In 1988, Allen Firstenberg, then the director of Rockwell International's R&D group in software and information sciences, watched his daughter struggle with paper applications and a typewriter to laboriously type the same information into numerous applications to colleges.
Working nights and weekends, he developed the first electronic admission application (disk-based) for universities to simplify the archaic application process.
Xap was the first company to work with campuses to develop and market electronic applications and computer-based multimedia campus tours.
With the advent of the Internet, Xap again set a precedent by leading the development and implementation of a fail-safe, client-server architecture to secure communications for online applications and other student services.
Xap enabled the automatic transfer of student data to the universities student information system (SIS) database by utilizing an electronic data interchange.
In 1996, Xap's technology effectively expanded to include a secure Internet-based information processing and data collection that instantly evolved into Xap's winning edge in successfully attaining the contract for the California State University state-wide student services website (www.csumentor.edu).
In December 1996, with the triumphant development of the new online products came a new beginning and Xap, the Corporation, was formed.
The members of Xap Corporation focused their resources on creating a novel and comprehensive Information Management System based on the Internet.
The number one priority was to expand the student services far beyond the online application and what anyone else had built.
Xap introduced a new way to get to college.
Students were finally able to tour multiple campuses, compare the campuses' most important attributes, and plan for college without ever leaving their chairs.
When CSUMentor went live on the Internet in November 1997, it was clear that Xap was well on its way to achieving its goals.
