MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (May 10, 2004) – SumTotal Systems (NASDAQ: SUMT), the industry’s largest provider of learning and business performance technologies, services and processes, today announced a full range of presentations, meetings and activities at this week’s e-Learning Brazil Conference and Expo 2004, held on May 12 and 13 at the Gran Melia Convention Center in Sao Paolo. The conference is the largest in Latin America, focusing on learning trends, technologies and new developments, and draws hundreds of executives from around the region in business, industry, government and education. SumTotal is a Diamond Sponsor of the event.
Kicking off the conference, SumTotal president Kevin Oakes will deliver a keynote as part of an international panel of learning experts, which also includes Elliott Masie of the Masie Consortium, Wayne Hodgkins of the World e-Learning Congress, and others. Oakes will present his views on learning industry trends, best practices and future direction, and also will highlight the success of SumTotal’s customers in Latin American.
“Over the past few years, SumTotal has committed itself to providing solutions that meet the specific needs of customers in this market,” said Oakes. “The learning industry here is thriving, with expected growth of $150 million in 2004, just in Brazil alone. This is a clear reflection of the interest companies in this region have in making learning technology mission critical to improving the business performance of their organizations.”
The result, according to Oakes, has been significant momentum for SumTotal in Latin America, with new customers including General Motors Brazil, Comex, Mexico’s largest decorator paint retailer, Mexican business consulting leader Cetro Crece and software giant Datasul.
Datasul deployed SumTotal technology to educate customers and certify partners in the use and implementation of Datasul's ERP products. "As a software development company we considered developing our own learning solution," said Alice Feuser, Head of Datasul University. "However, after fully evaluating SumTotal we realized that it provided a complete and robust solution that integrated with our current system in far less time and at lower cost than would have been possible with internal development. SumTotal not only provided key functionality to our solution, but will help us achieve additional results by easily certifying consultants while ensuring consistent, high value results that our customers expect."
Another SumTotal customer, United Airlines, will lead a session at the conference as part of a series featuring learning success stories from international companies. In its presentation, United Airlines will share details of its implementation of SumTotal technology to nearly 51,000 users across its extended enterprise, and the resulting increase in revenue, decrease in training costs and reduction in time-to-readiness of its employees, vendors and partners. United Airlines uses SumTotal technology to manage all learning and competency activities in order to ensure the consistency of training, improve the accuracy of records, comply with mandated federal regulations and reduce redundant administrative tasks.
Rounding out its schedule at the expo, SumTotal will conduct a user group meeting to gain feedback from its Latin American customers and discuss features and functionalities, learning technology ROI, industry issues and how to better address specific business problems through enterprise learning.
About SumTotal Systems, Inc.
SumTotal Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: SUMT) is the business performance and learning technology industry’s largest single provider of technologies, processes and services. Formed by the merger of industry pioneers Docent and Click2learn, the company is uniquely focused on helping organizations harness and manage mission-critical intellectual power to solve real-world business problems and produce significant bottom-line results. SumTotal has helped accelerate performance and profit for more than 600 of the world’s best-known companies, including Microsoft, Cingular Wireless, Vodafone, Lucent, Accenture, Cendant, Harley-Davidson, Wyeth, Wachovia and D & B. SumTotal Systems is headquartered in Mountain View, CA, with offices throughout the US, as well as London, Paris, Heidelberg, Sydney, Tokyo and Hyderabad, India.Safe Harbor Statement/ Forward-Looking Statements
Information in this press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about future business operations, industry leadership, financial performance and viability, customer benefits, timing and features of our product offerings, acceptance of our solutions, expected innovation, and other potential benefits and synergies to be derived from the transaction and other market conditions that include risks and uncertainties. These statements are not historical facts or guarantees of future performance or events and are based on current expectations, estimates, beliefs, assumptions, goals and objectives, and SumTotal Systems does not assume any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future results and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from the results expressed or implied by these statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, (i) the challenges and costs of integration and restructuring and the ability to achieve anticipated synergies associated with the recent merger; (ii) an emerging and rapidly evolving market, (iii) market uncertainty with respect to the merger and acceptance of SumTotal System’s product offerings by customers and partners; (iv) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (v) delays or reductions in information technology spending; (vi) the ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees; (vii) intense competition in the marketplace and (viii) other events and other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time SumTotal Systems’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the joint proxy statement/prospectus on Form S-4 filed under the name Hockey Merger Corporation.