Neogic Web Solutions
From Schoolforge-UK
See Neogic.com for further information on Neogic Web Solutions Ltd.
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Company Background
Neogic has developed professionally-designed, cost-effective web solutions for SMEs, schools and multinationals since 1999. We specialise in custom dynamic websites, secure e-Commerce shops, easy-to-use Content Management Systems (updateable websites) and interactive multimedia training systems.
Our clients include FTSE™ 100 multinationals such as Shell, BP, BHP Billiton and Control Risks Group, for whom we have developed a number of high-profile business travel management (Neogic SafetyNet™, TravelNet™) and personnel security training (Neogic InfoNet™) systems.
OpenSchoolNet™
Neogic OpenSchoolNet™ (OSN) is our most ambitious project to-date: a FLOSS Content Management System currently being trialed in the UK that we aim to establish as the defacto open CMS for schools.
OpenSchoolNet allows non-technical school staff to easily manage and update website content, including dynamic information from third-party systems. It features modifications auditing, page histories, modification approvals workflow and powerful per-item view/edit permissions. Content items and dynamic plugins (such as web services) may be freely combined on each page, allowing easy creation of targeted 'mashup' portals.
Once trials are complete, OpenSchoolNet is expected to be freely available to UK secondary schools, who are free to customise the code if they wish. The OSN architecture is highly extensible; we plan to release comprehensive documention and tools to assist third-parties in developing FLOSS OpenSchoolNet add-ons, providing extended school website functionality.
MIS Interoperability
We work with a number of schools in the UK that complain about the inability to access data locked in proprietary IMS databases such as SIMS .NET. There are currently no widely supported real-time interoperability standards for UK school MIS systems. Proprietary, vendor and technology-specific interfaces are available (e.g., SIMS.NET .NET API), but are generally not openly documented (£££) or supported.
We believe this lack of real-time interoperability standards creates a significant barrier to third-parties creating solutions that integrate with school MIS systems. This forces schools to buy one-size-fits-all add-ons from the IMS vendor, which often do not sufficiently meet the school's needs and have artificially inflated prices.
Neogic is working with interoperability organisations (including Becta, Schoolforge-UK and SIFA) to seek an open solution to integrating with proprietary MIS systems. Becta, for example, published a wake-up call to vendors last year, in the form of its "School Management Information Systems and Value for Money" report. The report criticised leading vendors for lack of open documentation and interoperability standards, creating artificial lock-in and inflated prices for schools.
Contact Neogic
We welcome suggestions from members of the school systems interoperability community and enquries regarding our Free, Libre Open Source Software activities, such as OpenSchoolNet™.
Please feel free to get in touch: schoolforgeuk@neogic.com
Ben Johnson
MD, Neogic Web Solutions
http://www.neogic.com
