Microsoft and Click2learn to Present Enterprise Learning Case Study at Learning and Training Week
WASHINGTON–April 29, 2003–Highlighting their appearances at this year’s Learning and Training Week conference, Click2learn (Nasdaq:CLKS), leader in enterprise productivity solutions, and Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) will co-present a session entitled “Case Study: Enterprise Learning at Microsoft” on Tuesday, April 29 at 8:15 a.m.
Led by Tom Masters, learning strategy program manager at Microsoft and Dana Aldred, Click2learn’s senior director, strategic alliances, the session will spotlight Microsoft’s implementation of Click2learn’s Aspen Enterprise Productivity Suite(TM) to power a worldwide readiness initiative helping Microsoft employees, partners and customers across the globe increase their competence and productivity in developing, using and selling Microsoft products.
“Over the past 25 years, as Microsoft has experienced tremendous growth, the company realized that enterprise learning could play a major role in providing the agility we needed to build customer loyalty and deliver superior financial results for shareholders,” said Masters. “Toward this goal, Microsoft has embarked on a multi-year effort to consolidate its internal learning platforms; develop the tools, services and practices necessary to achieve integrated enterprise learning; and develop a framework to help predict how interventions such as training impact readiness and how readiness drives performance.”
Microsoft first started working with Click2learn approximately three years ago to improve the readiness of its worldwide sales force by rapidly educating them on new products as they were released. Based on the early success of this project, Microsoft began expanding this effort into an enterprise-wide initiative in an effort to unite 41 separate training organizations, 15 content production groups and multiple existing delivery infrastructures.
“During our work with Click2learn to implement Aspen, the company has been passionate about ensuring a successful roll-out of the platform, tied directly to achieving our business goals,” said Masters. “To help its customers succeed, Click2learn has always been very proactive in responding to market and customer needs. Its efforts to help us structure our global learning programs show the company’s commitment to addressing customer feedback, facilitating easier global deployment and continuing its strong standards support.”
Microsoft will utilize the comprehensive capabilities of the Aspen suite to:
— Provide consistent service offerings across the enterprise
— Launch, track, manage and report custom, third-party and
self-created training content
— Deliver just-in-time information to help make employees and
partners more productive in their day-to-day work
— Assess skills and competencies, and create development plans
to help employees close skills gaps and achieve career goals
at the company
— Reach diverse geographies, departments and employees by
localizing the user interface in Japanese, German, French,
Spanish and other languages
— Produce a unique “Universal Training Record,” or lifetime
transcript, for employees — regardless of reorganization or
job change at Microsoft — that records all internal and
external training
— Quickly train product support and sales teams on new product
versions and releases
— Create content and courseware for individuals seeking
Microsoft certification (e.g., MSCE, etc.)
— Create or repurpose content for partner consumption to ensure
that channel partners and resellers are competent with and
properly represent Microsoft products and services.
About Aspen
Click2learn’s award-winning Aspen Enterprise Productivity
Suite(TM) enables organizations to strategically manage corporate knowledge and workforce productivity to improve business performance. With Aspen organizations can deploy a comprehensive, integrated solution for their specific learning needs, all under one platform with one, seamless user experience. The Aspen Suite consists of separate but integrated modules, including
— Learning Management (LMS)
— Learning Content Management (LCMS)
— Virtual Classroom (VCS)
— Performance Management
— Collaboration, Knowledge Exchange & Instant Messaging
— Information Management
— Simulation Creation and Editing
— Auditing and Compliance Tracking
Whether organizations choose to deploy the entire Aspen suite, or to integrate select Aspen applications with existing infrastructure, Aspen’s standards-based (AICC, SCORM, XML, etc.) modular and open architecture is designed to help companies reduce total cost of ownership and meet a wide variety of business goals.
About Click2learn
Click2learn (Nasdaq:CLKS) is the recognized leader in enterprise productivity solutions for Global 2000 organizations and government agencies seeking to improve business performance and workforce productivity. Using Click2learn’s Aspen Enterprise Productivity Suite(TM), many of the world’s best-known corporations improve sales force readiness, achieve and demonstrate regulatory compliance, improve speed and quality of customer service, and educate customers and partners, while at the same time realizing significant cost savings. Click2learn’s clients include such industry leaders as Accenture, American Airlines, AstraZeneca, Century 21, Fujitsu, Microsoft, Pfizer and Symantec. Based in Bellevue, Wash., with offices throughout the U.S., Click2learn (www.click2learn.com, 800.448.6543) also is represented in, Europe, Australia, Japan and India.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including information contained in this document where statements are preceded by, followed by or include the words “believes,” “plans,” “intends,” “expects,” “anticipates” or similar expressions. For such statements, The Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements include, market acceptance of Click2learn’s e-learning solutions and competing e-learning offerings, the ability to successfully implement Click2learn’s solutions and increase revenues, the ability to successfully address technological developments and standards and the risk factors set forth in filings the Company has made with the SEC. Click2learn, Aspen and ToolBook are trademarks of Click2learn. All other company and product names are the trademarks of their respective owners.
CONTACT: Click2learn (Marketing Communications)
Karen Peck, 425/637-1643
karen.peck@click2learn.com
or
Click2learn (Investor Relations)
John Atherly, 425/637-1557
john.atherly@click2learn.com
www.click2learn.com
