Assess people correctly, early and regularly. Use tools, appraisal systems, some profiling is inevitable. Bring advertising demographics, psychographics into play. Competency Mapping, Metrics and Gaps are integral to People Development.

1. Intelligent Assessments
Assessments are a crucial part of human endeavour. The ability of one human being to
‘assess’ the other is an integral part of the modern economy.
1. Assessment to ‘recruit’ a person before employment.
2. Assessment of a person’s financial background before a loan is given.
3. Assessment by a Doctor of a Patient before medicine is prescribed or further
diagnostics tests determined.
4. Assessment of a candidate before being taken on in School, College or further
studies.
5. Assessment of a ‘consumer’ to see what ‘product’ can be developed; features
communicated OR the best available sold to them.
6. Assessment of a performance to determine the ‘musical ability’ of another.
7. Market Research and Surveys are nothing but ‘assessments’.
8. Can this person sell? Can this person provide tech.support? Can this person make
a good chef? Can this person be the head of a crèche?
Traditionally – and still – the best form of ‘Assessment’ is a combination of 2 forms …
1. A pen and paper set of objective (or subjective) questions over a fixed (or
variable) period of time. These are marked. This may be ‘ranked’ or ‘rated’ to
compare with a ‘population group’. A statistical bell­curve of ‘top’ and ‘bottom’
and ‘middle’ to varying degrees may emerge.
2. Human interaction. A one­to­one, conversation, ‘show­me’, ‘observation’, ‘listen’
etc. by a ‘superior’ or ‘experienced’ expert who either ‘scientifically and
objectively’ or ‘intuitively’ and ‘subjectively’ determines, rates, ranks and/or
compares another ‘human’ being.
These have had challenges over the years …
1. Only so many can be selected. If a 1,000,000 apply for a 100 positions; to start
with its ‘elimination’ rather than ‘selection’.
2. The ‘scale’, ‘reach’, ‘time’ and ‘cost’ of ‘assessment’ is not even worth
considering.
3. Experts to ‘assess’ are very few and are otherwise occupied.
4. Pen and Paper assessments have their limits to aiding in the assessment
process.
5. The sheer ‘volume’, ‘time’ and ‘cost’ due to the repetitive nature of
‘marking’, ‘scoring’ and ‘tabulating’ the results from assessments are over­
whelming.
6. All this may result in higher levels of error in the ‘genuine’ assessment.
7. ‘Impersonation’, ‘Identity Theft’, ‘Cheating’ are on the rise.

2. 8. When language itself or language based assessments are needed technology
has been lagging. French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Tamil,
Marathi, Gujarati … printing, internet, email, certifications, examinations and
assessment.
Technology aids thus far …
Several modern developments have tried to help.
1. The use of objective questions only.
2. CAT (Computer Aided Testing) of this.
3. OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) method of answer­sheet capture.
4. DTP. PDF documents and Word processors to set and PRINT question papers.
5. The printing press, photo­copiers to replicate and print as many required
copies.
6. ‘Numbering systems’ to uniquely identify every Answer Sheet.
7. Roll numbers, Identity cards and Hall tickets to uniquely identify an
‘Assessee’.
8. The use of email; the internet or SMS mobiles.
9. Telephone Interviewing.
10. Video Conferencing.
The ‘emerging’ technologies …
1. The internet has been around a while. Websites and the email is related to this.
2. Mobile phones with SMS have been around.
3. Media has been going digital. TV. Radio. Telephony. Printing. Reporting.
Analytics. Statistics. Audio. Video.
4. Machine, Auto and Remote Identification is improving. Barcode. RFID.
Biometrics. Face recognition. Smartcards. Secure Pages. Encryption. It’s
always going to be a ‘Work­in­Progress’.
5. The ‘future’ and ‘growth’ will be a shift from PC’s to the Tablet. The Tablet
(or Smartphone) combines a range of technologies onto one­piece of
equipment and offers a range of possibilities. Think about it; it has a camera
to record video; audio playback and audio recording. It has a display (TV or
PC­Monitor like). It has connectivity to the Internet and Mobile Gateways. It
has local storage & playback. It can compute. It has a SIM card with
communications to uniquely Identify YOU and the Tablet. It’s a diary. It’s a
watch. It’s a sophisticated alarm clock. It’s memo­pad. It’s a gaming device. It
has GPS it knows where it is and where you are. It’s an eWallet, ePurse and
eCredit or eDebit card. It’s a dictionary, currency calculator, information
repository and search engine when online in real­time. It’s a interpreter and
language translator. It’s mobile. It is and gets carried with you everywhere. It
can be found if it is lost.

3. The possibilities for ‘better’ assessment open up dramatically.
1. Of course you can do the traditional. Ask a text question; offer text options;
get a radio or checkbox objective entry; mark it; tabulate and score it. Rank
and Rate as many as you need.
2. Show an image and then ask the question. Used often in Psychology; and
Press advertising Market research. Photographs, Engineering Schematics,
Balance Sheet Excerpts; DICOM images; Cut & Paste of scanned book
extracts; are things you could show and gain a better understanding of who
and what you are assessing for.
3. With audio playback and audio recording. You can get a person to answer a
text or spoken question with their answer. The ‘assessor’ can hear this for
themselves. Think of this power for Call­Centre Recruitment; Music Lessons;
Public Speaking; Nature or animal sounds; ECG, EEG, alarms, alerts and
other remote identification and/or monitoring.
4. With a camera in front and a camera at the back with a TV like display the
video provides reach, width, range, depth and a ‘humongous’ range of
video­playback and video­recording possibilities for ‘Assessment’ that are
limited ONLY by your imagination and a standardization and ability to
compare ‘apples with apples’ establishment of a few ground rules.

4. We have a range of ‘brands’ to support this …
1. Edgevalue is the ‘Experts’, ‘Advisory’, ‘Consulting’ Group.
2. clextra an ERP++, BI, KM, backend, Server­side, cloud, Platform, Tool,
Enabler & Software.
3. GiCA. Structured Systems, methods, workflow, Bibliography, meta­data,
standards and open options to get everyone, everything and every place onto
one page.
4. skretch. A system of Training, Learning, Intelligence, Know­how, Acumen,
Intuition, Creative, Innovation, Discovery, Assessment in all aspects human.
Our Partnership …
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We seek to work with you for a ‘First­time’, design, development, test,
deploy and get it going PHASE 1. On­going support, upgrade, staying
ahead of the ‘risk’ curve while ensuring the best ‘rewards’ in terms of
lower­costs, business continuity, service­levels and Best Practices
PHASE 2. If you want to avoid fixed costs we could do this at a variable
cost on a when­needed basis … it may cost you only a bit more.
In working with you over a period of time we can ‘evolve’ YOUR
assessments into more ‘intelligent’ and ‘smart’ systems that help you
spend less­time, save­money, and more effectively assess whom and what
you are trying to assess in the first place.
Contact Information :
Casper Abraham
casper@edgevalue.com
Cellphone : 91­98450 61870
Edgevalue
62­B Modi Residency,
Millers Road, Benson Town
Bangalore 560 046 INDIA
Corporate webiste : http://www.edgevalue.com
Product website : http://clextra.com
Online demo : http://clextra.edgevalue.com
The Skretch Page : http://edgevalue.com/skretch