Summary Detail_Agilix BrainHoney Final 6-21-12

Agilix BrainHoney 2/29/2012

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1.0 Vendor Overview Responses1.1 Vendor Profile & Overview

Vendor Name Agilix Labs, Inc.

Total Revenue in 2010 ConfidentialTotal Revenue in 2009 ConfidentialTotal Revenue in 2008 Confidential% of Revenue From Clients in K-12 Education 56%

50%

% of Revenue from Other Solutions 44%

Confidential

2010 2009 2008

Under 9,999 students Not Reported Not Reported N/A10,000 - 24,999 students Not Reported Not Reported N/A25,000 - 49,999 students Not Reported Not Reported N/A50,000 - 99,999 students Not Reported Not Reported N/AOver 100,000 students Not Reported Not Reported N/A

Number of Service Delivery Employees 14

10

13List of Locations in North AmericaList of Locations in Other Geographies Agilix maintains a reseller network with several partners in Brazil and Colombia

Suburban Not ReportedUrban Not ReportedRural Not Reported

Vendor Headquarters Address and Telephone Number

733 E Technology AvenueOrem, UT 840971-801-932-1220

% of Revenue from K-12 Learning Management Systems

Please Attach Audited Financial Statements From Past 3 Years

Number of Education Clients in the Following District Sizes:

Number of Employees Providing Integration Services

Number of Employees Dedicated to Research and Development Orem, UT, headquarters with employees in Austin, TX; New Hampshire, Massachusetts;

Las Vegas, NV; and Indianapolis, IN

Number of School Districts Implemented in the Following Locations:



1.0 Vendor Overview Responses

None

1.2 Point of View in Education

Please discuss the target market (size, region, nature of organization, etc.) for your LMS products, including the target buyer.

Target Markets: Public and private K-12 institutions across the United StatesTarget Buyers: Large districts, consortiums

Please discuss any relevant strategies for product positioning and sales/marketing.

BrainHoney LMS is a Web-based LMS with drag-and-drop functionality and an intuitive workflow. BrainHoney gives educators simple tools for accomplishing standards-aligned, differentiated instruction. BrainHoney LMS is built on the BrainHoney infrastructure, which, with a published set of Web services APIs (application programming interfaces), allows the rapid development of custom learning solutions. Institutions seeking idiosyncratic systems designed around unique pedagogies can accomplish them faster and less-expensive by leveraging BrainHoney's Distributed Learning Access Protocol (DLAP).

Describe any disciplinary action or other administrative action against your company.

Describe your overall experience with the K-12 education market.

Founded in 2001, Agilix partnered with FranklinCovey to develop TabletPlanner, the first productivity application for the Tablet PC. In the same year, Agilix developed GoBinder, a stand-alone client application for students. From 2004 to 2006, Agilix developed BackPack, a client application for students that synchronized with Blackboard. From 2007 to 2008, Agilix created GoCourse Learning System, a complete learning solution for one-to-one initiatives that focused on professionally published content. In 2009, Agilix launched BrainHoney, a next-generation, Web-based, individualized learning system built on a platform designed for rapid customization.




Describe your perspective on your solution capabilities as it relates to K-12 LMS system requirements. Include perspectives on other relevant deployment experiences.

BrainHoney LMS delivers student-centered, objective-based teaching and learning. BrainHoney LMS works seamlessly across classroom, hybrid, and online environments, and is based on concepts of mastery, learning objectives/standards, efficiency, individualized learning and continuous progress monitoring. BrainHoney LMS includes standards alignment as an integral part of the work flow, as well as advanced assessments that eliminate or highlight content based on student objective mastery.K-12 education is unique in the use of common curriculum and/or assessments. BrainHoney LMS's course chaining feature allows master courses to automatically update all downstream courses while allowing teachers to modify the curriculum according to student needs. BrainHoney LMS won 2011 SIIA CODiE awards for "Best K-12 Course or Learning Management Solution" and "Best Classroom Management Solution," a title also won in 2010.

Describe your strategy and areas of focus within this sector, including key trends affecting K-12 education in the next three to five years.

Agilix is a partner in the sharing of digital assets, and is also focusing on the important trends of social and mobile learning. By creating a standard for sharing learner data, BrainHoney LMS facilitates curriculum compatibility among multiple publishers. Agilix recently hosted the “Education Innovation Summit through Interoperability Forum” in Washington D.C., where the interoperability of curriculum (leading to a personal learning record) was a major topic. Agilix is also establishing and strengthening a partnership network where student results can be tracked to standards.

What is your five-year solution road map as it applies to your company's philosophy? Describe how your solution will evolve based on macro trends that you perceive in the marketplace.

Agilix will continue working closely with more than 30 K-12 publishing partners to establish curriculum standards upon which mastery-based, personalized education can be accomplished. Through 2012, Agilix will enhance its social sharing capabilities by integrating the LMS with leading social networking sites and concurrently working on creating a mobile learning application for the iPad and other mobile devices. Also, Agilix is enhancing the BrainHoney platform to enable a network of BrainHoney-based solutions that draw from a rich, interoperable curriculum pool.




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2.0 System Technology Responses2.1 Technical Requirements

Supported product delivery modes include on-premises and ASP/hosted.

BrainHoney LMS was designed from the ground up as a Web-based LMS.

BrainHoney utilizes Microsoft SQL Server 2003 or Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

List databases compatible with your LMS. BrainHoney LMS is compatible with MS SQL Server.

List interfaces your LMS currently has in place.

BrainHoney LMS can operate on Windows Server.

Please describe the modes of product delivery (e.g., on-premises, ASP/hosted solution) you support.

If Web-based, is the project designed from the ground up as a Web-based solution or is it Web-enabled?

Name the core database and current version. Please indicate pending changes.

Is the solution SIF-compliant? SIF-certified? Describe other interoperability strategies.

BrainHoney LMS is not SIF-compliant, but is IMS, SCORM, Common Cartridge, and BLTI-compliant.

BrainHoney LMS includes the following interfaces: SCORM, Common Cartridge, Blackboard, Moodle, ANGEL and other LMS formats. BrainHoney LMS exposes its complete functionality via Web services using XML over HTTP.

Please describe system platform options and/or requirements. Please attach appropriate schematics.

Please provide a short description of technology architecture. Highlight technology differentiators.

BrainHoney LMS is a multitiered solution that is designed to scale out to handle millions of users. The BrainHoney architecture is unique in that the complete functionality of the application is exposed as Web services. The Web Services Tier, or DLAP (Distance Learning Access Protocol), exposes Web services as XML over HTTP. All applications, including the BrainHoney Web application, BrainHoney ToGo Windows client, mobile applications and third-party solutions, talk to the DLAP servers. The DLAP server is a C# ASP.NET server application that utilizes file systems, databases, and SOLR/Lucene behind the scenes. The BrainHoney Web application is a separate C# ASP .NET application that renders the user interface in a web browser using HTML and JavaScript.

Describe your approach and timeline for converting data from current LMS applications to the new LMS environment.

Using BrainHoney Web services, and depending on the skill level of the people involved and the complexity of the data, it can take anywhere from one day to several weeks to import data into BrainHoney LMS.



2.0 System Technology Responses

2.2 Hardware Requirements

Computers with current browsers and stable Internet access.

2.3 Software Solution

None

Please describe your policy on source code escrow. Source code escrow is negotiated on an individual client basis.

None

2.4 Relationships With Third Parties and Subcontractors

Describe any proposed specific skills, tools, templates and frameworks for data conversion.

A non-programmer can import data from SCORM, Common Cartridge or other LMS formats using the BrainHoney UI. A programmer familiar with Web services would be required to import unique or custom data into BrainHoney LMS.

Please describe your SIS and HR integration strategies with the LMS? Who are your preferred SIS and HR partners?

The BrainHoney DLAP includes published APIs for integrating with Genius SIS, School Pathways SIS, Maestro SIS and Infinite Campus. BrainHoney LMS currently does not integrate with HR systems.

Describe the recommended hardware necessary for the optimal operation of the solution. Indicate whether the hardware is required or optional for the software.

Identify all application software for your solution, including third-party application software, such as used for reporting.

Describe the system software included and necessary to operate your solution.

BrainHoney LMS requires the following system software: Windows Server operating system and Microsoft SQL database.

Identify and describe the supplemental software (e.g., supplemental development tools, configuration management tools and reporting software, etc.) necessary to implement and maintain the solution.

Describe any third-party hardware, software, or service providers, including the solution, that may be used to provide services or products in connection with any phase of a project.

Agilix does not use third-party service providers. However, solution partners may be involved in creating customer customizations. Content partners copy courses into customer domains once licensing agreements have been established.

Agilix recently launched the Bee Friendly™ partner program for content, solution and services partners who operate on or work with BrainHoney. More information is available at http://brainhoney.com/beefriendly.




2.5 Implementation Approach

Describe the financial relationship between the vendor and the third party. The vendor shall also disclose any known or perceived conflicts of interest the vendor or its leadership may have that would impact any phase of a project.

If customers purchase BrainHoney LMS from Agilix, they can license content and solutions directly with third-party vendors. If customers purchase BrainHoney LMS from a content or solution partner, Agilix shares in the LMS licensing revenue.

Describe the use and relationship with subcontractors for a project. Include all subsidiaries or affiliates not wholly owned by the vendor.

Agilix typically does not use subcontractors. However, Agilix may hire a subcontractor to help with customizations.

Describe the approach, tools and techniques you use to support a project from requirements through finished deliverables, including project management, checkpoints and status reporting.

Agilix assigns a single-contact project manager to support projects from requirements through finished deliverables using the following process.

1. The Agilix customization team leader performs a needs analysis with the customer.2. The project manager develops a mutually acceptable project timeline (including check points) and statement of work.3. The project manager provides project updates at the specified checkpoint dates.4. Agilix and the customer agree on final delivery and sign-off of customizations.

What is the average amount of time it takes from the project kick-off to cut over to production mode? Please model after a typical implementation for small, midsize and large districts.

BrainHoney production domains can be provisioned and enabled immediately. Customers can have a fully functioning site loaded with users in less than 24 hours without integration, course importing or training. Integration with an SIS usually takes several weeks (concurrent with course importing). In-person or online training takes two days.

What differentiates your company from competitors in the implementation?

BrainHoney LMS, as a hosted LMS solution, relieves the customer of hardware considerations. Our LMS is also differentiated by its online and blended learning paradigm.







3.0 Functionality Responses

3.1 Functional Capabilities

Content Access Standard

Curriculum/Content Management

Design and Development Standard

Curriculum Evaluation Standard

Standard / Optional / 3rd

Party / Future / N/A

1. Please provide a narrative description of your solution's capabilities for each of the areas below. Please showcase capabilities that are unique and offer competitive advantage. What changes do you anticipate in your product in the next 12-18 months? Please provide a time frame of new capabilities.

2. Please list all optional LMS product modules. Please showcase capabilities that are unique and offer competitive advantage for your optional modules. What changes do you anticipate in your product in the next 12-18 months?

Searchable resources: Agilix works with a growing list of more than 30 K-12 publishers to offer searchable, standards-aligned courses and content libraries within the BrainHoney LMS interface. Teachers can search by term or standard, preview items, then drag them into courses. With the inclusion of recent partners, BrainHoney LMS will include more than 50,000 searchable resources for licensed districts.

Course linking: Derivative courses and course subscriptions, available only in BrainHoney LMS, allow course linking and curriculum management. Any changes made at the parent level will automatically update at the child-course level, allowing districts to offer standardized curriculum while still allowing individualization at the classroom level.

Subscriptions: Subscriptions can be made at the course or domain level. Content items included in course(s) to which a user is subscribed, are searchable by term and standard. They can be previewed and pulled directly from a search field into the course allowing peer-to-peer sharing.

Software updates: BrainHoney LMS typically upgrades its functionality three times a year, solving customer concerns, and updating functionality.

Curriculum rating: Students and teachers currently rate curriculum on a five-star scale. Future enhancements include the ability to search by content rating.



3.0 Functionality ResponsesStandard /

Optional / 3rd Party / Future / N/A

Learning/Student Management

Instructional Design Standard

Plan Book/Lesson Plans Standard

Gradebook Standard

Portfolio Management Agilix is working on a portfolio feature. Future

Collaboration Tools Standard

Objective mastery and reporting: BrainHoney LMS is designed with objective mastery and reporting at its core. Educators, parents and students have formative knowledge of mastery levels and work together to improve performance according to the student's learning style.

Chronological content: BrainHoney LMS is not designed around a folder structure. Instead, BrainHoney LMS is chronological, leading students from one piece of content to the next in the intended order of participation.

Lesson plans: Lesson plans are included in teachers' curriculum playlists, but are hidden from students.

Gradebook: The BrainHoney gradebook provides teachers the with flexibility to customize user interfaces. For example, the left-hand columns can be customized to show a student’s pacing and performance status lights, grade and time spent on the course. Student scores on each assignment can be displayed as points, percentages, time on task or any combination of these. The bottom footer can be customized to display averages, due dates and number of items missing. Exam and assignment statistics: Exam and assignment statistics can be accessed by clicking the assignment title from within the gradebook. Instructors can view the distribution of scores and grades, view results question by question and answer by answer, and remove questions they deem to be confusing or inaccurate; rescoring is done automatically.

Course sharing: Teachers collaborate on course construction and can share resources via subscriptions as mentioned above. Entire courses can be copied in a matter of minutes to share with peers.





Online Assessments Standard

Class Data Management Standard

Item Creation and Storage Standard

Scoring Standard

Results Processing Standard

Professional Development

Standard

Online testing: BrainHoney LMS is designed to handle millions of test takers at once.

Assessment tools: BrainHoney LMS includes an easy exam editor, advanced editor, questions pooling and reusing questions. In addition, third parties can make use of the custom questions and adaptive assessment APIs to expand BrainHoney's capabilities.

Role-based dashboards: User information is displayed in a series of dashboards. Teachers see a dashboard for each course and a dashboard for all their courses. Administrators have access to these dashboards and also have a teachers dashboard and schoolwide dashboard.

Assessment Capabilities

Reusable assessment artifacts: Assessment questions are created and stored inside BrainHoney courses. Users may reuse questions from any course over which they have access rights.

Scoring workflow: Scoring can be set by the teacher at the quiz and questions level. Questions without an open end will be automatically scored by the computer. Questions, such as essay questions, that need professional review are brought to the attention of the teacher. The system also allows for non-teacher graders.

Automated analysis of assessment results: All results are processed and sent directly to the gradebook. The system watches for poor questions i.e. questions that divert from statistical regularities in other questions. After reviewing the question, and finding it insufficient, a teacher can select to delete the question and automatically rescore everyone.

Individual Development Plans

Customizable learning objectives for individuals: All learning objects can be edited for individual learners or groups to match learning needs. For example, a student could be given extra time to complete an assignment, or have the assignment excused completely. Prescriptive pretesting is another way of automatically customizing courses to a student's knowledge.





Staff Development Plans Standard

Collaboration Tools Standard

Administration

System Administration Standard

Standard

User Interface Standard

Assessment Import/Export Standard

Data Integrity/Validation Standard

Version Control Standard / Optional

Authoring Standard

Customizable learning objectives for teachers: The functionality listed in individual development plans can be used for teacher development as well.

Collaboration tools: Collaboration tools, such as course sharing, can be reused here to customize learning objectives for individuals and teachers.

System of rights management: BrainHoney LMS includes a system of rights management. Administrators are given full privileges and the ability to manage the rights of others.

Software Platform/Environment

Integrated administrator functionality: Administrators are given an extra tab, invisible to those without the correct permission set, through which they can manage course, user and domain setup.

Administrator guides: Administrators have a simple task pane that guides them through all the basic steps of user, course and domain management.

Teachers as students: Teachers can also be students in the system and can switch between their teacher and student interfaces.

Assessment imports and exports: Assessments may be imported from other systems into BrainHoney LMS through the import/export interface.

Automated analysis of assessment results: Administrators can drill down to all levels of the system, including assessment responses if required. Assessment data is validated as described in the Results Processing for Assessments section.

Backward compatibility: BrainHoney supports backward compatibility and services old versions for up to 15 months. For a fee, customers can request older versions to be supported longer. Midsemester upgrades have been handled without issue.

Separate authoring roles: Authoring is a separate role from teaching and can be granted by the administrator to any user. Multiple authors can work together on a course. A domain author role permits the creation of courses without action from the administrator.





Reporting Standard

Data Warehouse 3rd Party

Data Analysis Standard

System Data Integration Standard

Scalability/Configurability Standard

Security Standard

Language Support Standard / Future

Other Modules/Capabilities None N/A3.2 Reporting

BrainHoney LMS Web services APIs give users access to all data based on permissions.

Standard and ad hoc reports: BrainHoney LMS contains more than 25 common reports with a customized report service available.

Integration with external data warehouses: Data can be ported to a customer's data warehouse of choice via the Web services APIs. All data will remain on BrainHoney servers until contract termination, with a grace period for porting.

Usage statistics: BrainHoney records all usage statistics in additional to automated data analyses on assessments.

Integration via Web services: All data can be integrated with other systems via Web services API calls.

Highly scalable: BrainHoney LMS is designed to support more than 1 million concurrent users.

Authentication: Authentication is required at the Web services layer and any call made without permissions attached to the user making the call will fail.

Language support through XML: BrainHoney can support all languages through language XML/satellite files. Preliminary work has been done in Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese.

Describe the ability to build reports and provide specific examples within your response.

Standard and ad hoc reports: BrainHoney LMS contains more than 25 common reports, with a customized report service available.

Describe how your solution meets reporting requirements for integrating other reporting sources within your LMS.





3.3 User Interface, Flexibility and Configuration

Describe your solution's capabilities for data analysis.

Automated analysis of assessment results: The system watches for poor questions; i.e., questions that divert from statistical regularities in other questions. After reviewing the question and finding it insufficient, a teacher can select to delete the question and automatically rescore everyone.

Usage statistics: BrainHoney records all usage statistics in additional to automated data analyses on assessments.

Describe your solution's capacity of ad hoc reporting to supplement standard reports.

DLAP calls can be made at anytime to access all information by those with administrative permissions.

Describe points of access for a variety of roles (mobile vs. wired, parents/student vs. teacher/staff).

Standard Web access: All users access BrainHoney LMS on the Web via the same URL. Based on their permissions, user may have different interfaces. BrainHoney supports an observer role for parents and counselors.

Describe how user-defined fields are integrated in your solution.

BrainHoney LMS allows users to upload their picture, enter contact information and select their desired method of communication. Drag-and-drop and menu selection interfaces allow users to create learning activities and integrate third-party Web applications like wikis and social networking sites.

Describe flexibility and restrictions of how reports are accessed and published (Excel, PDF, PPT, etc.).

Reports can only be accessed by administrators or others with similar privileges. Reports can be exported as HTML or CSV.

Describe how data entry is facilitated (data validation, use of shortcuts, etc.).

Data entry accelerators: Various data entry accelerators, such as drag-and-drop and pre-selected fields for scheduling, are used throughout the solution.





BrainHoney LMS is interoperable with third-party solutions via the Web services API.

Agilix does not own any assessment IP.

3.4 Training and User Support

Describe tablet and mobile capabilities, taking into account platform considerations.

Web access: BrainHoney can be accessed by any full feature browser.

Mobile access: Initial work has begun on an iPad/iPhone application with planned completion next year.

Describe the ability to adapt to the client's business needs.

Teachers can customize the BrainHoney LMS user interface by selecting content to display in different areas of the screen.

Describe your solution's scalability from a learning perspective (import/export of learning materials).

BrainHoney can be scaled to support a large number of users and a large amount of learning content. The server farm simply will be expanded ahead of load requirements.

Describe your solutions interoperability with other systems and degree of real-time data access.

Describe your approach for assessments to be purchased individually.

Describe your approach to successfully training all potential users of the LMS.

Face-to-face and online training: Traditional contracts include two days of face-to-face training or three sessions of online training.

Train the trainer: Agilix trains the institution trainers, then answers any questions that filter up through them.





3.5 Organization/Business Change

Indicate what training materials and support are included in the cost of a proposal and what additional materials are optional and their associated costs.

Training courses: New domains are prepackaged with training courses at no extra cost. Searchable support resources are available to all. Training domains are also often used without any additional charge.

Instructor-led training: Instructor-led training is available for a fee.

How does your company provide ongoing support? Are users invited to conferences and/or user group meetings?

Ticketing system: Agilix maintains a ticketing system to which one (or more based on the contract) person in the customer organization is given access.

Describe how user support is accessed? Is it via email, phone, website, onsite, etc.?

Regular support: Typical customers access support via our ticketing system. Options are available for phone support.

Does your company have user groups?

User and developer forums are planned for as early as next year. Agilix maintains a Facebook page.

Describe your approach to providing Organizational/Business Process Reengineering for your clients.

Agilix professionals may provide business process re-engineering services if schools want a custom system and are certain of what they want. Agilix professionals will share best practices and suggest what types of processes may need re-engineering.

Describe your client experiences providing business process re-engineering services (large vs. small districts, etc.).

Hall Country, in partnership with Dell computers, has launched a new way of learning where students work together, in groups, online and in the classroom using BrainHoney to go at their own pace.






Summary Detail_Agilix BrainHoney Final 6-21-12

Documents

source code

delivery date

customizable

offer competitive

ad hoc reports

agilix developed

agilix developed

data entry