Leading Industry Expert to Provide Insight Into How Organizations Can Protect Training and Development Budgets in Tough Economic Climates

Upcoming Plateau Systems’ Webinar, Featuring Forrester Research Analyst Claire Schooley, will Focus on How Organizations Can Maximize their Investments in Training and Development to Weather the Current Economic Storm

Arlington, Va. - 17 February, 2009 – Plateau Systems, a leading provider of talent management software, services and solutions, today announced that registration is now open for its March 11, 2009 Webinar titled, “Top 5 Ways to Protect your Training and Development Budget in 2009,” featuring Claire Schooley, a senior analyst covering learning strategy and technology at Forrester Research.

In order to survive in today’s tough economic environment, organizations are being forced to cut valuable resources, skills and employees without having full visibility into the long-term impact these cuts will have on their business. In many cases, organizations are eliminating the very programs that can help them successfully navigate through the current downturn. Many will be tempted to cut leadership development programs, viewing them as “nice-to-haves,” rather than as critical business “must-haves.” Shortsighted approaches, however, will put organizations at a significant disadvantage when the economy does recover.

During this interactive Webinar, Schooley will discuss how organizations can leverage their training and development investments today to identify critical skills, positions, employees and initiatives within the organization. By aligning employee skills with the critical needs of the business, organizations can maximize employee productivity and performance and focus on achieving their immediate business goals.

Webinar attendees will learn how to:

• Identify mission-critical training and development initiatives;


• Translate training and development programs into revenue generating opportunities; and


• Improve operations and maximize budgets.

WHO:	Claire Schooley, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research
WHAT:	Top 5 Ways to Protect your Training and Development Budget in 2009
WHEN:	Wednesday, March 11, 2009; 1:00 p.m. EST
WHERE:	Click here to register

For more information about Plateau, visit http://www.plateau.com/.

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About Plateau

Plateau led the charge in transforming corporate workforces in the mid-‘90s with its award-winning learning management system (LMS) platform, which streamlined the management and delivery of learning and training across some of the world’s most respected organizations, including General Electric, the American Red Cross and Capital One Services. Plateau expanded its LMS platform, and in early 2000 delivered the industry’s first fully integrated, J2EE-based talent management platform, which allowed organizations to link learning and training with employee performance to ensure that employee goals aligned with corporate objectives. Today, organizations around the world rely on Plateau’s software and solutions to drive innovation, facilitate collaboration and connect people in ways that support the organization’s most critical business objectives. Customers and industry analysts continue to recognize Plateau as a customer satisfaction leader and for its continued leadership, vision and technology innovation. Plateau is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia and has offices across the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit http://www.plateau.com/.

Registration Now Open for Plateau's Annual User Conference - Insights 2009

Insights 2009 in San Francisco to Highlight Best Practices and Emerging Trends in Talent Management

Arlington, Va. - 10 February, 2008 – Plateau Systems, a leading provider of talent management software, services and solutions, today announced that registration is open for its 14th annual user conference, Insights 2009, September 21-24, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco. Insights 2009 will provide a highly interactive forum where attendees can engage with industry experts and peers and share insights on the latest trends, technologies and best practices in talent management.

During the conference, themed: “Building Bridges to Talent Management: Leveraging Human Capital to Achieve a High Performing Workforce,” Plateau customers, partners and industry experts will discuss the importance of constructing and implementing a comprehensive talent management strategy that focuses on linking employee skills with organizational goals and priorities. Plateau executives will discuss the organizational benefits of connecting employees with internal and external peers, and share their views on how organizations can embrace collaboration and social networking to support their talent management objectives. Through technical and business breakout sessions and hands-on educational labs, attendees will learn how they can leverage their current talent management investments to meet immediate and long-term business goals amid today’s challenging business conditions.

Insights 2009 will also be a celebration of customer innovation, featuring the sixth annual Plateau Customer Excellence Awards. This program honors Plateau customers who have created outstanding value and addressed a variety of business challenges in their organizations through the use of Plateau's product and service offerings. Awards will be recognized in four categories, including Best Overall Use of Product, Best Launch to Organization (organizations with more than 10,000 employees), Best Launch to Organization (organizations with less than 10,000 employees), and Best Business Solution. Winners will be announced during the evening event on Wednesday, September 23, 2009. For more information on applying for a Customer Excellence Award, visit http://plateau.com/insights/awards.htm.

“Given the unprecedented economic and business challenges affecting today’s organizations, Plateau’s Insights 2009 conference agenda will feature practical sessions designed to help organizations maximize their Plateau investment and develop talent management strategies to successfully navigate through these dynamic market conditions,” said Jeff Kristick, Plateau’s senior vice president of marketing. “Through both formal and informal information exchange and knowledge-sharing, Insights attendees can expect to leave this year’s conference with actionable ideas on how to effectively build out their organization’s talent management initiatives and optimize their use of Plateau solutions.”

Last year, more than 400 customers, prospects and industry experts converged in Arizona to attend Plateau’s sold-out Insights 2008 featuring customer keynote presentations from Mary Tilley, HR Leader, W.L. Gore and Associates, and Connie Linardakis, EVP and Chief Human Resource Officer, Zions Bancorporation. Mary Tilley’s presentation focused W.L. Gore’s use of Plateau to support its unique organizational structure and complex processes around managing, assessing and rewarding W.L Gore associates. Connie Linardakis discussed how Utah-based Zions Bancorporation’s is leveraging Plateau’s integrated platform to unify and streamline the organization’s talent management applications and processes while maintaining autonomy for multiple subsidiaries. Click here to view highlights of Insights 2008.

Early bird registration and pricing will available at http://plateau.com/insights/index.htm until May 1, 2009. Special discounts are also available for groups and government attendees.

For more information about Plateau, visit http://www.plateau.com/.

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About Plateau Plateau led the charge in transforming corporate workforces in the mid-‘90s with its award-winning learning management system (LMS) platform, which streamlined the management and delivery of learning and training across some of the world’s most respected organizations, including General Electric, the American Red Cross and Capital One Services. Plateau expanded its LMS platform, and in early 2000 delivered the industry’s first fully integrated, J2EE-based talent management platform, which allowed organizations to link learning and training with employee performance to ensure that employee goals aligned with corporate objectives. Today, organizations around the world rely on Plateau’s software and solutions to drive innovation, facilitate collaboration and connect people in ways that support the organization’s most critical business objectives. Customers and industry analysts continue to recognize Plateau as a customer satisfaction leader and for its continued leadership, vision and technology innovation. Plateau is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia and has offices across the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit http://www.plateau.com/.

Plateau Systems Debutes in Visionaries Quadrant in Employee Performance Management Software Magic Quadrant

Evaluation Based on Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute

Arlington, Va. - 6 February, 2008 – Plateau Systems, a leading provider of talent management software, services and solutions, announced today it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the visionaries quadrant in its “Magic Quadrant for Employee Performance Management Software”¹ (EPM). According to Gartner, “visionaries have been advanced in promoting the latest trends (for example, user experience) driving EPM solutions.”

The report notes that "customers typically want to buy new EPM solutions to “automate their EPM processes, improve the linkage between pay and performance, help support the development of the next generation of leaders in the organization, and/or improve employee/associate retention (and engagement).” As customers solve the challenges of automating EPM processes, improving the ability to link pay to performance and other issues, Gartner expects “the focus to shift to leveraging talent data to make better decisions about worker-related programs and investments.”

“As organizations of all sizes across virtually every industry continue to weather the current economic storm, business leaders are looking for every opportunity to minimize costs by maximizing resources,” said Paul Sparta, Chairman and CEO of Plateau Systems. “Right now, with people being an organization’s most valuable - and expensive - resource, employee skills and talents must be developed and utilized in way that directly supports the most critical and immediate goals of the business. Plateau is enabling organizations to do this by providing an integrated solution that allows users to link employee performance with development activities, synchronize goals across business units, and directly measure performance against those goals. We consider our positioning in Gartner’s recent Employee Performance Management Software Magic Quadrant to be further validation of Plateau’s ability to deliver the performance management capabilities organizations need to optimize their talent today.”

Plateau has expanded into performance management, succession management and compensation management (through the acquisition of Nuvosoft in February 2007).” In June 2008, Gartner positioned Plateau in the Leaders Quadrant in its “Magic Quadrant for Corporate Learning Systems.”² By integrating Plateau Performance with Plateau's award- winning Learning Management System (LMS), customers can tie learning and development activities to individual employee performance and development plans and employees can take immediate action to achieve their performance targets by launching relevant training when and where they need it. Using the latest release of Plateau Talent Management 5.8 SP5, customers can leverage powerful and flexible talent planning capabilities, including enhanced real-time visibility into talent management operations and additional learning evaluation capabilities to make more informed decisions about their talent and better gauge the value of learning for both the individual and the company.

Today, more than 10 million employees and managers from some of the world's most respected organizations rely on Plateau's talent management solutions to engage, develop, manage, and retain high performing employees and workforces. For more information about Plateau, visit http://www.plateau.com/.

¹ Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Employee Performance Management Software” by James Holincheck and Thomas Otter. February 3, 2009.
² Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Corporate Learning Systems,” Carol Rozwell and James Lundy. June 30, 2008.

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About Magic Quadrant The Magic Quadrants are 208 and 2009, by Gartner, Inc. and are 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 led the charge in transforming corporate workforces in the mid-‘90s with its award-winning learning management system (LMS) platform, which streamlined the management and delivery of learning and training across some of the world’s most respected organizations, including General Electric, the American Red Cross and Capital One Services. Plateau expanded its LMS platform, and in early 2000 delivered the industry’s first fully integrated, J2EE-based talent management platform, which allowed organizations to link learning and training with employee performance to ensure that employee goals aligned with corporate objectives. Today, organizations around the world rely on Plateau’s software and solutions to drive innovation, facilitate collaboration and connect people in ways that support the organization’s most critical business objectives. Customers and industry analysts continue to recognize Plateau as a customer satisfaction leader and for its continued leadership, vision and technology innovation. Plateau is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia and has offices across the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit http://www.plateau.com/.