Bombay Prakashan Pvt. Ltd. was incorporated in September, 1957. The company was a pioneer in the area of publishing children’s books. In 1987, recognizing the potential of Information Technology, it set up a professionally managed computer training center, and commenced imparting I.T. related training through a separate division, which was called Advanced School of Computer Information, India (ASCII).

As the parent company, Bombay Prakashan Pvt. Ltd continued to support the education process by handling the development of courseware, publishing being its forte. In the year 2002, Bombay Prakashan Pvt. Ltd. commenced working on digital publications, in the form of web enabled multimedia software for education.

The boom in the Information Technology industry saw a tremendous growth in the activities of the ASCII division. Advanced School of Computer Information, India Pvt. Ltd. (ASCII) was incorporated as a full fledged, separate, subsidiary company, in the year 1996.

ASCII has been a forerunner in the promotion of I.T. education at the very grassroot levels. Over the years, ASCII has tied up with over 100 educational institutions for setup and running of their I.T. training facilities, trained more than 90000 students, and has an installed base of more than1000 computers.

ASCII has also been involved in promoting I.T. training to a large number of corporate clientele and also for those seeking to establish themselves as professionals in the I.T. industry.

After extensive and meticulous evaluation, ASCII has been authorized by the Gujarat Education Board to undertake specialized teachers’ training for computer teachers for its schools in Gujarat and for their administrative staff.

ASCII has also been authorized by the Maharastra Technical Board and the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd. (MKCL) to conduct its Maharashtra Sate Certificate of Information Technology Course (MS-CIT), which is today an essential prerequisite for any government job.

ASCII has also undertaken various projects for the Army and Sainik Schools at different locations all over India, including the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Recognizing the high penetration of the Internet in the Indian household and due to the changing lifestyles in urban and semi urban areas, the concept of Surfnshopindia was born. This is a shopping portal which specially caters to the needs of the Indian consumer. The portal is the first to offer multi-lingual options, for purchase of various categories of products over the Internet, thus promoting the concept of shopping from the convenience of your home or office and having the goods delivered at your doorstep.

Surfnshopindia is a pioneer in providing the convenience of regional language interface for the Internet shopper, and has already launched the site in Gujarati and in Hindi, to cater to a very vast, so far untapped segment of Internet users.

Today, Indian school education faces one if its biggest challenges in its entire history, due to the following reasons:-

• Large student strengths in each class
• High teacher turnover
• Transformation of the student mindset
• Massive information explosion
• Highly competitive scenario
• Exposure to world cultures on various powerful media platforms such as press and T.V.
• Learning now becoming a lifetime process as against a time bound activity.
• Entire education process becoming examination oriented.
• Smaller attention spans of students.
• Inability of the teachers to retain the attention of the students.
• For the first time in history, the learning generation is more comfortable with technology than the teaching generation.
• All of the above show, that the need of the hour is a new learning model and a shift in the manner in which the education process is undertaken.

ASCII has tied up with a leading design studio and the teaching community, to provide professionally prepared, syllabus based content, for the C.B.S.E., I.C.S.E. and S.S.C. curriculum.

The software is extremely easy to use and is prepared using high end, broadcast quality, 3 dimensional animations and videos. The entire software has been prepared using local methodology of teaching, and uses professionally recorded Indian accent voiceovers.

ASCII realizes that educational institutions work on limited resources and may not wish to invest heavily in infrastructure such as an Audio-Visual room and Computer Networks. ASCII therefore provides various options, where, taking into consideration the unique requirement of the educational institution, ASCII invests in the infrastructure, and undertakes all activities for the setup and installation of the infrastructure, at its own cost.

The infrastructure includes not only Audio-Visual equipment, but also furniture and fixtures for the same. A nominal per student fee is charged, over a predetermined number of years, and the entire infrastructure is handed over to the school, at the end of the contract period, at no additional cost.

Some of the options available to the educational institutions include:
CAL A.V. Data Projector
CAL A.V.T.V.
CAL Software & Support
Etc.

ASCII realizes that one of the major deterrents to any change is the lack of knowledge about it. Hence, ASCII undertakes an initial teachers’ training programme, which lasts for just a few hours, in order to familiarize the teachers with the new software and make them comfortable with the usage of the entire system.

Subsequently, ASCII provides regular support to the school by undertaking the following activities:-

• Planning of Implementation
• Implementation Monitoring
• Feedback from Teachers and Students
• Reporting on Implementation
• Comprehensive Maintenance of Hardware and Software
• Teacher knowledge up-gradation programs
• Up-gradation of the Software in case of change of syllabus
• Changes in the Software in case of any inadvertent errors

The earlier options for the implementation of Computer Based Training have been based on the usage of educational CDs, which normally comprise of elementary, 2 dimensional animations and which are more text oriented. This method of implementation is fraught with the following problems:-

1. Heavy initial investment in infrastructure and purchase of CDs.
2. Lack of curriculum based CDs.
3. Curriculum based software available uses cartoonish, 2 dimensional animations.
4. Requires repeated investment.
5. Requires spadework to examine and analyze different CDs and short list appropriate content.
6. Installation and usage of CDs often a deterrent.
7. Each CD follows a different user-interface, so requires relearning of usage methods.
8. Non availability of content in regional languages.
9. Westernized accent and methodology.
10. More of text rather than visuals thus cannot be used for visualization and a large audience.
11. Contains either Interactive or Non Interactive content.
12. Non availability of content in regional languages.
13. Teachers may not have the time or inclination to take the special effort required.
14. CDs can normally be used on one computer only, and hence are not available throughout the school network, when required, for usage by the students and teachers.

Realizing the shortcomings of the above method, many institutions are asking their teachers to prepare their own content, using PowerPoint presentations. This method has the following shortcomings.

1. Teachers need to be trained extensively, for which there may not be the time or the resources.
2. Since each teacher has to prepare their own material, it involves a lot of duplication of work and consumption of time.
3. Since teachers are not familiar with advanced animation tools etc. and the same may not be available to them, the presentations are very amateur in nature and do not manage to hold the students’ attention. They thus do not serve the very purpose they were meant for.
4. Extensive resistance from teachers, as this adds to their work load tremendously.
5. Requires the school make available separate computer systems to the staff, for the work of preparation of the material.
6. Diverts the attention of the teachers from important task such as interaction with students and imparting education, to preparation of material.

Thus, both these option do not become viable or workable in a school environment.

ASCII invites you to be part of this revolutionary movement, which is set to sweep the education sector. We are seeking individuals and organizations that have the foresight to see the tremendous potential this technology holds, as it being launched.

We invite you to join us as Educational Consultants who would be responsible for bringing this fascinating technology to the schools in your area. Your role would be primarily to identify the school and market this product, which sells on its own merit.

In return, you would stand to make a handsome income per school, which is 10% on outright sale of the software and 7% in case of the school taking up a three year contract. You thus stand to make a minimum of Rs. 15000/- in case of an outright sale, and around 30,000/- to 50,000/- in case of contracts, per school.

Thus, considering that Maharashtra has over 20,000 schools, the potential to earn is humongous, not to mention the tremendous satisfaction that you gain for having contributed towards the future generations by revolutionizing the effectiveness of the education process.

1. Sign up as an Education Partner with ASCII, after understanding its full implications.
2. Undertake initial training on the product and the marketing process.
3. Comply with the internal operational procedures of ASCII.
4. Market the product in Schools and Junior Colleges, where other Education Partners have not approached.
5. Provide ASCII with data for preparation of proposals and correspondence.
6. Provide support and assistance to ASCII for undertaking presentations and negotiations.
7. Close the sale and undertake the documentation.
8. Collect the payments from the school and hand over the same to ASCII.
9. Co-ordinate the installation and implementation with the school and ASCII.
10. Collect the commission after clearance of payments.

1. Provide the Education Partner with training in the product and services to be marketed.
2. Provide and support and assistance to the Education Partner for marketing in the following manner :-
   • Providing standard letters
   • Providing Demonstration CDs of the software
   • Providing a starter marketing kit
   • Providing assistance by conducting presentations
   • Providing marketing backup as and when required
   • Providing proposals based on data submitted
   • Providing draft of Contracts
   • Providing final Contracts
3. Release the commissions of the Education Partner promptly, on receipt of payments from the school and relevant data from the Educational Partner.