SIMFORMER TRAINING, EDUCATION, AND PERSONNEL ASSESSMENT

BASED ON BUSINESS SIMULATIONS

Solutions Overview

Practice-orientated gamified business simulations for trainings and personnel assessment programs

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https://simformer.com/ Simformer is a versatile and scalable business simulation platform based on Simformer Business Simulation. Simformer develops serious gamified business simulations, simulations, e-learning courses, and training programs for businesses and educational institutions. A vast amount of functions and features of the platform provides opportunity to organize practical skill orientated training for both students and corporate clients in virtually all disciplines of business management. Simformer specializes in training, teaching and personnel assessment with the use of business simulation. We use online business simulation – Simformer Business Simulation, which has over 1 000 000 users all over the world. Simformer Business Simulation (SBS) provides an opportunity to create gamified business simulation scenarios for the development of strategic thinking, analytical skills, creativity, stress resistance, teamwork, comprehensive and systematic approach, communication skills, ability to make quick decisions under the time pressure. Simformer business simulation simulates key business processes and functions, such as marketing, finance, HR, sales, manufacturing, R&D, logistics, strategic management, etc. Business simulation training enables participants to safely learn from their mistakes and go beyond the common patterns by repeatedly polishing their business skills. Business simulation generates automatic evaluation of participants' activity. Trainers monitor their actions during the training sessions and form report based on evaluations of different skills and competences. A vast amount of functions and features of the platform provides opportunity to organize practical skill orientated training for both students and corporate clients in virtually all disciplines of business management. Press about Simformer:

http://elearningfeeds.com/blog/simformer/ http://elearningindustry.com/elearning-events/training-education-simformer-business-simulation http://www.flf.vu.lt/en/international-relations/partners/66-lt/studijos/darbo-pasiulymai/1303-

virtonomics-community-manager-copywriter-sem-manager http://www.cnews.ru/news/line/unicredit_bank_vybral_platformu_simformer http://gamificationnation.com/gamification-stuff-we-love-simformer/ https://www.trainingpressreleases.com/news/simformer/2015/simformer-business-simulation-

platform-hailed-as-learning-technology-breakthrough https://seopult.tv/programs/biz_people/simformer_simuliruya_ekonomiku/ https://simformer.com/striving-for-excellence-in-public-management.html

About Simformer

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Completed Projects:

UNICREDIT bank – Integration of Simformer Business Simulation into

training program “Management Team Productivity” and hidden assessment of soft skills; https://www.unicreditgroup.eu/en.html

Vilnius university – integration of Simformer Business Simulation into the “Quality Management” course and development of students’ practical business skills; http://www.vu.lt/en

iSpace – Integration into training of academic lectors about innovative methodologies used in development of students; http://www.ispace.com.pl/

Far Eastern Federal University – integration of Simformer Business Simulation into the “Financial Risk Management” course and development of students’ practical business skills; http://wwwold.dvfu.ru/en/web/fefu/

Palestine Polytechnic University – full solution “Business Management Competition” for students in the field of business strategical management; http://www.ppu.edu/p/en#about

IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems – integration of Simformer Business Simulation into the “Medical Center Management” course and development of students’ practical business skills; https://www.fh-krems.ac.at/en/about-us/

SHEI Banking University – integration of Simformer Business Simulation into the online course for financial program and development of students’ practical business skills; http://khibs.ubs.edu.ua/en/

Club of Young Entrepreneurs – Business simulation in the field of Crisis management for young professional to gain practical business skills; http://kmb.md/

Simformer Business Cup 2016 – Worldwide Business Management Competition in the field for business management during Worldwide crisis. https://simformer.com/events/simformer-business-cup-2016/

Project Portfolio

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Ready-made business games, courses and training sessions

Ready-made products include a devised scenario, instructions, and access to the pre-configured business simulation. For instance, a particular training session on team work, leadership, (or a business game, etc.) in online, onsite or blended format. The usage: corporate training, business games, contests, assessment sessions.

The list of ready-made products Licensing and access to simulation:

The license to access the business simulation with the possibility to select one of the configurations of the simulation. The access license does not include any ready-made scenarios or instructions for the participants. The usage:

The licenses can be integrated into the study processes at universities, business schools and colleges. The instructors and lecturers have the possibility to set the simulation according to the requirements of a particular course. The students receive the access to the business simulation environment, which has been already pre-configured by the lecturer. The lectures devise the content, scenarios themselves.

The licenses can also be used by the training and consulting companies for developing their own unique products or customizing the existing ones.

The types of licenses

Corporate Realm

Provision of simulated server, and customization of a separate simulated environment.

Usage: large universities, educational centers and corporate universities.

Solution adaptability

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Simformer educational and HR solutions are based on Simformer Business Simulation (SBS) the unparalleled gamified environment, which was developed by Simformer specialists. While developing the simulation, we relied on the experience and knowledge of the professionals in various business fields; this was done in order to recreate all key business processes in scrupulous details. Simformer Business Simulation has thousands of registered users, which create the real competitive environment, where participants have make decisions in tough situations. Irrational actions of real participants impact future outcomes and add the element of risk, which in turn makes working in SBS more exciting. The main problem of the majority of existing training solutions is that they are normally conducted according to the standardized solutions and procedures. Consequently, participants get used to them, which significantly reduces employees’ motivation level as well as the efficiency of corporate training. Using Simformer business simulation solutions will solve this problem. Participants will have the chance to work in business simulation and solve real- life business cases.

Simformer Business Simulation

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Depending on the selected type of simulation, the calculation and update of all the actions in the simulation can happen:

Every clock hour — for conducting of intensive short-term training, business contest, employee assessment procedures, etc.

Every 24 hours — for conducting of post training programs, which include self-learning elements; long-term corporate training courses, etc.

Regardless of the selected type of simulation, the moderator of the training course is given the access to participants’ rating indicators, which are formed based on the results of the virtual companies managed by the participants. Simformer Business Simulation (SBS) has a substantial set of functions for participants to choose from. These functions give the possibility to conduct corporate training sessions and business games in various areas.

Key Important Figures:

1 000 000+ registered users; 50 000+ active daily players; 200+ products and services; 25+ industries; All key business processes and functions.

Establishing an enterprise

Localization, specialization, size, the level of technology…

Equipment

Buying and removing equipment, wear and tear, repairing…

HR

Hiring, termination of employment, salary, qualification, training, holidays…

Supply

Selecting suppliers, quality, price, quantity, supply policy…

…

Logistics

Supply chains and conditions of supply, hub warehouses…

Production

Amount, quality, pricing, technology, distribution policy…

Marketing

Research, reports, segmentation, advertising campaigns…

Finances

Financial reports on the activity of a company and its subdivisions...

Research and Development

Research and technology, laboratories…

Sales

Price regulation, price conditions, financial statements…

And More

…

Strategy

Strategic goal-setting, ways of achieving goals, measuring strategy effectiveness…

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“Corporation in Distress Intensive” — is one the most popular Simformer business games, where decisions have to be made in highly dynamic conditions. An online business game that immerses players into the world of crisis management. A rigorous timeline and a dynamic scenario require players to make quick and effective managerial decisions. The main task of the participants is to lead the corporation out of financial crisis.

The game can be used in:

Employee assessment programs— the real purpose of the game (employee assessment) will not be apparent due to this dynamic and intensive game: the participants forget they are being evaluated and behave naturally.

Skills development training; for developing such skills as leadership, team building, delegating, proactivity, stress-resistance, can-do attitude etc.

Business-oriented entertainment programs; corporate contests, etc. Depending on the goals and direction of training, the ready-made scenario can be modified and new specific tasks can be additionally added. The game is conducted in online, onsite or blended formats. We also offer a range out-of-the-box solutions of various intensity, which participants will have to master individually. Game scenario and participants’ interaction during the game:

The participants work in teams and manage virtual companies in Simformer Business Simulation (SBS), where all key business processes are represented. The competitiveness among the teams motivates the participants and contributes to effective team building. Each team will have to manage a huge corporation, which is faced with financial difficulties. The corporation consists of various subdivisions, which are responsible for producing and selling the products. The subdivisions are connected with each other as well as suppliers and customers. The task for the participants is to lead the corporation out of financial crisis and stabilize all the processes. The action of the game takes place in a virtual version of Las Palmas de Gran Canary, Spain. The population of the city is about 400 000. According to the game scenario, each teams has an auto salon, a clothes store, a grocery store and a fast food restaurant. All participating teams compete in one virtual region. The auto salon and the clothes store are the weakest link among all the subdivisions. In order to improve the situation, the participants will have to apply their skills in finance, marketing analysis, and management. They will have to make non-standard decisions under very tight timeframes. The game lasts for 10 hours (5 hours per day). During this time, the environment calculates and updates the actions of the teams every clock hour. The actions they took will have the impact on the financial state of their corporation.

Example of Ready-made business game

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The participants will have to perform a series of business game assignments (missions) and follow the business procedures. The game moderators monitor how and when these procedures are followed by the participants. The game scenario is set up that way, that the amount of assignments, which the participants will have to solve, exceed their abilities. This gives the opportunity to learn to work under pressure: remain calm and collected when multitasking, making decisions and being monitored by the game moderators. The business game has a strong focus on a team play; the participants make their decisions together. Due to that, the participants are able to develop such skills as effective collaboration, providing and asking for assistance, put the interests of the whole team before personal ones. It is also very convenient to identify leadership as well as communicative skills of each participant during group assignments. The competitiveness among the teams adds a lot of dynamics and intensity to the game. Due to that, leading the company out of the financial crisis becomes not the only goal; it is equally important to do it faster and more effectively than the rest. Unfamiliar environment, common goals, common competitors, the necessity to make the right decisions, tight timeframes, and monitoring by game moderators, common victory or common defeat-all these elements make a strong foundation for effective team building. Targets for Learners:

The main tasks, which the participants will have to accomplish during the game:

perform company analysis,

identify weak subdivisions, optimize the operations of weak subdivisions and reach a break-even point,

increase the productivity of the rest of subdivisions, develop and implement a business expansion plan.

Soft Skills affected:

Strategic thinking, analytical skills, creativity, stress resistance, the ability to make effective decisions under time constraints, the ability to think outside the box, as well as the skills in the field of crisis management and systematic approach. Content:

Participants receive explicitly structured material in the form of interactive video clips containing:

Description of the game situation, the logic of decision-making;

Questions to test player understanding of basic business decisions performed in the simulation; A functional guide of the simulation;

Quests to be performed in the simulation; All participants begin the game at the same time under the same conditions. The dynamic of player actions is reflected during hourly simulation recalculations. Participants need to perform the required tasks before the next recalculation takes place.

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License type

Description

«SBS Intensive Academia» — The license gives an access to Simformer Business Simulation with hourly turns. The license is valid for 3 days since activation.

«SBS Classic Academia» — The license gives an access to Simformer Business Simulation with daily turns (once per 24 hours).

Usage

SBS Intensive Academia allows using Simformer Business Simulation (SBS) for conducting dynamic short-term business games, contests, intensive courses and seminars.

SBS Classic Academia allows integrating Simformer Business Simulation (SBS) into long-term academic courses in the areas of economics, finance, management, and language studies as well as into school lessons in the areas of economics and professional orientation. It also allows conducting various long-term contests for students.

Access

The participants will acquire access to:

SBS, customized by the instructor with the help of developer tools, Learning materials, tests, uploaded to Simformer LMS platform by a course instructor.

Possibilities for

tutors

SBS Classic Academia provides a wide range of possibilities for instructors.

Uploading learning content into powerful LMS Moodle, which:

is connected to business simulation SBS and developer tools, allows uploading video, audio, text materials and tests,

supports SCORM, ensures online communication between students and instructors,

provides opportunities to use various forms of organizing the learning process, has a student activity tracking system,

transitions from LMS to SBS with one click.

Customizing SBS using developer tools:

Starter templates that enable to configure initial conditions for business simulation depending on the course goals. It is possible to use either the existing template or create a new one together with Simformer experts.

Global settings that allow selecting geographical locations (from a small town to the whole world), the type of enterprises (among the choice of 25+ industries) and user communication tools (either within the group or with all the SBS users).

Independent suppliers that allow creating various market scenarios for students by way of regulating the prices, the quality and the amounts of products.

Using a student activity monitoring system in SBS:

Regularly updated user ratings based on the companies’ key financial indicators.

General overview of SBS Academia licenses

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Soft skills that are developed and assessed during the gamified business simulations:

Customer focus (internal and

external customers)

All Simformer gamified business simulations offer a number of

situations, where the participants play the supplier-customer

scenarios. This will provide the opportunity to devise the right

interaction model and assess the customer-focus skills of the

participants.

Can-do attitude The gamified business simulations allow the participants to

perform the assignments and follow certain business procedures.

The number of procedures, their consistence, and the timeframes

for accomplishing them are predetermined by the business game

moderators. The participants’ ability to perform assignments

strictly according to business simulation procedures and within the

established timeframes are taken into consideration when

assessing the can-do attitude of the participants.

Stress-resistance The gamified business simulation is set up that way, that the

number of tasks that the participants have to accomplish, would

exceed their abilities. This will create the time pressure that will

allow the assessment of participants’ ability to perform in stressful

situations: to keep it together when it comes to multitasking and

time constrains, remain calm when making team decisions, and not

to get frustrated when pressured by the game moderators.

Team work The gamified business simulations are conducted in a team format

and all decisions are made by the group of participants. Due to this

fact, it is possible to assess participants’ team work skills, their

ability to collaborate, assist others as well as ask for assistance, put

the interest of the team in the first place.

Adapting to changes The gamified business simulations to SBS environment will be a

new experience for the participants. This will help assess the

participants’ ability to behave in unfamiliar situations and adapt to

new environment.

Aptitude for learning During the gamified business simulation, the moderators will

provide training on how to work under tight timeframes, multitask,

work in a team, delegatings, etc. Every hour the moderators will

provide feedback to the teams as well as individual participants.

The way the participants will use the acquired information will

allow the assessment their aptitude for learning.

Soft Skills that can be developed

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Other competencies, which could be assessed during the gamified business simulation:

Leadership and

communication skills

The ability to work in a team reveals participants’ leadership and

communication skills.

Decision-making The gamified business simulations contains a big number of

situations, which allow the assessment of participants’ decision-

making skills.

Presentation skills The gamified business simulations can include the parts, which will

allow the assessment of participants’ presentation skills: the ability

to clearly and briefly communicate the main point of a certain

decision, idea, etc.

The examples of adapting the simulation according to specific requests:

Example 1. For conducting covert employee assessment on such competencies as leadership, the ability to work in a team, communication skills, presentation skills, proactivity. The team of employees manage a virtual company and compete with other teams at the same time. HR specialists / Simformer specialists observe the actions of the participants. Due to gamification, new environment, unusual tasks, the participants tend to be fully engaged in the process and forget about the fact that they are being observed and assessed. Example 2. For assessing the business skills (strategic thinking skills in marketing, management, sales, proactivity, willingness to take risks and so on.) of individual participants. This is the best solution for personalized assessment when there is no need to assess the skills, which are apparent during the interaction and collaboration among participants. Examples 3. For developing the long distance collaboration skills of the participants located in various places. The participants manage one company together, and they make all of their decisions together. The simulation allows them to receive fast feedback on all their decisions. It is the best solution for an online training on a budget. The client does not have to spend on participants’ transportation, accommodation and so on. Principles of onsite evaluation:

1. The summative team rating is done automatically in SBS. The performance rating of each team is updated every hour. The final rating reveals the winner of the game.

2. Expert evaluation of participants is conducted based on the competence matrix: a. By Simformer specialists— business game specialists and moderators are monitoring the

participants; consequently, they write a report on each participant based on their observations.

b. By Customer’s HR specialists — HR specialists can participate in the game or be outside observers.

c. By the managers, who take part in the business game — the managers can take part in the game or be outside observers.

3. Additionally, a self-evaluation on separate competencies can be conducted by the participants themselves.

Additional information: see the gamified business simulation report example.

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Corporate Realm is a solution for companies ready to apply gamification in HR. It is a specialized, dedi-cated simulation space, fully reflecting the needs and requirements of your company.

Corporate Realm allows to plan, organize, and carry out an unlimited number of training programs, busi-ness games, and personnel assessments. Corporate Realm includes a set of developer tools for the cus-tomization of simulations, tracking game dynamics, design of templates and events, and offers the possi-bility of integration with your existing IT systems.

Corporate Realm is ideal for regular training programs with more than 1,000 participants. In this case, Cor-porate Realm can significantly reduce the costs of implementation and operation of simulations while re-ducing employee training and evaluation expenses.

Certificates:

Each participant of the trainings receives one of two certificates:

Golden Certificate for participants who

win the gamified business simulation.

Certificate of participation in the

gamified business simulation.

Digital Certificates may be placed on the participant personal profiles in LinkedIn.

Corporate Realm

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Simformer is always opened for new offers and requests. Please contact us and we will together provide a basis for training, development, education and evaluation of your personnel.

Adelina Nalivaikaite-Karelidze Key Account Manager adelina@simformer.com

+37052556064

Contacts

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SIMFORMER TRAINING, EDUCATION, AND PERSONNEL ASSESSMENT

BASED ON BUSINESS SIMULATIONS

REPORT EXAMPLE

Business Game: Corporation in Financial Distress Dates: Location:

PREPARED FOR

…

Appendix 1: Report Example

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"Corporation in Financial Distress" is a dynamic business game, developing strategic thinking, analytical skills, creativity, resistance to stress, ability to make quick decisions under time pressure. Participants were tasked with management of a multi-national corporation. The corporation had various divisions: production, services and retail sales. Different departments were connected with each other, external suppliers, contractors, and customers (B2B and B2C). The specifics of the business game was that initially the corporation was in a state of crisis. Players had to bring the corporation out of the crisis during a specified period of time. The game was held both in group and individual set-up.

Group Interaction Individual Interaction … game for-mat

date, Retail population

date, Corporate population

Brief descrip-tion

12 participants were divided into two teams. Each team manages its own corporation. Final decisions are made within the group.

Each of 12 participants runs his own company. Decisions are made inde-pendently.

Specific

Group set-up of the game develops and allows the assessment of com-munication skills, teamwork and leadership skills.

Individual game allows more accu-rate assessment of the abilities of each of the participants and is exe-cuted by the business simulation.

Assessment package

80% - expert evaluation. 20% - an automated evaluation by simulation.

20% - expert evaluation. 80% - an automated evaluation by simulation.

Simformer Business Simulation The players were immersed in the business simulation SBS,

which simulates all typical business processes and functions.

Participants competed not only with each other but also with

tens of thousands of other users around the world. These

factors created the most competitive and dynamic

environment, which was very close to reality.

About Business Game

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12 participants were divided into two teams - SMART and TIGERS (names have been thought up by the participants themselves). Each of the teams managed their own corporation. Final decisions were made collectively.

Composition of teams

SMART

# Participant Title

1 … …

2 … …

3 … …

4 … …

5 … …

6 … …

TIGERS

# Participant Title

1 … …

2 … …

3 … …

4 … …

5 … …

6 … …

Group Game for Retail Population of …, date

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Game results

Each team received two main objectives: 1. Bring the corporation out of the crisis. 2. Maximize the market value of the assets (the main indicator of the assessment), revenue and net profit. Both teams brought their corporations out of the crisis as scheduled. According to the evaluation of the financial indicators the winner was the SMART team.

However, at the end of the game the TIGERS team minimized the gap and almost caught up with the SMART team on the assets value. The dynamics of the assets value of SMART and TIGERS corporations:

SMART team also won the most rounds for indicators of "maximum revenue" and "maximum net profit."

Game winner — SMART team

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Expert conclusions

SMART: general characteristics of the team At the beginning of the game the decision in the team was determined primarily by several leaders. With an abundance of tasks, deadlines of which clearly exceeded the allotted time, at first participants continued to perform tasks sequentially without sharing them among the team. However, the number of key strategic decisions, made by the team, provided the corporation with growth of assets, revenue and net profit from the very beginning. They began to divide tasks within small groups and efficiently organized work from the middle of the business game. In subsequent rounds they defined areas of responsibility as a team. When opinions differed it was decided by voting.

TIGERS: general characteristics of the team The team effectively self-organized from the very first round. Participants quickly agreed on the key decisions, divided into subgroups and redistributed the tasks. Actively rotated the members of sub-groups and solved tasks. Overall, acted as a team. Due to small mistakes in the middle of the game, were left behind. However after careful analysis and corrections demonstrated a huge potential by minimizing the gap with rivals in the last round.

Teams Graph On the basis of personal evaluations of each participant obtained averaged assessment for each of the teams. In general, according to expert estimates, the TIGERS team has surpassed the SMART team in all categories.

Note: "0" - minimum score, "10" - maximum score.

0.01.02.03.04.05.06.07.08.09.0

10.0

Decision-making

Presentation skills

Communicationskills

Activity

Teamwork

Leadership

SMART (average) TIGERS (average)

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Name | Title Team: SMART

Participant photo

He took the lead from the first minute. Actively involved in solution of

tasks. Constantly kept the situation under control. Vigorously

promoted his position.

Ready to help others, but at the same time his point of view should

dominate. During the presentation, concrete and laconic, does not go

into the details.

Could increase the efficiency of team work at the expense of delegating

tasks to other participants.

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

8.0

9.0

10.0

Decision-making

Presentation skills

Communication skills

Activity

Teamwork

Leadership

TIGERS (average) Participant