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TechEmpower releases Rhino Learning Management Infrastructure Version 1.1
El Segundo, CA, November 30, 2001 - TechEmpower today announced the release of Rhino v1.1, its flagship Learning Management System infrastructure. Rhino is already in use as the core of several e-learning sites and is quickly being customized for specific learning management systems for new clients.
TechEmpower refers to "Rhino" as a learning management system (LMS) infrastructure. They differentiate this from other LMS products because it is designed from its core to be customizable. In other words, rather than following a "one-size fits all" strategy, TechEmpower has focused on the core functionality that any LMS needs, but designed it to be a flexible, powerful engine that can be extended to meet what each business specifically needs. Hence the term LMS infrastructure.
This product grew directly out of TechEmpower's experience in the market. Dr. Tony Karrer, TechEmpower's CEO/CTO says, "We have worked on learning management systems for HP, IBM, Michelin, Symbol, Digital Insight and others. In each case, we were asked to recommend an appropriate product. The products on the market did a lot of what was needed, but didn't exactly meet their needs. When we considered what it would cost to customize the LMS product and what they were getting for their money, it never made sense. Instead, we ended up building a custom application." After doing this several times, TechEmpower turned this experience into Rhino - their LMS infrastructure.
Rhino is built on top of TechEmpower's Gemini Java infrastructure. Karrer says, "Because of this, we know the foundation is scalable, secure, reliable and highly extensible. Gemini has been through the battles on very large systems."
On top of this architecture, Rhino v1.1 supports the delivery of courses, tests and resource materials to diverse organizations in multiple languages. Courses can exist in multiple versions and in multiple languages so that learners will be offered appropriate support. Rhino supports learners, trainers, managers, training managers and administrators who are organized into a series of groups that can model any organization's structure. Groups provide the basis for security and reporting structures. Rhino handles prerequisite relationships, grouping of courses according to roles and job functions, and compliance tracking. It also supports real-time monitoring of the system so that training managers and administrators can know how their trainee population is doing any time they want. "It is definitely comforting to sit at your desktop and watch the number of trainees, number of courses taken, and other statistics flow by in real-time," says Karrer.
With the release of version 1.1 of Rhino, TechEmpower will be aggressively taking it into the market. It has a broad potential reach and TechEmpower has designed it to run on many different systems. Rhino works with any application server including BEA's WebLogic, IBM's WebSphere, iPlanet, Resin, Enhydra, Jrun and others. It also works with any database including Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, Informix, Access and others. It runs across most versions of browsers and on Mac, PC, Linux and most UNIX versions.
"We are excited about the release of this version because it represents a lot of our best practice and best thinking", added Karrer. "Because of the Gemini architecture and our experience in the e-Learning market, we feel that this is well positioned both technically and from a marketplace needs perspective."
Founded in 1997 and based in El Segundo, California near Los Angeles International Airport, TechEmpower designs and builds custom software, database, web, and training applications for a wide range of clients, including Digital Insight, eharmony.com, Universal Music, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Microsoft, and Xerox Corporation.
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