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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The name Wisdom Tools may be unfamiliar to you now. But if you are involved in business, education or government, there is a good chance you will be hearing more about it in the future.
Wisdom Tools Inc. is the name of a recently incorporated Bloomington-based software development firm that has evolved from research conducted at Indiana University.
With its entry into private business, Wisdom Tools is bringing to the international marketplace a new, unique and powerful Web-based learning tool called Time-Revealed Scenarios (TRS) that company officials believe will set the standard for technology-based training. TRS was developed from research conducted at the IU Center for Excellence in Education, with grants from Turner Broadcasting, Mosby Publishing, and Eli Lilly and Co.
Ronald Henriksen, president of IU's Advanced Research and Technology Institute (ARTI), which provided assistance for Wisdom Tools' growth into a business, released details of the new company during a briefing at the Bloomington Economic Development Corp.
"An important aspect of ARTI's mission is to link technology and ideas discovered by IU inventors with private enterprise," Henriksen said. "Wisdom Tools is the first project to achieve commercial business status by taking advantage of services provided by ARTI."
Henriksen explained that ARTI helped Wisdom Tools develop its business strategy, recruit the management team, arrange equity financing, and lease space and equipment. He said Wisdom Tools is participating in the multi-billion-dollar, rapidly growing corporate and institutional training market, aimed at Fortune 1000 companies as the primary customer base.
IU President Myles Brand added, "The formation of Wisdom Tools as a private company, which will transfer Indiana University research to the world of business, is a success story for the company's founder-inventors and their associates, the university, the Center for Excellence in Education, and ARTI. This is an accomplishment that bodes well for the future."
Martin Siegel, a co-founder of Wisdom Tools, is the company's chairman of the board and chief technical officer. Also an IU professor of education, Siegel is an expert in learning sciences and will continue to devote part of his time to completing IU research projects that were funded by grants from the Wisdom Tools program.
The acting chief executive officer is Jane Martin of Bloomington. She is a former partner in a San Francisco-based venture capital fund and has 20 years of experience in business development.
Wisdom Tools has products that can be used in any corporate/organizational training situation such as sales coaching, skill development, improved marketing strategies, ethics training, online academic degrees, customer support, soft skills development, sales performance, emergency management and various government-mandated areas such as sexual harassment and safety.
TRS, the flagship product, is based on proven instructional techniques in problem-based learning case study, storytelling, role-playing, simulation and collaborative learning. It is designed for developing skills requiring strategy and judgment, as well as more focused skills in areas such as leadership, negotiations, sales and marketing, operational performance, financial analysis and crisis management.
TRS can be accessed from a desktop computer, a training lab, a computer at home, or a laptop when traveling. It provides power for collaborative problem-solving with peer groups online and enables organizations to leverage existing training materials by including them in the training process.
Wisdom Tools is located in the Indiana University Research Park, 501 North Morton St., Suite 224, Bloomington, Ind. Its telephone number is 812-856-4201. Additional information is available through the firm's Web site at http://www.wisdomtools.com
ARTI is based in Indianapolis and also operates from offices in Bloomington. It is a private, not-for-profit corporation acting as an agent for IU. Through the departments of Business Development, Technology Transfer, and Licensing & Trademarks, ARTI serves the private business sector and all IU campuses.
(James L. Green, 812-855-7353, jlgreen@indiana.edu)