 from 2000-2001.
"The quality of undergraduate and graduate education depends primarily on two factors: professors and facilities," Dooley said. "Endowed professorships are a mechanism to ensure the very best faculty are recruited and retained."
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