North American Aerospace Defense Command And United States Northern Command Recruits SumTotal Systems to Drive Homeland Security Readiness

Commands to use SumTotal Enterprise Suite to help develop critical security leadership among more than 1200 military officers and personnel

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (November 23, 2004) – SumTotal Systems (NASDAQ: SUMT), the industry’s largest provider of learning and business performance technologies, services and processes, today announced that the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a U.S./Canadian combined command that provides air defense for North America and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), which conducts operations to deter, prevent and defeat threats and aggression aimed at the United States, its territories and interests, has chosen SumTotal to help drive a security readiness initiative for military leadership and other personnel stationed at NORAD-USNORTHCOM headquarters.

The NORAD agreement was signed on May 12, 1958, and has continuously provided the forces to “deter, detect and defend” Alaska, Canada and the 48 contiguous states from air attack. USNORTHCOM, formed by the Department of Defense in 2002, plans, organizes and executes homeland defense and civil support missions. The commands chose the SumTotal Enterprise Suite, including TotalLMS and TotalLCMS to help accelerate readiness of its personnel, who come from a variety of military backgrounds before being assigned to work on national security initiatives at NORAD-USNORTHCOM.

“Homeland security is new territory for even the most seasoned military officers,” said Lt Col Doug Johnston, Chief of Training & Education at NORAD-USNORTHCOM. “Personnel come to us with a variety of knowledge and experience, but all need to build some familiarity with the NORAD and USNORTHCOM missions and operations, which include aerospace defense, homeland security and civil support. Our goal is to build an infrastructure that delivers learning programs tailored to each individual in our organization, while compressing time-to-readiness for critical security leadership roles. SumTotal enables us to meet this challenge by automating the command’s education and training requirements, assignments and tracking and by quickly delivering targeted information to personnel based on their specific job roles.”

NORAD-USNORTHCOM will use SumTotal to build a multi-level learning approach, including general operational procedure familiarization training for all personnel; job- and task-specific training such as logistics, intelligence and other functions; and specialized training targeted at cross-functional teams of specialists that form during wartime to accomplish specific missions.

Longer term, NORAD-USNORTHCOM will use SumTotal to create and manage course content for just-in-time training. The agency also will explore expanding the initiative to personnel in subordinate headquarters, as well as providing additional remote access to training for personnel who need to familiarize themselves with basic security processes before reporting for duty.

“SumTotal has a long history of helping the US military develop successful, large-scale training initiatives designed to more quickly and efficiently achieve readiness at all levels,” said R. Andrew Eckert, SumTotal CEO. “Our extensive experience working in this marketplace, along with technology that easily adapts to the specialized needs of the military learner population and mission, will enable NORAD-USNORTHCOM to create strong, effective leaders to advance its critical national security function.”

About the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)

The NORAD is a bi-national military organization formally established in 1958 by Canada and the United States to monitor and defend North American airspace. Using data from satellites and ground base radar, NORAD monitors, validates and warns of attack against North America by aircraft, missiles or space vehicles. NORAD also provides surveillance and control of the airspace of Canada and the United States. NORAD’s mission is to provide:

• Air sovereignty, the ability to ensure access to the airspace of Alaska, Canada and the 48 contiguous states, and


• Aerospace defense, the ability to response and defeat hostile actions against North America

About the United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM)

The Department of Defense established U.S. Northern Command in 2002 to consolidate under a single unified command existing missions that were previously executed by other military organizations. The command's mission is homeland defense and civil support, specifically:

• Conduct operations to deter, prevent, and defeat threats and aggression aimed at the United States, its territories, and interests within the assigned area of responsibility; and


• As directed by the President or Secretary of Defense, provide military assistance to civil authorities including consequence management operations

U.S. Northern Command plans, organizes, and executes homeland defense and civil support missions, but has few permanently assigned forces. The command will be assigned forces whenever necessary to execute missions as ordered by the President. Approximately 2000 civil service employees and uniformed personnel representing all service branches provide this essential unity of command from U.S. Northern Command's headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo.

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 and federal and local government agencies, including Microsoft, AT&T, US Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard, 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 in London, Paris, Heidelberg, Sydney, Tokyo and Hyderabad, India.

Safe Harbor Statement/ Forward-Looking Statements
"Information in this press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements represent SumTotal Systems’ expectations or beliefs concerning future events and include statements, among others, regarding SumTotal Systems’ estimated development and shipment date for its new product, SumTotal 7.0. 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 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. Readers of this press release are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to (i) SumTotal Systems' limited operating history, and Docent's and Click2learn's history of losses; (ii) delay in development or shipment of our new product, SumTotal 7.0, anticipated to be released during the fourth quarter of 2004; (iii) customers or partners delaying purchasing or upgrade decisions until our new product, SumTotal 7.0, is released; (iv) acceptance of SumTotal Systems' current and future product offerings; (v) long sales cycles for closing software contracts and seasonality in purchasing decisions; (vi) an emerging and rapidly evolving market; (vii) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (viii) continued market uncertainty with respect to the merger and the challenges of integrating Docent and Click2learn into one company, and the ability to achieve anticipated synergies associated with the recent merger; (ix) dependence on the growth of SumTotal Systems' market and fluctuation in customer spending; (x) delays or reductions in information technology spending; (xi) the ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees, and the risk of losing employees, especially sales personnel, if the SumTotal 7.0 release date slips; (xii) intense competition in the marketplace causing, among other things, pricing pressure; (xiii) failure to continually implement requisite internal controls and procedures; (xiv) increase of litigation and their related costs; (xv) other market conditions that include risks and uncertainties such as risks associated with financial, economic, political, terrorist activity and other uncertainties; and (xvi) other events and other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time in SumTotal Systems' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the quarterly report filed on Form 10Q on August 12, 2004. SumTotal Systems assumes no obligation to update the information in this press release."