SMT Marks 10th Year in 2005

Ten years ago, Dr. Lee L. Schroeder had a vision of how the test publishing and psychometric industry should operate; where labor intensive practices would be replaced with innovative technological solutions permitting expert test development personnel to dedicate themselves to provide personalized customer service where each testing program’s custom needs would be met with ease. With these goals in mind, Lee resigned his executive position in a well established testing firm to realize his vision by founding SMT. Recognizing that his goal required practical and technical expertise, Lee recruited Matt Wenger, a Programs Director with extensive management and marketing experience in the industry to assist Lee in building the fundamental business structure. Steven Schimsky, a computer management information systems expert who previously developed testing software was recruited to construct the integrated technology Lee had envisioned that would computerize virtually every aspect of test development and administration.

Operations began in 3000 square feet of office space in the Amerilife Tower on Route 19 in Clearwater, Florida. The company is started with all new, state-of-the-art networking, PCs, data communication, telephone and printing equipment. Operations began with 10 contracts purchased from a now-defunct testing firm.
SMT initiates online test development meetings. SMT begins sales of SMT-Bank.

SMT increased its client base by 30% (including a second Canadian organization) while reorganizing to better align the workforce in light of efficiencies achieved by such technologies as SMT-Bank and the SMT-Admin candidate processing system, which were released in 1997. In addition, SMT completed development of the SMT-Vault system for the management of secure document inventories, including a transition to bar code technology.

An additional 20% client increase featured the third and fourth international clients. During 1998, SMT began selling the SMT-Remote scoring system to facilitate on-site scoring with secure keys at remote locations. These developments and others attracted the attention of the investment community, and SMT received significant funding for expansion.

1999 marked SMT’s move to the present location in the First Union (now Wachovia) building in Dunedin, Florida, with 5,500 square feet of office space. SMT also added to its growing technology warehouse, releasing the first version of its SMT-PCTest computer-based testing software delivery system.

SMT completed development of the SMT-Match item bank breach detection software system. SMT reached a volume of 200,000 tests scored per year.

Dr. Reed Castle, a psychometrician with expertise in computer adaptive testing and Item Response Theory was retained as Director of Research and Development. Reed brought a wealth of practical and theoretical experience to SMT through his past positions in national testing firms. In addition, SMT began delivery of its first examinations in Canada using computer adaptive testing based on Item Response Theory.

Dick Soule brought his 16 years of testing industry experience to SMT, becoming Director of Business Development. A new London office opened to provide improved services to European candidates and the Dunedin office expanded to 9,000 square feet. The first versions of an on-line item-writing system, SMT-Item-net, were released.
A complete overhaul of company technology included a new, PC-controlled, networked telephone system; new network servers bringing our websites and mail in-house; updated PCs; and new network-interfaced printing equipment with high-speed optical document scanning. In 2002, SMT also began web-based delivery of score reports and individual candidate score reporting via downloadable documents over secure web portals. Finally, SMT obtained its first federal government contract with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).

In a year of major expansion, SMT opened the Business Development office in Newark (DE) and additional international offices in Hong Kong. Two new web-based services were launched: SMT-WebTest,an on-line delivery system for non-secure (e.g., practice) tests, and SMT-Survey, the first version of our on-line survey delivery system.
SMT also initiated the first continuous job analysis whereby the survey is continuously updated and test specifications continuously reviewed for potential blueprint adjustments. SMT also completed a comprehensive redesign of its website to better facilitate customer service, payment processing, and information access. SMT’s client base increased by 40%.

Yet another expansion brought the Dunedin office to 12,000 square feet and a number of new employees were hired to serve the rapidly increasing work load. SMT’s client based increased by an impressive 55%, bringing the total increase since its inception to 450%. SMT entered into its second federal level contract—the U.S. Department of State and quadrupled the number of health care-related clients. In addition, SMT performed exam services for the People’s Republic of China and brought Tokyo processing and customer service functions on line. In a move with significant future implications, SMT announced and launched its new Computer-Based Test Center Network, beginning with some 140 centers in the United States and Canada.

2005 will see continued expansion of SMT’s Test Center Network in North America and, later in the year, the addition of international sites in countries around the world. Concurrent with the Test Center Network launch, SMT will continue to expand and upgrade the related web applications to further enhance candidate and client services.
As SMT continues to grow, the company reinforces its commitment to providing consistently exemplary personalized service to its expanding client base.