Questionmark Introduces Web Integration Services Environment

For Immediate Release

Questionmark Introduces Web Integration Services Environment

STAMFORD, CT - June 6, 2002 - Testing and assessment software provider Questionmark has taken another step towards making Questionmark™ Perception™ the de facto standard in testing and assessment software with the release of QMWISe, a comprehensive series of APIs. These APIs (Application Program Interfaces) enable registration, management and reporting systems to tightly integrate with Questionmark Perception.

Perception is already compliant with industry standards such as IMS and SCORM and is AICC certified. But in adding these new APIs, Questionmark is helping customers protect their technology investments by providing closer integration than is currently envisioned by those standards.

"QMWISe is a natural extension of Questionmark's technology because of our extensive network of partners around the world," said Questionmark President Eric Shepherd. "Our strong commitment to open standards has already allowed us to integrate with many of the industry leaders. Now we are poised to increase the number and power of these integrations, which will benefit many of our 1,400 customers."

"QMWISe opens the door for a far richer integration process between Questionmark Perception and Learning Management Systems," commented Omid Hodaie, Director of Learning Management Platforms for Sun Educational Services, a division of Sun Microsystems Inc., whose industry leading Sun ELP™ (Enterprise Learning Platform) is currently integrated with Questionmark Perception. "Customers will be able to get direct access to more Perception functionality through a single, seamless interface that brings together all aspects of managing and delivering the learning experience."

A preview of QMWISe is now available at http://www.questionmark.com/perception/help/qmwise. QMWISe utilizes .XML, SOAP and web services to allow easier integration of Perception with Management Systems, Learning Content Management Systems, Student Management Systems, Course Management Systems, Employee Management Systems, and Training Management Systems.

QMWISe allows developers to access and interact with Perception, making calls that add participants to the Perception database and schedule them to assessments. A key advantage of using .XML to pass data into QMWISe is that a user can pass full details of a participant with name, address, and organization in the same call, without having to break it up into lots of bits. Since XML, SOAP and web services are fully platform independent, calls can be made from any platform and any programming language.

"The most exciting software challenge out there today is integration," commented Jigish Avalani, Director of Education Solutions at Microsoft. "We want to revolutionize the way software talks to other software and evolve the way people build applications. QMWise, using XML, SOAP and web services will enable customers to leverage existing software investments while improving developer productivity."

Avalani added: "Using .NET will support a world where computers will talk to other computers. This integration will enhance learning, enable timely access to information and empower better decision making in education."

QMWISe also makes it possible to perform functions such as:

• finding a list of all assessments available in Perception to decide which one to run;
• enabling a user to log into Perception without them having to enter their password
• adding, deleting, or changing a participant in the Perception security database;
• scheduling all participants in a given category to take a particular test or tests
• finding all people who scored 80%+ in test X and schedule them to take test Y.

QMWISe is complementary to Perception Integration Protocol (PIP), which remains fully supported as a way of calling Perception assessments. Using QMWISe is the recommended way to interface with Perception, rather than reading and writing directly to the Perception databases. A developer application makes calls to QMWISe using SOAP and web services via HTTP (which is a platform independent transfer mechanism), gets information from the Perception databases, and makes request to add, change or delete information.

QMWISe sends and receives XML data packaged with SOAP. The application calling QMWISe can run under Windows, UNIX or other platforms, and the QMWISe API is entirely platform and programming language independent. The preview release of QMWISe supports 37 separate web service methods and is expected to support IMS data formats in the future.

About Questionmark:
Questionmark is a privately owned company that has been producing testing and assessment software since 1988. Questionmark Perception software is compatible with many learning management systems and is used in more than 50 countries. The company's hosting service offers scalability and rapid deployment for organizations wishing to run online assessment without having to use their own servers. Businesses, governments, schools, colleges, and universities in more than 50 countries use Questionmark software. Visit http://www.questionmark.com for more information, or call 1.800.863.3950.

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