Plateau Again Recognized as Global Enterprise Leader in Overall Satisfaction in Bersin & Associates' LMS Study

Customers Give Plateau Highest Rating in Overall Customer Satisfaction Category for Second Consecutive Time; Plateau Leads or Co-Leads Global Enterprise Market Segment in 14 of 20 Satisfaction Categories

Arlington, VA. – April 02, 2007 – Plateau Systems, a leading provider of software for developing, managing, rewarding and optimizing organizational skills and talent, today announced that the Bersin & Associates report published last week, 2007 LMS Customer Satisfaction: An Industry Analysis of the Customer Experience with Learning Management Systems, has again identified Plateau as the leader in the overall satisfaction category in the global enterprise segment. Customers rated Plateau as the customer satisfaction leader or co-leader in 14 of 20 categories, and the sole leader in the categories that represent the most important measures of customer satisfaction, including overall satisfaction, customer service, and product/technical support. All ratings are based on customer surveys, with “leader” status awarded to vendors that received the highest peer group rating in each customer satisfaction category.

The report defined Plateau as a global enterprise provider with the ability to provide advanced functionality, a high degree of flexibility and scalability, and global service and support to meet the complex needs of large global organizations. Customers also rated Plateau as the leader in the overall satisfaction category in the global enterprise segment in Bersin & Associates 2005 LMS Customer Satisfaction Study. This consistently high rating underscores Plateau’s proven record of delivering customer satisfaction to global enterprises.

"Plateau continues to prove its commitment to global enterprise LMS customers by providing outstanding services that drive customer satisfaction and loyalty,” said Josh Bersin, president and founder of Bersin & Associates, a research and advisory firm focused on enterprise learning research. "This research highlights Plateau’s proven track record in delivering high levels of customer satisfaction through its product, services, and support."

According to the study, customers rate Plateau as the customer satisfaction leader in multiple categories due to the company’s investments in professional services and its focus on customer success. “The professional services organization is tightly integrated with support and engineering, providing a single level of ownership for any customer problem.”

The report further states, “The company prides itself on total customer success – focusing on solving a wide range of problems in its large implementations, including: change management, content integration, project management and learning strategy. Plateau’s continued investment in services and support, as well as its keen focus on the changing nature of the LMS market, will help the company continue its healthy growth rate.”

Plateau is rated a customer satisfaction leader or co-leader in the following 14 categories:

Overall Satisfaction

Ease of Use

• Ease of Use for Learners


• Ease of Use for System Administrators

Integration

• Content Integration

Total Solution

• Scalable to meet future needs


• Provides all functionality needed out of the Box


• Reporting capabilities

Service and Support

• Customer service


• Product/Technical support

Business Partnership

• Understanding and assistance with customers’ business and training challenges


• Customer has adequate input to product direction


• Long-term Platform Support (confidence that vendor will support the product)

Additional Tools/Capabilities

• E-Learning Content


• Testing/Assessment Tools

In addition to its leadership in these categories, Plateau was named a peer group out-performer with above-average ratings compared to other vendors in ease of customization and technology investment protection.

"This comprehensive report, based on extensive customer feedback, highlights Plateau’s ongoing commitment to the success and satisfaction of our customers," said Paul Sparta, chairman and CEO of Plateau Systems. "Being recognized as the leader in the overall satisfaction category in the Bersin & Associates study for the second consecutive time is a true honor bestowed upon us by our customers. The talent management industry is growing and evolving rapidly, and as such, achieving true customer satisfaction and success is a challenging and never-ending effort in which we are continually investing and refining. From product usability and innovation, to global services and customer support, Plateau will continue to focus significant resources on these and other areas that are most important to our customers.”

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About Bersin & Associates’ 2007 LMS Customer Satisfaction Study: An Industry Analysis of the Customer Experience with Learning Management Systems

2007 LMS Customer Satisfaction: An Industry Analysis of the Customer Experience with Learning Management Systems is a broad-based industry study based on survey results from 516 system administrators, training managers, and executives. This study evaluates a wide range of categories – product performance, customer service, technical support, and additional tools and capabilities – all from the customers’ perspective. The 2007 study covers offerings from 13 LMS vendors and analyzes over 20 different measures of customer satisfaction.

The study was completely funded by Bersin & Associates. Information in the study is based solely on Bersin & Associates’ analysis of results; the only information in the study provided by vendors are estimates of LMS revenues. Organizations can purchase the report by going to http://www.bersin.com/lmssat.

All survey participants had a learning management system that was operational at the time of the survey; the average length of LMS “ownership” was 2.1 years. Respondents represent organizations of all sizes, vertical segments, and number of learners. Seventy-eight (78%) percent of respondents are from corporate organizations; 11% are from government organizations, 2% are from higher ed. Institutions and 9% are from non-profit organizations. The 2007 study was conducted in November-December of 2006.

About Plateau

Plateau is a leading, global provider of adaptable, web-based software for developing, managing, rewarding and optimizing organizational talent 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, with offices across the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.plateau.com

Plateau Systems, the Plateau Systems logo, Plateau Performance, and Plateau are the property of Plateau Systems Ltd. All other names and brands are the property of their respective holders.

Informatica Pioneers Innovative Career Development Initiative With Plateau Learning Management System

Plateau’s Solution Empowers Informatica’s Employees to Own Their Career

Arlington, VA. – 28 March 2007 –  Plateau Systems, a leading provider of software for developing, managing and optimizing organizational skills and talent, today announced that Informatica, a leading provider of data integration software, has selected and deployed Plateau’s Learning Management Systems (LMS) as the strategic framework for its forward-thinking career development initiative. Informatica will leverage Plateau’s fully hosted LMS as the foundation of its new paradigm that focuses on aligning and integrating learning as a continuous career development goal for its more than 1200 global employees.

In contrast to the traditional “ladder” or hierarchical approach that has long defined career development and advancement, Informatica focuses on empowering employees to take charge of their careers.   With Plateau LMS as the foundation enabling this new paradigm, Informatica will be able to link targeted learning to core competencies, emphasizing job enrichment, competency enrichment, opportunities for lateral movement and temporary global assignments for cultural awareness and growth – with the ultimate goal of empowering employees to define their career development goals and drive their own career path.

Over the past fifteen years, corporations have expanded globally.  Competition has heated up, outsourcing trends have increased, and strategic agility is now critical for corporate success.   Corporations have also become less hierarchical and more flat in structure, resulting in fewer management levels and fewer traditional promotional opportunities.  In addition, the hyper-pace of evolving technology means that some skills can be obsolete within two years.  As a result, a new career paradigm has emerged, defining successful employees as ones who drive their own skill growth, set their own career goals, maintain their expertise proactively, and recognize that a career path is defined by continuous competency enrichment, opportunity breadth, cross-cultural awareness, and lifelong learning.  Providing a learning infrastructure that empowers employees to embrace this new career paradigm has elevated the strategic value of Learning Management Systems.  Learning Management Systems provide a framework for delivering this new career paradigm and infusing its philosophy of employee learning empowerment within the corporate culture.

“As a growing, mid-size company in a competitive environment, Informatica is committed to dynamically developing and advancing employees in ways that support their professional and personal  goals by providing more control over their career development,” said Dr. Linda Pfeifer, Director of Global HR Learning and Performance at Informatica.  “We see this new career paradigm approach to lifelong continuous learning as a key driver to motivating the workforce and are committed to providing  and nurturing a culture of risk-free learning that embraces this approach. Plateau LMS enables us to unite and build a new culture around this new career paradigm by offering a holistic approach to developing, managing, rewarding and optimizing our employees.  With Plateau LMS, we have the opportunity to offer scalability as our company grows, and as new market opportunities emerge, we may better retain key talent and streamline our development of job-based skills, all of which deliver time and cost savings for Informatica.”

After a thorough evaluation of LMS providers, Informatica selected Plateau as the infrastructure for its new initiative as the vendor that could best deliver enterprise-class depth and breadth of functionality within its solution.  By providing a single, centralized point for delivering, managing, tracking and reporting on employee learning activities, Plateau’s solution enables Informatica to more effectively administer training while reducing related overhead. 

Plateau’s LMS integrates learning and career development, providing a closed-loop process that helps Informatica’s managers fill employee development gaps through targeted learning activities.  By bundling e-learning directly into their offering, Plateau allows Informatica to apply its curriculum design directly into the LMS framework, creating a cost-effective and easy-to-use solution for the organization.  Informatica’s curriculum model accelerates job-based development through focused behavioral assessment that aligns skills gaps with the most effective learning solutions.

“Informatica recognizes that innovation in critical for creating effective, employee-focused learning strategies that help develop and cultivate organizational talent,” said Paul Sparta, Chairman and CEO of Plateau. “Plateau provides a solution that perfectly complements Informatica’s new career development paradigm while enabling the company to increase its workforce productivity and drive overall business performance.”

About Plateau

Plateau is a leading, global provider of adaptable, web-based software for developing, managing, rewarding and optimizing organizational talent 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, with offices across the  United States, Europe and Asia Pacific.  For more information, please visit www.plateau.com.

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Plateau Systems, the Plateau Systems logo, Plateau Performance, and Plateau are the property of Plateau Systems Ltd. All other names and brands are the property of their respective holders.