Today, Firmwater celebrates its 10th anniversary!
Founded in the tumultuous times, we’ve overcome the hurdles that have stopped many new ventures in their tracks. We started out consulting, providing web application design and development services, including playing a pivotal role in the development of several fundraising systems.
But rather quickly, the consulting work led us back to our roots of knowledge assessment and learning management. In 2003, we started developing a test and survey engine. An inquiry from some former colleagues (and a current client) soon had us designing and developing a learning management system built specifically for e-learning content providers.
Our goals at the time:
1. a clean and easy to use interface for both the learner and the administrator – after all a learning management system that requires user training seems counter intuitive
2. ubiquitous availability – Internet browser-based delivery with any standards-compliant web browser without the need for any third party plug-ins or extensions
3. support for the then emerging SCORM 2004 (and earlier 1.2) standards so content can be developed using a choice of best of breed authoring tools
4. provide our clients with visibility and the ability to manage all of their customers from a single login
5. deliver the software as a service, alleviating our clients of the worries of hosting and allowing us to keep the product current as the web evolves
We’ve achieved these goals and they remain central to the ongoing development of the service.
Since the Firmwater LMS went live in January 2005, our clients have delivered their training products to over 110,000 people in over 480 organizations around the world.
The LMS has:
– processed over 2.7 million login requests,
– delivered **over 7.5 million interactive learning objects** (SCO’s in SCORM speak), and
– administered **over 465,000 tests and surveys** in which it has recorded over 10.8 million responses.
Our clients are diverse, offering training on a wide range of topics from Industrial skills and safety training, workplace violence and harassment, presentation skills, to breastfeeding education.
Our largest customer supports over 68,000 users in over 210 organizations with just two full-time support staff, a testament to the reliability and maturity of the LMS. However, when they are faced with issues outside of their expertise, they know we are there to stand beside them.
We continue to invest in the ongoing development of the Firmwater LMS. There have been 29 releases since March 2007 with the latest release out just last week (more to come on that and other releases in future posts to this site). We remain focused on developing the features asked for by our customers.
To this day, we remain focused on helping training companies transform and grow their businesses online. If this story resounds with yours, drop us a line and let’s see if there’s a fit between our capabilities and your needs. Perhaps we can help you take your training business to the next level!
To our customers, we thank you for your patronage, patience and support through the years. To our families, we thank you for believing in us, putting up with some late night or early morning hours on occasion and being understanding.