Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), the global e-learning producer, is sponsoring ‘Wizards of Biz’, a business simulation competition at Intaglio 2006-07, the international business school meeting of the Indian Institute of Management (IIMC), Kolkata. The competition, which begins on 7th January, will use TIS’s software-based simulation TOPSIM Business Development, which is part of TIS’s range of TOPSIM sophisticated business simulations.

Some 150 teams from business schools throughout the world, including Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, The Wharton School and London Business School, as well as prominent business schools from Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and Thailand, are participating in this business strategy event, along with key Indian business schools including the IIMC, ISB, JBIMS, TISS, NMIMS, S P Jain, IMT, and XLRI.

After an elimination round involving 150 teams, 60 short-listed teams will play the TOPSIM Business Development simulation online, over a period of three weeks.

In the simulation, the teams manage a fitness equipment manufacturing company facing shrinking profits, increasing costs and sudden competition. They will strive to revive the company’s fortunes, in a competitive multi-player scenario.

According to Intaglio 2006-07’s organisers, TOPSIM - unlike many other business simulations - offers a rich and highly complex environment with a case-based approach. TOPSIM Business Development allows players to make decisions in key areas like change management, business communication, ownership transactions, business segment development, rating and financial ratios, along with planning, managing and controlling business activities.

The simulation also involves participants managing projects across different business functions, including sales projects, R&D projects, mergers & acquisition, production optimisation, and HR.

As a team-based competitive simulation, TOPSIM requires that players show the ability to make strategic decisions as a team. As it simulates the whole business environment, it gives participants a bird’s eye view of business management and competitive dynamics.

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About TOPSIM® Simulations

TOPSIM Simulations are advanced and comprehensive models that simulate operating environments, used as innovative methods to teach business and management competencies. The simulated environments include business start-ups; a single business function; overall management of an enterprise; managing in global markets, and the macroeconomics of a country.

Typically played by teams in a workshop format over two or three days, TOPSIM participants compete with other teams in a simulated environment. While proceeding through different modules, teams plan, strategise and make decisions, taking into account the many variables that influence the operating environment. At the workshops, an instructor acts as the teams’ coordinator, controller of environment variables and as educator to help teams interpret results and reports.

The large number of variables that influence decision-making is what makes TOPSIM a highly complex simulation and sets it apart from other business simulations in the market.

TOPSIM products currently cover 15 areas: TOPSIM – Manager, TOPSIM – General Management, TOPSIM – Logistics, TOPSIM – Banking, TOPSIM – Euro, TOPSIM – Marketing, TOPSIM – E-commerce, TOPSIM – Macro Economics, TOPSIM – Business Developments, TOPSIM – General Airline Management Simulation, TOPSIM – Change Management, TOPSIM – Project Management, TOPSIM – Easy Startup, TOPSIM –Global Challenge, and TOPSIM – Production Startup

TOPSIM – Simulations are used by numerous corporate enterprises, education centres, and universities (including over 200 universities in Germany alone).

Besides TOPSIM® – Simulations, TIS also offers management training sessions, from ‘Introduction to Business Administration for Engineers’ to ‘Top-Executive Leadership Development’ programs through its simulations products range SimBLs™.

About Tata Interactive Systems (TIS)

Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), a global leader in e-learning, is a part of the $22bn Tata Group. Truly international, TIS has a presence across the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, Japan, India, and mainland Europe. TIS offers corporations, universities, schools, publishers, and government institutions a diversified and innovative bouquet of learning and training solutions including Simulation-based Learning Objects (SimBLs™), Story-based Learning Objects (StoBLs™), courseware and curriculum design, special-needs education, assessments, electronic performance support systems (EPSS), mobile learning, along with other corporate training and consultancy services. Our multi-disciplinary expertise and 16 years’ experience across domains helps us design e-learning programmes that are unique to clients’ requirements and specifically crafted to boost knowledge retention and application.

Apart from holding ISO 9001 certification, TIS is the only e-learning organisation in the world to be assessed at Level 5 in both the SEI-CMM and P-CMM frameworks. TIS’s quest for excellence is reflected in numerous prestigious industry awards, including a Silver Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Award 2005 and 2004, APEX Award of Excellence in 2005 and 2006, BETT Awards in 2004 and 2006, and two Business World–NID Design Excellence awards.

For more information log on to www.tatainteractive.com