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The SMART Center, ("Synchronized Meeting and Real-time Training center), is
designed to be an easy to use yet powerful tool in online distance education.
Designed to be used in conjunction with the Online Learning Center or as a stand
alone application, the SMART Center provides a whole new level of service to its
customers.
When the SMART Center was originally conceived, we wanted to design it in
such a way that it would not require a large number of plug-ins or be an
application that required too much interaction. We settled on a well known
standard, Macromedia's Flash. The Flash plug-in comes standard with most
computers and is accepted universally as a progressive and highly secure means
of communication.
The Philips SMART center extends The Online Learning Center by allowing
live presenters to interact with students via Webcams, whiteboards, and chat.
Students can register for courses on the Online Learning Center and then gain
access to scheduled presentations on the SMART Center. The SMART Center can also
be used for stand-alone scheduled meetings or "Instant" meetings where a high
degree of interactivity is required between participants in different
locations.
The SMART Center uses the Flash MX Communication Server, and Flash MX
components tightly integrated into a .Net application, with a SQL Server
database back-end, all designed and programmed by Outermost Software.
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Users who want to be able to take their courses without being connected to the
Internet can order course offerings on CD. After studying the course material
from the CD, the user then goes online to take the test at the end of the
course. Outermost designed and built the technology that allows the course
content to be burned to CD. The challenges were two-fold: 1) Convert server and
database content to a format that could be read locally 2) Create security
controls to ensure that the person buying the CD is the one taking the test, and
none other.
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Outermost Software's flagship site, The Philips Online Learning Center is a
highly customized LMS (Learning Management System) tailored for the needs of
Philips Medical Systems. It allows Philips personnel to create and deliver high
quality distance learning on any number of topics related to their products,
their technologies, and the fields of radiography, MRI, CT, and
Ultrasound. In addition, the Learning Center creates communities of learning by
extending the learning experience with discussion groups, polls, a bookstore,
and links to the SMART Center for synchronous learning.
The Online Learning Center was originally developed using Microsoft's ASP
technology, but Outermost Software rewrote the entire system from the ground up
for Microsoft .Net, in 2002, and continued to extend it in 2003. It includes the Module Factory, a content-development system that allows
non-technical users to develop course content. The system consists of many modules including eCommerce (with credit-card
authorization, course delivery, instant polling, web services, management and
reporting modules, and a full-featured email message center.
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The Philips Online Literature Store is a web-based business application that facilitates the ordering and distribution of marketing and technical collateral materials.
It consists of three sections. The first is a catalog of items that employees can search. They can select items they want to order and add them to their shopping basket. When they place their orders, charges are applied to their cost center (or they can pay by credit card). The second section is used by managers to enter item descriptions and images to go in the catalog. The third section is for the Fulfillment center. Personnel log into this area to view currents orders and ship them. They then email confirmations to the people ordering, along with shipper tracking codes.
The system as a whole was very succesful in reducing paperwork and in shortening delivery times for items that are key to the marketing and support operations.
The Literature store was written in Microsoft's ASP technology, and has a SQL Server back-end.
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