VIP Tone Commercially Supports IBM Open Source Software for K-12 Education

VIP Tone, Inc. a leading global provider of integrated solutions for the K-12 market, today announced its decision to market and support its School MATRIX® Platform on IBM’s open source infrastructure software.

A Vertically Integrated Platform (VIP) for K-12 education, School MATRIX connects applications and data from virtually all enterprise systems within a school district through a single sign-on secure enterprise portal. School MATRIX provides a clear migration strategy for integrating school data and enables a school’s leadership, administrators, teachers, students, and parents to access data and learning tools, securely, from any location through any web-enabled device connected to the Internet.

School MATRIX delivers state-of-the art identity management, automated web services provisioning, and an enterprise application integration (EAI) solution, connecting learning processes in the classroom with business processes in the school district’s back-office. This unique and powerful solution also creates a real-time data-driven decision support infrastructure that enables State and Federal compliance tracking and reporting.

The Consortium of Educational Enterprise Data Systems (CEEDS) in California has contracted with VIP Tone to develop the CEEDS Platform™, an end-to-end web-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform for K-12 school districts. CEEDS operates as a Joint Powers Association formed by County Offices of Education in California. The CEEDS Enterprise Portal™ and the CEEDS Data Zone™, two major components of the CEEDS Platform, integrate an open-source portal developed by JA-SIG, called uPortal (www.uportal.org), with VIP Tone’s VIP PASS and Data Zone™ technology.

Additionally, CEEDS has licensed from VIP Tone the rights to host and support School MATRIX-CA Edition™, a customized version of School MATRIX - Enterprise Edition™, to deliver to the Californian school districts a complete web-based Student Information System (SIS) and Instructional Management System (IMS) that complies with all of the State of California reporting requirements.

VIP Tone and IBM will collaborate to port the CEEDS Platform to IBM’s newly released open source middleware software, WebSphere Application Server Community EditionTM (WAS CE) integrated with IBM's Cloudscape Database which is based on the open source Apache Derby Project. Based on this effort, the CEEDS Platform will be ported to a complete, commercially supported, open source middleware and Linux servers, including IBM’s eServer iSeries and xSeries systems.

"By embracing commercially supported open source software, CEEDS can offer an affordable and customizable platform to its members. The CEEDS Enterprise Portal and the CEEDS Data Zone provide the ‘glue’ for connecting data with end-users through role-based identity profiles in the existing SIS, HR, Directory Services, and other enterprise applications," said Robert Iskander, VIP Tone’s Founder and CEO.

"The strong partnership between Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE) and San Mateo County Office of Education, the two founding members of CEEDS in California, and VIP Tone, has resulted in the creation of an impressive solution that could be affordably licensed to any County Office of Education or school district in California by simply joining the CEEDS Consortium," said Dave Paulson, Executive Director of Information Technology at ACOE. "We would like to invite other COE’s and school districts to offer this exciting technology to their staff, students and parents."

"The 10,000 schools in California are in desperate need of affordable tools that will make a difference in the day of the life of a student while enabling the teachers to comply with the rigorous state and federal requirements," said Sheila Jordan, Superintendent of Alameda County Office of Education. "CEEDS integrates and simplifies access to the student-centric data and empowers our teachers, in partnership with the parents, to take charge of each student’s learning process."

About VIP Tone, Inc.
VIP Tone, Inc. provides a unique data integration, knowledge management, and convergence platform for the global education market. VIP Tone’s School MATRIX® Platform is a key enabler in addressing the K-12 education market’s two highest priorities: measuring and benchmarking of student achievement and improving school accountability. The VIP Convergence Platform integrates various networks for communications, computing, and information, into a single, remotely and securely managed IP-based network. VIP Tone's wholly owned Australian subsidiary, VIP Tone Australia PTY, Ltd., based in Adelaide, South Australia, is the market leader in Australia, with a client base consisting of the majority of the Australian State Departments of Education. VIP Tone is a privately held company headquartered in Alameda, California. For more information, visit the VIP Tone web site at www.viptone.com.

About CEEDS
The Consortium for Educational Enterprise Data Systems (CEEDS) was formed by County Offices of Education in California to address the critical need for integrating classroom instructional delivery with back-office business processes. To this end, the CEEDS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Platform was created. By working together, California County Offices of Education and their constituent school districts will be poised to deliver on the promise of creating a dynamic, world-class education system that equips all students with the knowledge and skills to excel in college and careers, and as parents or citizens. For more information about CEEDS visit www.ceeds.org.

Contacts:

Tricia McWilliams Hawkins
VIP Tone, Inc.
866.901.TONE x-9005

Dave Paulson
CEEDS
510.670.4290

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