KIA Motors America Selects SumTotal Systems To Drive Dealer Sales, Parts, Service Quality And Customer Satisfaction
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–April 29, 2004–SumTotal Systems, the industry’s largest provider of learning and business performance products, services and processes, today announced that Kia Motors America, Inc. (KMA), the U.S. sales, marketing and service arm of automotive manufacturer Kia Motors Corporation (KMC) in South Korea, has selected SumTotal technology to drive its learning and performance management. The system will foster Kia’s strong focus on quality, safety and value by correlating learning activities with key business metrics and automotive industry benchmarks, such as product quality, customer satisfaction, sales and owner loyalty ratings.
SumTotal is powering the next generation of “Kia University,” a Web-based learning management and learning content management solution that will deliver and streamline product knowledge and technical certifications for an estimated 30,000 Kia dealer staff members and employees. SumTotal will replace Kia’s internally-developed system with a centralized, blended learning solution that supports Web-based distance learning, certifications and instructor-led classroom training on topics such as new vehicle rollouts, sales skills and vehicle safety, repair and maintenance.
“As a manufacturer in the highly-competitive automotive market, Kia must provide our dealers and technicians with the tools they need to offer customers the greatest value and service when purchasing and maintaining a Kia automobile,” said Peter M. Butterfield, President and CEO, Kia Motors America. “We selected SumTotal based on its ability to provide a superior combination of learning management, learning content management and analytics capabilities to support our customer-focused approach. Not only will the SumTotal Enterprise Suite enhance the productivity and profitability of our dealer channel, but the advanced ad-hoc reporting capabilities in its TotalDashboard module will accelerate our shift to a performance-based model, by linking our training activities and investments with important business metrics such as sales and customer satisfaction.”
Butterfield added, “SumTotal’s multiple language functionality and global service and support are additional benefits that will allow us to expand Kia University to users in Canada and South Korea in the future. We’re very excited about the long-term results Kia can achieve by using SumTotal technology on a global scale.”
About Kia Motors America
Based in Irvine, California, Kia Motors America supports more than one million vehicles on the roads in North America. For more information on Kia, visit www.kia.com.
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 in 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.
CONTACT: SumTotal Systems, Inc.
Karen Peck
425-637-1643
kpeck@sumtotalsystems.com
or
Kia Motors America
Rose Krupp
949-470-7129
