CompassLearning Deploys Centra to Provide Real-Time Online Professional Development to Schools Nationwide and Facilitate Corporate Communications
LEXINGTON, Mass. (November 18, 2003) – Centra Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTRA) announced today that CompassLearning, Inc. has deployed Centra’s Web collaboration software to deliver real-time online professional development services to school systems nationwide for the successful implementation and effective use of its Web-based educational technology, CompassLearning Odyssey(tm).
Centra’s virtual classroom application is enabling CompassLearning’s field-based consultants to reach educators with the delivery of anytime, anywhere online product training on CompassLearning Odyssey. Centra is also being used to deliver online courses that address topics such as how to improve student achievement and develop strategies for implementing technology in the classroom.
“With Centra, we have been able to take professional development to a higher level by creating an electronic learning community for more than 20,000 K-12 school customers,” said Debra Stecher, director of professional development, CompassLearning. “With consultants in the field, it was critical for us to deploy an easy-to-use collaboration technology that provided reliable voice-over-IP and robust application sharing functionality. Centra met our needs on all fronts, and has become an excellent way for us to ensure customer success and add value to our solution.”
CompassLearning Odyssey is the only Web-based educational technology product on the market designed to align curriculum and student achievement with state and national standards required by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. The technology helps educators assess each student’s performance, prescribe high quality reading, math, and other curriculum areas, and report each student’s performance data required by NCLB.
“With the enactment of NCLB, school systems are under pressure to comply with the law’s strict new accountability measures and maintain rigorous academic standards,” said Sloane O’Neal, vice president of marketing, CompassLearning, Inc. “It is incumbent upon us to provide both state-of-the-art technology and value-added professional services that can help school systems make the most of their CompassLearning Odyssey investment. Centra is a key part of our success.”
CompassLearning has also realized benefits by using Centra internally to facilitate online meetings, corporate communications and training. With approximately 250 nationally dispersed employees, Centra has become an important communications vehicle to deliver new hire training, and facilitate meetings and on-demand training among the consultants and sales force. The company’s dispersed product developers in the U.S. and Germany are also using Centra to collaborate on projects and share data.
“Online collaboration has enabled us to build strong teams and communicate much more effectively,” added O’Neal. “There’s no way we could have been able to cost-effectively facilitate this type of corporate-wide collaboration without the Centra application.”
“We are pleased with the success and widespread use of Centra at CompassLearning,” said Paul Daly, Centra’s senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. “Centra’s technology is designed to meet the full range of enterprise-wide collaboration needs – from external communications with customers and partners, to facilitating team collaboration, online meetings and training. CompassLearning is a great example of how Centra is being used on an enterprise scale.”
About CompassLearning
CompassLearning is a member of WRC Media, Inc., a leading publishing and media company that creates and distributes innovative supplementary educational materials for the school, library, and home markets. WRC Media’s product suite includes some of the best-known brands in education, recognized for their consistent high quality and proven effectiveness, including Weekly Reader(r), World Almanac(r) Education Group, and AGS Publishing.
CompassLearning is the leader in research-driven, standards-based innovative learning solutions that provide choices to help teachers manage student performance, personalize learning, and connect communities of learners. With over 8,000 hours of curriculum and instruction, more than 20,000 schools use CompassLearning solutions.
About Centra
Leading with a proven track record of helping more than 1,200 organizations increase revenue and improve business performance, Centra offers enterprise application software that enables organizations to deliver real-time communication, collaboration and learning across the extended enterprise. Centra offers solutions that deliver enhanced integration of real-time collaboration capabilities with departmental business processes, such as sales and marketing, and virtual teamwork. Available in 14 languages, Centra applications can be deployed as on-site software or through our ASP service and are supported by an active ecosystem of value-added partners, including Microsoft, Oracle, Siebel, Deloitte Consulting, EDS and Cisco. Organizations across every major industry and market sector choose Centra, including Cadbury Schweppes, McKesson, Sysco, Viacom and Stanford University. Headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts, Centra serves a worldwide customer base throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. For more information, visit www.centra.com.
Centra is a registered trademark of Centra Software, Inc. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.
Sharon Dratch
Centra
Tel: 781-994-1151 sdratch@centra.com
Centra Software, Inc.
430 Bedford Street
Lexington, MA 02420
http://www.centra.com
phone 781-861-7000
fax 781-863-7288
