Driven by technology, process integration, and the explosion of information at our fingertips, the world is rapidly moving to a knowledge workforce. According to the Merrill Lynch publication "Knowledge Web, People Power - Fuel for the New Economy," "New jobs being created today are service and skill based jobs rather than manufacturing jobs. In 1950, unskilled jobs constituted 60% of all jobs with professional and skilled jobs representing the remainder. Fast forward the clock to today, and it is expected that 65% of all new jobs created will be skilled jobs and that by 2005 skilled jobs will represent 85% of all new created jobs."[i] Now, more than ever, people and what they know determine success.

To realize the benefits of technology and globalization, the triad of people, process, and technology must move forward in unison. The rapid advances in technology, global work practices, and real time, integrated information have mandated better practices around knowledge assessment. Companies have spent billions on new processes and technologies but have left knowledge assessment out in the cold. Product life cycles and supply chain processes are exponentially faster than before and are totally reliant upon technology and the understanding of that technology. Knowledge must keep pace with this rapid change. Management must immediately understand and correct knowledge weaknesses in order to optimize company output. Speed is essential when evaluating and acting on knowledge strengths and weaknesses. Companies that are able to quickly and iteratively evaluate the knowledge of a work force can leverage this knowledge to streamline and optimize their business. A company needs to build a network of individuals whose knowledge is assessed real time.

Assessments and certifications can be used in many ways to evaluate knowledge strengths and weaknesses. Knowledge assessments can be used to ensure consistent training and knowledge in a global work force. They can be used to assess and certify third party channel providers to ensure consistent service and quality. End users of your product can be assessed to ensure they have sufficient product knowledge. Aggregate assessments can be used to evaluate the knowledge of a team. An individual assessment can be used to leverage the knowledge of a specific worker to a specific need. Assessment and certification can be used as an independent method to measure the effectiveness of e-learning and classroom courses. They can pinpoint training needs and the results can be integrated into training and resource planning.

Internal to your company, knowledge assessment and certification can be used to ensure consistent training and knowledge in a global work force. A sales force can be assessed to determine if they understand new products and product changes. This could be particularly important when dealing with complex or regulated products such as new non-prescription or prescription drugs. Assessments can be used to determine if a manufacturing work force understands operating processes, maintenance practices, environmental, health and safety requirements and process automation technologies. This information would be invaluable when evaluating site differences in manufacturing efficiency, manufacturing cost, product quality and regulatory compliance. Assessments can be used to evaluate if the work force has adequate knowledge in supply chain procedures, security practices, HR policies (particularly in harassment, discrimination, and threat of violence), industry e-commerce practices, finance procedures, expense report practices and the culture and core values of a company. Lastly, they can be used to evaluate the knowledge of the employees of a company being merged or acquired by your company to better utilize their talents.

External to your company, knowledge assessment and certification can be used to create a web of certified individuals who support and promote your product. A company can require its reseller or channel providers to maintain certification on their products and services. This can ensure that the third party has the necessary technology, process and product knowledge to be an effective arm of company. A periodic re-certification process could ensure that people retained the appropriate knowledge. End users of your product could take an assessment to determine if they have the knowledge necessary to use the product. The assessment could pinpoint the areas in which the user should enhance her knowledge and guide her to the appropriate references. Suppliers can be assessed to ensure they understand purchasing policies, quality requirements, material specifications, and supply chain processes. Contractors and consultants working with your company could take assessments to ensure they have adequate knowledge of the work processes of your company, regulatory requirements, security requirements and contract specifications. Further, most external uses of assessment and certification can be implemented so that they generate revenue for a company.

To meet the internal and external needs of assessment and certification, a system should have the following attributes:

• Easy to implement/change - system implementation and change must have minimal impact on the work force and should not re-direct valuable IT resources from supporting the core business.

• Easy to use - the process must be straightforward and simple with little training required by the user, minimal time required to take the assessment, and must have 24 by 7 availability in order to support a global workforce

• Ensure valid results - key decisions will be made based on the results, the system and process must ensure the results are valid and repeatable.

• Provide real time feedback - results, both aggregate and individual, must be transformed into useful information real time.

• Easy to administer - the assessments should be easy to give, results should be easy to understand and distribute, and administration, manager and user access must be straightforward and easy to manage

• Secure - the system must keep the results secure

• Cost effective - the implementation and ongoing maintenance and support of the system must be low cost

A web based assessment and certification system powered by a computer adaptive test engine meets these needs. They provide real time feedback and analysis that can immediately be integrated into tactical and strategic plans to optimize human resources.

Brainbench can provide a web based assessment and certification system that meets the needs described above. Our vision is to become the world class testing authority in online assessments and certification. We have established ourselves as the leading provider of on-line certifications. To date, over 1.5M professionals have taken a Brainbench Certification exam. Corporations such as EDS, Ernst & Young, K-Force and many others also recognize our certifications as an accurate evaluation of the knowledge of an individual. We at Brainbench have proven the value of online certification and assessment and we realize the vital role real-time knowledge assessment and evaluation will play in optimizing a business.

The Brainbench solution meets the requirements for a real time certification and assessment system by providing a web-based, application service provider (ASP) knowledge assessment and certification solution that is driven by a computer adaptive test engine. This solution meets the requirements of an assessment and certification system in the following manner:

• Easy to implement/change. Brainbench does the development and maintenance of the assessment and certification solution. Our Virtual Test Center (VTC) approach integrates the Brainbench service offering into web site of the company. We maintain the site and the data after implementation. The customer only needs to provide the design requirements and "look and feel" of the site. We follow a rapid application development process and provide feedback to the customer during development. Brainbench also does changes to the site. This approach limits the number of valuable IT resources you need to deploy to implement and maintain the site.

  Brainbench will also develop the assessments and certifications for the company. We have developed a standard, repeatable process to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of our assessments and certifications. The customer can participate in this process if desired. In some cases, knowledge experts within your company will have to participate in building and validating test to ensure the accuracy of the assessment and certifications. The assessments or certifications can be developed and the site implemented in approximately two months. Standard changes to assessments or certifications can usually be accomplished within a day. More extensive changes can be completed within two weeks.

• Easy to use. From the perspective of the user, they never leave the web site of the company, even throughout the assessment and certification process. Users will access the Brainbench site, from links on your web site (either the intranet or internet site). When they select the link, they will be transported to the Brainbench VTC. The pages that they view on the Brainbench web server will incorporate the "look and feel" of your web site. When the user has completed their assessment or certification they will be returned to the your web site. Minimal time is needed to take the assessment. Standard times are 20 minutes for an assessment and 90 minutes for a certification. The site is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which is paramount for a global workforce. Brainbench Certifications can be taken anywhere, anytime and produces immediate feedback to the individual or manager.

• Ensure valid results. The Brainbench Certifications are designed to measure the knowledge of an individual. They have been determined to be a reliable and accurate evaluation of the knowledge of an individual in a particular subject area. All of the Brainbench knowledge-based assessment and certifications use the Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) "Stradaptive" model. Third party psychometricians have repeatedly told us that our approach is considered world-class and better than and other technical assessments they have seen. The concept behind CAT is simple - ask questions that tell you a lot about the knowledge level of someone and based on their answers adjust what needs to be asked. As a result, experts quickly move on to complex questions that test their knowledge, and beginners do not get frustrated with extremely difficult questions. Like a bracketing technique, the test will quickly find the knowledge level of an individual and confirm it with crosschecking. Brainbench uses large question banks to ensure topics are adequately covered and that people are accurately assessed. Brainbench also provides for test question variability, that is, a test question can be displayed in various ways. As the user takes the assessment or certification, one question is displayed on each browser web page. Each question has the ability to display a picture, text information or a sound clip.

• Provide real time feedback, individual and aggregate. The key to the successful operation of any assessment and certification program is the delivery of real time and accurate reports. All Brainbench reports are generated and presented over the web. Individual results that are displayed in real time. Aggregation into other results for team evaluation or trend reporting is also done real time. Brainbench will work with the company to develop custom reports. If desired, Brainbench will provide the company with the tools to list and sort results by team, location or individual. In addition, the company will be able to collect statistics on the number of assessments or certifications delivered, average scores, and user performance.

  To facilitate the development of a network of knowledge professionals, Brainbench can allow individuals to maintain an on-line transcript and the transcript will contain certification/assessment scores for an individual, contact information and training. At the completion of a certification, the user will receive a report that analyzes their performance. The key features in this report include:

  Score: Brainbench certifications are graded on a scale of 1-5. In addition, a percentile ranking that compares the score compared to all of the individuals that have completed the test, is included.

Strength/Weaknesses: A paragraph is provided describing the abilities of the user. Since a Certification program will most likely contain multiple certifications, the user will also be able to track their performance for all of their certifications online.

• Easy to administer. One system administrator can assign assessments or certifications, control access and disseminate reports. Manager can access results of their team via transcripts or custom reports. Users can have access to their individual transcripts. Access to assessments and certifications can be administered by two different methods. The administrator can individually control access or the user can have access to any assessment or certification.

• Secure results of assessments and certifications, and personal transcripts are owned by the company and not displayed or sold to any entity or organization. If the company desires, custom assessments and certifications developed for the company will also remain secure.

• Cost effective. The cost of an online exam are much less than the cost of administering a test proctored environment. When giving tests in a proctored environment, the cost of the facility, the proctor, the travel and the additional time away from work to travel to the facility must be factored into the cost. online testing alleviates these cost.

Billions of dollars have been spent on product development, global systems and new technologies. For these investments to be profitable, a work force must have the knowledge to derive the benefits and pass on the benefits to your customers. Companies that are able to quickly and iteratively evaluate the knowledge of a work force can leverage this knowledge to streamline and optimize their business. Now, more than ever, people and what they know determine success.

Endnotes