company

Ivy Software was incorporated in 1986. The company over the next two years produced two distinct product lines. Using Ivy Author, the company's authoring system, the company created the Business Education Library (BEL). The BEL at that time consisted of four products:

The Financial Accounting Cycle (FAC) Financial Accounting: A Management Perspective (FAAMP) Capital Budgeting (CAPBUD)
Understanding Corporate Finance (UCF)

In addition, the company created computerized practice sets for the academic market. These practice sets were written in Zbasic and used by accounting principles students after they had completed the financial accounting cycle (the first three weeks of the course). The idea is that the student is given three days of accounting transactions (at the end of the month) to enter into the books, adjust and close, then produce financial statements.

Most recently (1998), Ivy Software produces the BEL (and has added two new titles) as well as the practice sets. The new titles are:

Business Math and Statistics (BMAS)
Business Communications: A Managerial Approach (BCOM)

The BEL is intended for both the corporate and academic markets with the basic premise being:

(1) You do not have to take an entire accounting course to understand, for instance, financial accounting. FAAMP will accomplish that.
(2) You don't have to be a computer whiz to use our software.
(3) We typically assume you know nothing about the subject matter.
(4) Each course is a very, very thorough explanation of the basic fundamentals underying the topic.

Each BEL course consists of a printed text written by an academic and diskettes, CD-ROM, or online material, depending on the customer. The texts are from 50 to 150 pages. It is very important to note that the software alone will not be beneficial without reading the appropriate text portion first, i.e., the printed text is a critical part of the product. The user first reads a chapter of text and then turns to the software for interactive testing, tutorial screens, problem solving and final exams.