If You Want the Best...
...Work with the best. Capstone and Foundation are best selling business simulations, used in 500 universities, business schools and corporations around the world. With over 25 years of refinement, this proven online technology is stable, fully supported and relevant to today's global business environment.
Capsim is an independent company, focused on providing and supporting business simulations that allow educators, in academic and corporate environments, teach business theory in a realistic, applied context. Integrating feedback from thousands of professors, students and corporate training professionals over the decades, Capsim has produced online business simulations that are easy to integrate into courses and training seminars. The learning is effective and powerful because the learning experience in engaging and interactive.
Capsim also provides the Assurance of Learning tool, Comp-XM, The Competency Exam. Used in combination with Capstone and Foundation, Comp-XM demonstrates what participants have learned from the business simulation experience, satisfying growing demands for assurance of learning.
Important criteria for selecting a business simulation provider.
Here are eight tough questions to ask a business simulation provider, and how Capsim answers each of them below:
- If the building housing your servers burns down, what happens to my class?
- How long have you been in business?
- Does your company offer training seminars for faculty?
- Exactly what happens if my students call you?
- Do you offer homework assignments throughout the simulation?
- Do you have a team of teaching assistants to help me deliver my class?
- Can you assist with my assurance of learning accreditation requirements?
- Does my university's IT staff have to install software or be involved in the delivery?
If the building housing your servers burns down, what happens to my class?
Capsim is confident that its business simulations will become an important part of each class, and therefore respects the importance of class time and schedules. To provide a reliable 24 x 7 website, capsim.com is co-located at a SAS 70-certified data center with dual A+B network and power feeds, fully redundant servers, and on down to a state-of-the art SAN-based RAID storage system. If any component fails the system will continue to function while that component is being replaced. In addition, all class, simulation and exam data constantly replicates to a geographically separate and mirrored data center. If a local disaster should strike the primary center, the remote site can be quickly operational. As a practical matter other companies that rely on backups alone may take two to four weeks to locate and bring up a replacement center. When comparing simulation vendors, make sure their disaster won't spill into your classroom. Related questions include:
- How long will you keep my class available to me? Capsim courses may be reactivated to allow a wayward student to complete work for up to 60 days after the scheduled course end date. Archived course data remains online for review and reuse for 2 years. Exam data follows the same policy.
- Where do you keep your servers? Capsim keeps its servers at professional hosting companies within one hop of the Internet backbone.
How long have you been in business?
Capsim was founded in 1985, is proven, reliable, financially solid, and has the largest market share in its niche. Related questions include:
- How much of your business is focused upon simulations? At Capsim, simulations are the only business.
- Do you do business globally? Yes, Capsim has academic and corporate clients globally, along with an extensive dealer network.
Does your company offer training seminars for faculty?
Yes. Many Capsim customers have a cadre of faculty teaching our simulations at their schools. They have an ongoing need to train new faculty, including adjuncts, practitioners, and visiting professors. Capsim offers in-person faculty seminars several times each year in the USA, India and other centers in Asia plus online faculty seminars twice each year. If your school has a group of five or more faculty to train, Capsim will come directly to you. Each Capsim customer is assigned a client manager as a personal coach and teaching assistant.
Exactly what happens if my students call you?
Capsim simulation experts take all calls from students, and answer questions ranging from, “Why did we run out of money?” to “My team hates me, what should I do?” Telephone support staff never tell a student what they should do in the simulation, but can often get them back on track by asking the right questions or pointing to a resource on the website. Related questions include:
- What happens if I call you? Capsim encourages professors to call. Every professor is assigned a client manager. Part of the client manager's job is to assist you with your delivery just like a teaching assistant. If your client manager is on the phone, another client manager takes your call.
- What are your telephone service hours? Service hours are market driven.
All times are US Eastern Time: Monday-Thursday 9:00AM to midnight, Friday 9:00AM to 9:00PM. Sunday 4:00PM to midnight. Other hours are available by arrangement.
Do you offer homework assignments throughout the simulation?
Yes. Capsim offers a variety of assignments with rubrics that are designed to keep your students working and thinking all through the simulation.
Do you have a team of teaching assistants to help me deliver my class?
Yes. Capsim client managers can assist you with your syllabus, launch your class, set up a schedule, coach you before each class session, debrief the results with you before class, even take questions from students. Capsim wants your class to go smoothly and will do whatever is necessary to demonstrate how to get the most out of it.
Capsim client managers work as a team so if you need help and your client manager is not available, another client manager can step in an address your needs.
Can you assist with my assurance of learning accreditation requirements?
Yes. Comp-XM®, The Competency Exam, was designed specifically to address assurance of learning. Comp-XM is an add-on exam for Foundation or Capstone. Comp-XM can be scheduled in a variety of ways – as a project, a take-home exam, or a proctored exam.
In a typical class, students form teams that function as company managers in Foundation or Capstone. This presents opportunities for you to collect data that might be related to overarching goals like team building or communications. Near the end of the course, each student is promoted to CEO of a similar company in a slightly different business as they begin the Comp-XM simulation. They are running the market leader as three tough competitors come after them. As the student runs the business, Comp-XM asks questions about what they are doing and why. At the end of Comp-XM you have two sets of data, how students performed running their companies, and how well they answered the questions.
Does my university's IT staff have to install software or be involved in the delivery?
No. Everything is done over the Internet. Capsim simulations are entirely online and there are no university license fees.
On the website we offer:
- Decision support packages for students. The online decision workbook does “what-if” analysis directly on the website. Students in low-bandwidth environments can download an Excel version of the online support package.
- A complete history of reports from the beginning to the end of the simulation
- Analysis reports that tell you and your students what happened and how to improve performance
- A peer evaluation system
- A homework system that offers assignments ranging from mission statements to SWOT analysis
- A complete audit trail of decisions made by individuals and teams
- Performance measurement report, both traditional measures and a balanced scorecard
- Debrief reports