Sumtotal Named a Leader in Enterprise Learning Management Suites Report by Independent Research Firm

SumTotal® Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUMT), a global provider of learning, performance and talent management solutions, today announced that the company was named a leader in the February 2008 Forrester Wave: Enterprise Learning Management Suites, Q1 2008. SumTotal also received the highest possible score, a five out of five for their reporting and tracking capabilities, and the report noted “it leads in number of overall customers and revenues."

According to Forrester, this 90-criteria evaluation of learning management system (LMS) vendors points out that “this learning suite is quickly becoming a critical component of an organization’s talent management efforts.” Forrester also recognized that “pure-play vendors like SumTotal Systems (along with 3 other vendors) have created or acquired performance management, succession planning, and compensation capabilities and integrated these components into a talent management suite that complements the learning suite.” As a company, Forrester notes, “SumTotal has a tight focus on learning, performance and compensation in a talent management suite with a talent management dashboard.”

SumTotal received the top score in the Current Offering category, which includes sub-categories of administration and management, reporting and tracking, and content management. Forrester points out that “SumTotal provides rich options to configure the application for a variety of users, as well as different kinds of users within a company, through its robust domain features,” and that “SumTotal provides many modules with specific features for customers to choose from as they mature in this space.”

Forrester’s report evaluated vendors based on 90 criteria covering the current offering, strategy and market presence. The 12 vendors included are recognized in the eLearning industry as providers of robust learning applications and have over 100 customers currently active on the learning management product.

“Forrester’s report recognized that a learning management suite is a critical foundation of the talent development within an organization,” says Don Fowler, chief executive officer of SumTotal Systems. “SumTotal’s investment in new capabilities, including our innovation in reporting and analysis, helps our customers translate their initiatives into business value. Because the learning management system has a large footprint within an organization, it provides a strong foundation for talent management initiatives; allowing organizations to move into succession and workforce planning, performance management and compensation management. We work with our large customer base and continued investment in R&D to look for new ways to innovate in learning management.”