Plateau Launches "Roadmap to Performance Management" Seminars

Educational Breakfast Seminars in Washington, DC, Northern Virginia and Atlanta to highlight relationship between performance management and talent management strategies

Arlington, Va. - 22 July, 2008 – Plateau Systems, leading provider of talent management software, services and solutions, today announced its “Roadmap to Performance Management,” series of East Coast breakfast seminars to be held in August in Washington DC, Tyson’s Corner, Va., and Atlanta. During these free seminars, talent management experts from Human Capital Institute (HCI), will join Plateau customers including W.L Gore and the United States Department of Labor and Plateau partner PriceWaterhouse Coopers to present best practices and discuss the critical role performance management plays in helping organizations achieve a successful talent management strategy.

In today’s challenging business environment, organizations must align employee performance with the goals of the organization, and effectively reward top talent for their individual and collective contributions to the organization. Designed for HR leaders, Plateau’s “Roadmap to Performance Management” seminars will provide attendees with an action plan for building and executing a talent management strategy through a combination of case studies, research-based presentations and real-world insight and discussions.

"With workforce productivity and retention remaining top priorities for executives across the board, performance management is no longer an organizational option, it’s a must,” said Jeff Kristick, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Plateau. “Plateau’s road show will offer attendees a unique opportunity to interact with industry experts and other HR professionals and gain greater insight into best practices for not only developing and managing talent, but also aligning training with organizational goals.”

WHAT:	Plateau’s Roadmap to Performance Management
WHEN / WHERE:	For each location, breakfast and registration will open at 8:00 a.m.; program will run from 9:00 a.m to 11:45 a.m. Washington, DC: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Marriott at Metro Center 775 12th Street NW Washington, D.C. 20005 Northern Virginia:Thursday, August 14, 2008 Marriott Tyson’s Corner 8028 Leesburg Pike Vienna, Va. 22182 Atlanta: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 JW Marriott Hotel Buckhead Atlanta 3300 Lenox Road Atlanta, Ga, 30326
WHO:	Allan Schweyer, Human Capital Institute’s Executive Director and Senior Vice President, Research, has been confirmed to speak during the Northern Virginia and Atlanta breakfast seminars. Nigel Leeming, Human Capital Institute’s Senior Vice President, Public Sector, has been confirmed to speak during the Washington, D.C. seminar. Plateau customer James L. Roe, Global HR Information Systems Leader, W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. will present at the Northern Virginia seminar; Plateau partner Renee Romulus, Director, Advisory Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers will present in Atlanta; and customer Michael Gerwitz from the United States Department of Labor will present in Washington, DC.
REISTRATION:	http://plateau.com/roadshow/2008/registration.html

“Plateau’s Roadmap to Performance Management” breakfast seminars, are free to attend. For more information, please visit http://plateau.com/roadshow/2008/index.html.

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About Plateau
Plateau is a leading provider of talent management software, content and services designed to increase workforce productivity and drive business success. Plateau’s award-winning software is powering talent management initiatives across some of the world’s most successful organizations, including the American Red Cross, General Electric, the Internal Revenue Service, Capital One Services and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Industry analysts at Bersin & Associates, Forrester Research and other leading information and technology research and advisory firms continue to recognize Plateau’s leadership in delivering best-in-class functionality, technology and customer satisfaction. Plateau is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia and has offices across the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.plateau.com.

Plateau Delivers Enhanced Talent Management Analytics Offering

Latest Version of Plateau Analytics offers on-demand, actionable information to track and improve talent management effectiveness

Arlington, Va. - 16 July, 2008 – Plateau Systems, a leading provider of talent management software, services and solutions, today released the latest version on Plateau Analytics, a pre-configured solution for performing analysis on learning and performance data captured and managed in Plateau’s Talent Management suite. By monitoring critical learning and performance processes, this enhanced version of Plateau Analytics delivers relevant, actionable information organizations need to more effectively manage, organize and optimize their workforce.

"One can think of different talent management capabilities as levers that managers and executives can use to affect business results. Managers and executives need to decide what levers (or combination of levers) they should pull to achieve the desired business outcome. Once you decide which levers to pull, that should drive how you configure and use the talent management applications,” said Jim Holincheck, Managing Vice President at Gartner, Inc..* “Talent management applications implemented by themselves do not provide the insight necessary to determine which levers to pull; they are the levers.” Moreover, “to unlock the strategic value, customers need a well-integrated set of talent management applications that provides the data foundation for workforce analytics to help users understand what levers they need to pull to address specific business issues or to drive specific business outcomes."

Plateau Analytics enables companies to more effectively align talent management initiatives with business objectives, and analyze data in various combinations to uncover trends and exceptions related to the impact of specific talent management initiatives on business performance. For example, with Plateau Analytics, organizations can easily ascertain the status of employee certification required by a regulatory change, what competency gaps exist in critical job positions, the total cost of training, employee progress against development plans, and the impact of talent management efforts on employee competency assessments over a specific period of time. Plateau Analytics aggregates this data and consolidates it into high-level snapshots that give executives a big picture view and enables them to maximize the value of their organization’s talent management investment.

Comprised of four major components, Plateau Analytics includes a Data Warehouse that stores a copy of all Plateau Talent Management learning and performance data; an Extract and Load (ETL) process that connects to Plateau Talent Management and populates the Data Warehouse; an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) framework for report creation and management; and more than 35 pre-defined reports. Unlike competitor offerings that pull information directly from the operational databases behind their Talent Management Suite, Plateau Analytics pulls its information from a Data Warehouse, giving it increased ability to display and analyze trends – including the vital ability to compare and contrast current and past performance, which is only possible through a Data Warehouse. Additionally, by offering pre-built Data Warehousing, ETL, OLAP and reports, Plateau Analytics eliminates costs and time investments associated with custom development and integration, enabling users to achieve faster ROI.

Plateau Analytics offers a number of new features, including:

• Performance enhancements, including an updated Data Warehouse and ETL, which has been fully tested with large, complex data sets;
• Two categories of performance-related reports, including Plans and Goal Completion and Succession Planning;
• Measure thresholds and custom number formatting, which allows administrators to identify values within one or more measures of particular interest and specify the most appropriate level of precision;
• An 'All Users' Measure, which provides insight into the total population of users and allows easy comparison within the population that meets the reporting criteria;
• An ad hoc reporting feature, which allows administrators to create new analysis directly against a Data Warehouse cube; and
• The ability to save and publish custom reports for other administrators to use and run.

“An explicit link exists between talent management, improved productivity and business operations performance,” said Paul Sparta, Chairman and CEO, Plateau Systems. “By harnessing their talent data and using comprehensive analytics, all levels of the organization have the ability to make more informed management decisions and truly understand the business impact of their organization’s talent management initiatives.”

For more information about Plateau Analytics, visit www.plateau.com.

* Gartner, Inc. “Unlocking the Strategic Value from Talent Management Application Investments,” James Holincheck, Dec. 26, 2007.

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About Plateau
Plateau is a leading provider of talent management software, content and services designed to increase workforce productivity and drive business success. Plateau’s award-winning software is powering talent management initiatives across some of the world’s most successful organizations, including the American Red Cross, General Electric, the Internal Revenue Service, Capital One Services and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Industry analysts at Bersin & Associates, Forrester Research and other leading information and technology research and advisory firms continue to recognize Plateau’s leadership in delivering best-in-class functionality, technology and customer satisfaction. Plateau is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia and has offices across the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.plateau.com.

Plateau and Accenture Deliver Flexible Learning Management Solutions to 14,000 Employees Across Caja Madrid's 2,000 Branches

Spain’s Fourth Largest Retail Bank to Deploy Plateau Learning Management System for enterprise-wide compliance training and online learning

Arlington, Va. - 15 July, 2008 – Plateau Systems, a leading provider of talent management software, content and services, today announced that Spain’s oldest financial entity and fourth-largest financial group, Caja Madrid, has selected Plateau Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver compliance training and online courses to the bank’s entire employee population. During a competitive evaluation process, Accenture, which will host the solution, recommended Plateau as the best technical fit for Caja Madrid’s needs.

As Spain’s fourth largest banking institution, Caja Madrid provides a full range of retail, corporate and private banking products and services, serving 6.7 million customers in all segments from families and SMEs, through to major corporations and public and private institutions. With more than 75 regional offices and an extensive network of branch offices, ensuring high levels of employee productivity and efficiency is critical to Caja Madrid’s continued success and growth. Understanding the critical role talent management plays in its ability to meet customer needs and maintain business growth, Caja Madrid decided to transform its current learning management system. After significant evaluation, Caja Madrid chose Plateau and Accenture to update the bank’s learning management systems.

“Caja Madrid’s growth and expanding business have determined the need to evolve from a highly customized solution to a new learning management system that enables faster and more flexible accommodation to the new challenges,” said Diego Sánchez de Leon, Accenture EALA Talent & Organization Performance Lead Partner. “At this point, Caja Madrid has engaged Accenture to help them select a state-of-the-art, SCORM 2004-compliant platform that is aligned with the capabilities required for their growth strategy and that supports the high standards of service they provide. After evaluating several vendors against detailed technical criteria, Plateau was determined to be the best platform for Caja Madrid, largely due to its scalability, extensibility, and ease of use – all of which will be critical as Caja Madrid continues its growth and expansion.”

Hosted by Accenture in Spain, Plateau LMS provides a centralized application that will allow Caja Madrid to deliver and manage on-demand workforce training across all of its 14,000 employees. They will be able identify training requirements, deploy learning across all 2,000 branches and track course completion. Plateau LMS maintains records of training delivered for compliance purposes, enabling Caja Madrid to measure and track learning and certification-related activities. Using Accenture to host the solution will provide Caja Madrid with high levels of reliability and security, access to experienced system administrators and performance assurance.

“Caja Madrid’s modernization efforts reflect what we’re hearing from customers around the world regarding their talent management initiatives,” said Paul Sparta, Chairman and CEO, Plateau Systems. “In order to stay competitive and deliver the level of customer service expected of one of Spain’s largest retail banks, they must have an enterprise learning strategy that enables them to develop their talent to its fullest potential. In addition to giving Caja Madrid the competitive edge they need to develop their workforce, deploying Plateau LMS provides the flexibility that allows them to keep key custom processes and functionality developed on their previous platform intact."

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About Plateau
Plateau is a leading provider of talent management software, content and services designed to increase workforce productivity and drive business success. Plateau’s award-winning software is powering talent management initiatives across some of the world’s most successful organizations, including the American Red Cross, General Electric, the Internal Revenue Service, Capital One Services and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Industry analysts at Bersin & Associates, Forrester Research and other leading information and technology research and advisory firms continue to recognize Plateau’s leadership in delivering best-in-class functionality, technology and customer satisfaction. Plateau is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia and has offices across the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.plateau.com.

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With 178,000 people in 49 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$19.70 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2007. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

Plateau Positioned in Leaders Quadrant for Leading Industry Analyst Firm's Corporate Learning Systems Magic Quadrant

Leading Analyst Firm Evaluates Plateau’s Talent Management Solutions for Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision

Arlington, Va. - 2 July, 2008 – Plateau Systems, a leading provider of talent management software, services and solutions, today announced that Gartner, Inc. has positioned Plateau in the Leaders Quadrant of its recently released “Magic Quadrant for Corporate Learning Systems (CLS), which evaluated 14 vendors in the corporate learning systems market.¹

The Gartner Magic Quadrant represents Gartner's judgment of vendors' ability to execute and the completeness of their vision in a technology market. Gartner identifies Leaders as those vendors who “must not only meet the market's current requirements, which are continually changing, but also anticipate future requirements. Also fundamental is the ability to articulate how they will address these requirements as part of a vision for an expanded CLS. In addition, Leaders have a proven track record of financial performance and an established market presence. Their installed base gives them a strong presence in the CLS market, and they demonstrate continued growth in customers and revenue. In terms of vision, they are perceived as thought leaders, with well-articulated plans for product development, marketing and channel support. Leaders have the highest combined scores for Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. These strategic providers will continue to drive the market forward by broadening their CLS functionality and integration. Buyers can expect that, as a group, Leaders will be considered as part of most new product purchases and will continue to have high success rates in winning new business.”

“Over the past several years, Plateau has demonstrated a consistent ability to deliver products, solutions and services that solve our customers’ growing workforce and corporate learning challenges,” said Paul Sparta, Chairman and CEO, Plateau Systems. “We view Plateau’s positioning in Gartner’s Leader’s Quadrant as validation that we’re continuing to execute and deliver world-class talent management solutions that enable our customers to seamlessly manage and leverage their talent to increase productivity and maximize employee performance.”

According to Gartner, “The justification for using a CLS is that it aids the process of educating employees, partners and customers, so that an enterprise can achieve its desired level of business performance sooner than if people had been left to work things out for themselves. As attitudes toward training have matured, enterprises have come to appreciate the need to create engaging content that enhances the learning experience and increases retention.” Gartner continued, “The degree of integration of individual e-learning applications into a single packaged product varies widely [in the CLS market]. This has caused confusion and disillusionment among buyers, but has become a significant differentiator for those CLS vendors that offer more complex offerings. Vendors that score more highly for Completeness of Vision (the horizontal axis on the Magic Quadrant) tend to have more comprehensive offerings as well as integration with installed employee performance management applications.”

More than 250 organizations and 10 million users have adopted Plateau’s talent management solutions, including the largest corporate, non-profit and government learning institutions. Plateau Learning increases workforce productivity and performance by managing training across the extended enterprise. The solution provides management of learning processes and data, development and deployment of online and offline learning and evaluation content, and secure auditing and reporting of regulatory compliance information.

For more information about Plateau, visit www.plateau.com.

¹Gartner, Inc., “Magic Quadrant for Corporate Learning Systems,” Carol Rozwell and James Lundy, June 30, 2008.

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About the Gartner Magic Quadrant
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2008 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Plateau
Plateau is a leading provider of adaptable Web-based software for developing, managing and optimizing organizational skills and talent to increase workforce productivity and business operations performance. Plateau’s software is being used by some of the world’s largest, most successful enterprises, including the American Red Cross, General Electric, Internal Revenue Service, and Wendy’s International. Industry analysts, including Forrester Research and Bersin & Associates, have rated Plateau a leader in functionality, technology, and customer satisfaction. The company is headquartered in Arlington, Va. For more information on Plateau, visit www.plateau.com.