Press Releases & News

Giunti Labs, the leading online and mobile learning content management and digital repository solution provider, announced today that it is undergoing a management buy-out by the management which started its activities within Giunti Editore Publishing Group during the ’90s. At the same time Giunti Labs has rebranded to eXact learning solutions from 1^st August.

The new management team, which acquires the company with the financial support of private capital investors, confirmed Fabrizio Cardinali, the former Giunti Labs’ CEO and, currently, the chair of the European Learning Industry Group (ELIG), as CEO of the new set-up. European headquarters are confirmed to be in Italy (Florence, Milan, Rome and Sestri Levante), whilst American lead offices will be in Athens and Atlanta (Georgia, USA) and the activities in Asia Pacific market will be coordinated from Perth (Western Australia).

eXact learning solutions’ offering will include former Giunti Labs’ learning content management and digital repository solutions, the eXact LCMS™ for the corporate and industry markets and the  Harvestroad Hive DR™ for academic, defence and Government initiatives, together with the eXact Method™ consulting methodology.

To date, this methodology has been used in more than 100 worldwide installations within the finance, banking, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, retail, telecoms and media industries as well as within large defence, educational and eGovernment initiatives. All of these involved clients willing to change and improve business processes via templates and standards based blended content production as well as content management for learning, knowledge, training and performance support.

eXact learning solutions will continue to be engaged in the leading EU R&D framework projects and   offer the multi-language content production activities formerly offered by Giunti Labs.

Albino Bertoletti and Fabrizio Cardinali, co-founders of Giunti Labs’ activities during the ‘90s, have been elected President and CEO of the new company, eXact learning solutions. Bertoletti commented: “We’re really excited about this new venture.

“We began pioneering optical media and digital TV in the ‘90s. Those were great days because we could focus on innovative instructional design and publishing formats rather than on system infrastructures and content management needs, which are particularly relevant in today’s digital world.

“In the era of the iPad and iPhone, our dreams of affordable and effective learning devices bringing your contents to you where you need them, personalised to your needs and abilities, have begun to make it to market. But still, to be effective and efficient, these new ‘Personal Media’ need even more powerful infrastructures, platforms and tools on the back-end for single source, multi channel content production and delivery.”

“Advancing research and development in today’s personalisation needs for learning content is paramount,” Cardinali added.

“Without an effective content-centric strategy you cannot make your content and learning initiatives effective in a repeatable and cost efficient way.

“With Giunti Editore Group, we had achieved an extremely large international footprint but the group’s internal and multifaceted needs also absorbed a tremendous amount of energy and focus in recent times. This has made our core business increasingly challenging,” he continued.

“That’s why we’re spinning off this new adventure. With the many new digital production and distribution models out there, diving deep only into the publishing industry would have been too narrow a focus for us.

“On the other hand, the publishing experience has been extremely valuable for us as it has provided us with solid skills and competencies that we will now use for our new broader market.

“After all, as the saying goes, ‘all media were ‘new’ once!’ and we now have experience of dealing with the advent and acceptability of new media in the publishing sector. This will be useful in helping us to address new devices and challenges across all sectors in the future.”

From 1^st August, Giunti Labs’ website will be redirected to the new company’s website at www.exact-learning.com

End

About eXact learning solutions

eXact learning solutions, formerly Giunti Labs, is a leading online and mobile learning content management and digital repository solutions provider, which offers a wide range of tools and services for content development, content management and content delivery, covering:

• Multi-language bespoke learning content production
• Content management and digital repository platforms
• Mobile learning technologies
• Consulting and professional services

The company has over fifteen years of experience and more than 100 customers worldwide. Our technological innovations allow enterprises to improve their organizational performance, and achieve significant reductions in business costs.

For more information, please contact:

Minna Leikas, eXact learning solutions, Marketing Manager

Mobile +39 347 4435167; Office +39 0185 4608; Email m.leikas@exact-learning.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR,

Office +44 (0)1727 860405; Email bob.little@boblittlepr.com

The e-learning solutions provider, Ominplex, has announced results for 2009/10 that show that its annual revenue rose by 35 per cent in the last year.

“Despite difficult trading conditions generally and within the corporate e-learning sector in particular, Omniplex has made impressive progress in the last year,” commented Omniplex’s Managing Director, Matthew Lloyd, “For example, in the last 12 months we’ve tripled the number of LMS implementations we’ve done.

“While this is due, in part, to Omniplex expanding its operations by opening a North America office, to service the US and Canadian markets, the real reason for our impressive performance is that we have built a portfolio of exceptional products,” Lloyd continued.

Omniplex’s e-learning solutions address the full value-chain of technology-based learning, including authoring tools and services, learning management systems (LMS), as well as innovative solutions for learning re-enforcement. They include the Articulate rapid authoring tool; the Absorb LMS; Cameo, a web-based tool which uses ‘push technology’ to provide automated, scheduled, learning re-enforcement via email, and Bloomfire, a contemporary social media tool which provides a way to share knowledge within an organisation or group.

Both the Absorb LMS and Articulate won major awards at this year’s Brandon Hall Awards in the USA, which aim to ‘spotlight the best and brightest in online learning’ and promote excellence in learning.

Launched only a few months ago, Bloomfire is a learning platform – with a search facility, multimedia authoring tools, mobile access and a powerful answer engine - that allows users to sign in as a ‘teacher’ and upload learning materials and, as a ‘learner’, to access appropriate learning materials.

“Bloomfire is an ‘e-product’ that fits Omniplex’s three criteria for the products we offer, in that it’s easy-to-use, affordable and innovative,” Lloyd said.

“We believe that every product in our portfolio should bring great learning and development benefits for its users and their organisations – and our results seem to bear this out,” he added.

Ends

About Omniplex

Omniplex is a leading provider of e-learning and related tools and services for:

• informal learning (ad hoc, peer-to-peer, social learning),
• formal learning (such as authoring tools, learning delivery and tracking) and
• training, support, content development and integration services

Based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, in the UK, and in Montreal, Canada, Omniplex supports clients across Europe and North America.

Further information on Omniplex can be found at www.omniplex.co.uk and www.omniplex.biz

Further information from:

Matthew Lloyd, Omniplex Ltd, +44 (0)1442 275304 / 08444 120550; matthew.lloyd@omniplex.co.uk

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com

One of the UK’s newest and brightest stars in the e-learning sector, The Safety Train, has re-located its operations to Sheffield, thanks to Learning Light’s advice and guidance. Already, the move seems to be paying off.

Jonathan Blythe, The Safety Train’s business development director, explained: “The Safety Train grew from a need to provide distance learning in health and safety-related subjects – principally because it was proving difficult to arrange classroom-based courses to suit the diaries of a large number of delegates who were based throughout the UK.

“Our answer was to form The Safety Train and provide the training via e-learning materials dealing with social care, office health and safety and personal development,” he continued. “These e-learning materials are delivered via streaming video over the web and/or via mobile phone apps.”

Jonathan and his colleagues at The Safety Train first encountered Learning Light in 2009, when David Patterson, Learning Light’s project director, outlined to them the business advantages for companies in the e-learning sector locating in Sheffield.

“David convinced us of the benefits of moving to Sheffield – the UK’s e-learning capital,” said Blythe.

“Indeed, David’s advice and guidance on all aspects of the e-learning market as well as on our head office location has proved to be most valuable. The early signs are that this move to Sheffield is producing all that we had hoped it would in business terms,” he added.

Learning Light, a company limited by guarantee, focuses on promoting the use of e-learning and learning technologies, as well as running the www.e-learningcentre.co.uk website which currently receives some 72,000 unique ‘hits’ each month.

Learning Light’s David Patterson commented: “We’re always delighted to be able to make our experience and expertise in the corporate e-learning sector available to any organisation – especially when it leads to enhancing and strengthening that sector in these challenging economic times.

“In recent years, Sheffield has established itself as the UK’s e-learning capital – taking over from the Brighton area where the first e-learning companies were concentrated in the 1980s. Key e-learning related knowledge and skills are now well-represented among the working population in the Sheffield area – and this is helping to attract e-learning content and systems developers to set up in and around the city,” he continued.

“So we’re beginning to see a virtuous circle develop – which should continue to benefit both the industry and the area by continuing to provide more and more e-learning related jobs – and the people to do them!”

End

Notes for Editors

About The Safety Train

The Safety Train, http://www.thesafetytrain.co.uk/ operates an e-learning training portal aimed at covering all aspects of health & safety training. It offers a range of social care training, personal development training and office safety training covering: fire, first aid, food, general care and the various provisions of the mental capacity act. Single user prices begin at £20.

About Learning Light Ltd

Sheffield-based Learning Light is a centre of excellence in the use of e-learning and learning technologies in the workplace. Its knowledge base contains over 400 papers offering insights and advice on how to use e-learning & learning technologies.

Learning Light works closely with the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield, and has undertaken a Systematic Literature Review of the available papers on the effective use of e-learning in conjunction with the University of Sheffield.

Learning Light, which is supported by Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency for Yorkshire and the Humber, operates www.e-learningcentre.co.uk one of the leading resources on e-learning in the UK.

Learning Light occupies a unique space in the e-learning and learning technology sector networking with:

• Suppliers of e-learning and learning technologies to support the growth of the sector
• Buyers seeking out learning technology solutions to improve the effectiveness of their business or organisation
• Leading organisations worldwide who provide it with market knowledge from around the globe

It:

• Provides unbiased and impartial advice to both suppliers and buyers
• Hosts events and workshops that provide the platforms to impart and gain knowledge by encouraging collaboration and sharing of best practice
• Acts as a conduit between suppliers and buyers to forge successful business partnerships
• Provides market intelligence and benchmarking information gained from its many contacts and networking partners
• Provides access to research materials from leading learning technology professionals

Further information from:

David Patterson/ Gill Broadhead, Learning Light, +44 (0)114 223 2442

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405

David Patterson, of Learning Light, is a keynote speaker at the IADIS International ‘Conference e-Learning 2010’, being held in Freiburg, Germany, from 26^th to 29^th July. He will be addressing: ‘E-learning: Regeneration, Research and Innovation’.

Within his speech, Patterson will be detailing the ’story of Learning Light’ – a company limited by guarantee which focuses on promoting the use of e-learning and learning technologies. Launched in March 2006, Learning Light, based in Sheffield, is a centre of excellence in the use of e-learning and learning technologies in the workplace.

Supported by Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency for Yorkshire and the Humber, Learning Light is particularly active in promoting these technologies throughout Yorkshire, especially South Yorkshire. Indeed, Learning Light’s efforts in this respect have been rewarded – in the last few years – by Sheffield taking over from Brighton as the focal point for the UK’s corporate e-learning sector’s developers and suppliers.

“Some of Sheffield’s success in recent years in regenerating its economy is due to the city – and its environs – attracting e-learning producers and encouraging them to thrive,” said Patterson who, at the IADIS conference, will be sharing some of the secrets of Learning Light’s success in this respect, under the heading of ‘regeneration’.

Patterson will also outline Learning Light’s most recent findings as it researches the state of the UK e-learning market for the 2010 report – building on its two previously acclaimed reports in 2007 and 2009. Moreover, he will announce that the 2010 report involves a significant expansion in the research to cover Scandinavia, Germany, France and Italy.

Learning Light, which works closely with the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield, operates www.e-learningcentre.co.uk, one of the leading resources on e-learning in the UK. In addition, it occupies a unique space in the e-learning and learning technology sector, networking with:

• Suppliers of e-learning and learning technologies to support the growth of the sector
• Buyers seeking out learning technology solutions to improve the effectiveness of their business or organisation
• Leading organisations worldwide who provide it with market knowledge from around the globe

It:

• Provides unbiased and impartial advice to both suppliers and buyers
• Hosts events and workshops that provide the platforms to impart and gain knowledge by encouraging collaboration and sharing of best practice
• Acts as a conduit between suppliers and buyers to forge successful business partnerships
• Provides market intelligence and benchmarking information gained from its many contacts and networking partners
• Provides access to research materials from leading learning technology professionals

The International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS), which is organising the e-learning conference in Freiburg, in July, is a non-profit association which, among other things, aims to promote the study, research and dissemination of news related to the Information Society and to promote the exchange and cooperation with national and foreign associations and entities which seek the same goals.

The IADIS e-Learning 2010 conference aims to address the main issues of concern within e-learning. Covering both technical as well as the non-technical aspects of e-learning, the conference will cover such topics as: organisational strategy and management issues; technological issues; e-learning curriculum development issues; instructional design issues; e-learning delivery issues; e-learning research methods and approaches; e-skills and information literacy for learning.

For further details of this event, visit: http://www.elearning-conf.org/

End

Notes for Editors

About Learning Light Ltd

Sheffield-based Learning Light is a centre of excellence in the use of e-learning and learning technologies in the workplace. Its knowledge base contains over 400 papers offering insights and advice on how to use e-learning & learning technologies.

Learning Light works closely with the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield, and has undertaken a Systematic Literature Review of the available papers on the effective use of e-learning in conjunction with the University of Sheffield.

Learning Light, which is supported by Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency for Yorkshire and the Humber, operates www.e-learningcentre.co.uk one of the leading resources on e-learning in the UK.

Learning Light occupies a unique space in the e-learning and learning technology sector networking with:

• Suppliers of e-learning and learning technologies to support the growth of the sector
• Buyers seeking out learning technology solutions to improve the effectiveness of their business or organisation
• Leading organisations worldwide who provide it with market knowledge from around the globe

It:

• Provides unbiased and impartial advice to both suppliers and buyers
• Hosts events and workshops that provide the platforms to impart and gain knowledge by encouraging collaboration and sharing of best practice
• Acts as a conduit between suppliers and buyers to forge successful business partnerships
• Provides market intelligence and benchmarking information gained from its many contacts and networking partners
• Provides access to research materials from leading learning technology professionals

Further information from:

David Patterson/ Gill Broadhead, Learning Light, +44 (0)114 223 2442

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405

Giunti Labs is adding its expertise to that of specialists at the University of Oxford to help to reduce problems associated with pre-eclampsia in pregnant women in the developing world.

Giunti Labs, the leading learning and mobile content management solution provider, is helping the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and the Oxford Maternal & Perinatal Health Institute (Green Templeton College) at the University of Oxford to develop educational material on maternal health for midwives, nurses and doctors in developing countries – notably in India, Mexico and Nigeria. The material focuses on pre-eclampsia – a pregnancy condition that is characterised by high blood pressure and protein in the urine.

If untreated, complications can develop such as seizures (eclampsia), strokes, kidney and liver damage and, ultimately, death. In fact, eclampsia and severe pre-eclampsia claim the lives of some 63,000 women each year around the world – as well as the lives of many of their babies.

Dr Stephen Kennedy, head of the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, explained that: “Pre-eclampsia usually develops some time after the 20^th week of pregnancy and serious complications may affect the mother, the baby, or both. The more severe the condition becomes, the greater the risk that complications will develop.”

Since pre-eclampsia is thought to be due to a problem with the placenta, delivering the baby early is the usual treatment and medication is given to help prevent complications.

Dr Kennedy’s long-term vision is for the Oxford Maternal & Perinatal Health Institute to offer a course in all aspects of maternal health to health care professionals globally. His efforts to pursue this have led to a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation via EngenderHealth, a New York-based charity, to develop e-learning materials relating to one important aspect of maternal health, namely pre-eclampsia and its effective treatment.

With the help of a small team of clinicians, led by Dr José Villar at the University of Oxford, Giunti Labs has developed a pilot that aims to deliver a self-paced e-learning module, consisting of five components of 30 minutes each. There is a basic version for healthcare professionals wishing to understand the fundamentals, as well as a more advanced version for those wishing to improve their knowledge of the management of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, providing the evidence behind the recommendations.

The target audience for this module is midwives, nurses and doctors, working in local hospitals in India, Mexico and Nigeria. Giunti Labs has therefore developed versions in both English and Spanish.

“Obviously, the success of this pilot will determine whether or not we are able to secure further funding to develop a whole programme in maternal health,” said Dr Catriona Murray, who has worked on the project for the last two years.

“Between 300,000 and 500,000 women die each year from problems related to pregnancy,” she added. “Ninety-nine per cent of these deaths occur in developing countries and many of them are preventable.”

“Giunti Labs is proud to be able to contribute to enhancing education provision in developing countries in this way,” commented JJ van Delsen, Sales Director of Giunti Labs UK. “This project also strengthens our leadership position in the health care sector – where the Giunti Labs’ toolset has been used to develop over 1,000 hours of high quality content within the UK healthcare sector alone.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends injectable magnesium sulphate – also known as Epsom salts – as the safest, most effective and lowest-cost medication for treating pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. Magnesium sulphate is the standard treatment for eclampsia and severe pre-eclampsia in the developed world – and has been for 20 years. Less-effective and riskier medications, such as diazepam and phenytoin, however, are still widely used in developing countries – if any treatment is available at all.

In 2007, EngenderHealth and the University of Oxford brought together leading scientists, advocates, researchers, and representatives of the WHO, UNICEF, United Nations agencies and national ministries of health from around the world to identify barriers to the availability and use of magnesium sulphate to treat pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. This gathering of global public health experts identified the primary barriers to the use of magnesium sulphate: lack of national guidelines, a shortage of educated and trained healthcare professionals and scarce supplies of magnesium sulphate.

Consequently, EngenderHealth and the University of Oxford developed a ‘Call to Action’ and a report – ‘Balancing the Scales: Expanding Treatment for Pregnant Women with Life-Threatening Hypertensive Conditions in Developing Countries’ – that called on policymakers and ministers of health to make pre-eclampsia and eclampsia a higher priority and to set national guidelines for treatment and care, based on WHO guidelines. Decision makers along with international and national health organisations and agencies were also urged to help make magnesium sulphate more available and affordable.

See www.engenderhealth.org/files/pubs/maternal-health/EngenderHealth-Eclampsia-Report.pdf

This has resulted in EngenderHealth, along with the University of Oxford and the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation making a joint commitment as part of the Clinton Global Initiative to expand access to magnesium sulphate by:

• Training health professionals through web-based interactive e-learning to know when and how to administer magnesium sulphate
• Advocating for magnesium sulphate to be part of every developing country’s list of essential drugs
• Helping develop and/or reinforce national protocols mandating magnesium sulphate as the preferred treatment for pre-eclampsia and eclampsia
• Ensuring the availability of magnesium sulphate in hospitals in developing countries

It was the first of these commitments that gave rise to the Giunti Labs-developed e-learning materials.

End

About Giunti Labs

Giunti Labs www.giuntilabs.com is a leading Online and Mobile Learning Content Management Solutions provider with offices around the world. Giunti Labs provides a wide range of solutions for content development, content management and content delivery, covering:

• Multi-language bespoke content production

• Content management and digital repository platforms

• ePortfolio and skills management solutions

• Mobile learning technologies

• Consulting and professional services

Giunti Labs provides solutions to many sectors including public sector, defence, manufacturing, finance, retail, ICT, education and healthcare. Giunti Labs is part of Giunti Group, a leading educational and cultural heritage publisher with roots back to 1841. Over the years, Giunti has built a catalogue of over 12.000 titles and has acquired new brands worldwide.

About EngenderHealth
EngenderHealth is a leading international reproductive health organisation working to improve the quality of health care in the world’s poorest communities. EngenderHealth empowers people to make informed choices about contraception, trains health providers to make motherhood safer, promotes gender equity, enhances the quality of HIV and AIDS services, and advocates for positive policy change in more than 20 countries around the world. Visit www.engenderhealth.org

The Oxford Maternal & Perinatal Health Institute (OMPHI) is based at Green Templeton College, the University’s newest college with an academic agenda focusing on issues relating to human welfare (www.gtc.ox.ac.uk).

Oxford University’s Medical Sciences Division is one of the largest biomedical research centres in Europe. It represents almost one-third of Oxford University’s income and expenditure, and two-thirds of its external research income. Oxford’s world-renowned global health programme is a leader in the fight against infectious diseases (such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and avian flu) and other prevalent diseases (such as cancer, stroke, heart disease and diabetes). Key to its success is a long-standing network of dedicated Wellcome Trust-funded research units in Asia (Thailand, Laos and Vietnam) and Kenya, and work at the MRC Unit in The Gambia. Long-term studies of patients around the world are supported by basic science at Oxford and have led to many exciting developments, including potential vaccines for tuberculosis, malaria and HIV, which are in clinical trials.

Further information from:

Minna Leikas, Giunti Labs, +39 3474435167, m.leikas@giuntilabs.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405, bob.little@boblittlepr.com

“Omniplex and Bloomfire – it’s a chocolate and peanut butter story!” smiles Bloomfire’s CEO, Josh Little.

Omniplex, the internationally known e-learning solutions provider, has signed a reseller agreement with Bloomfire to become its first certified partner. Bloomfire is a contemporary social media tool which provides a way to share knowledge within an organisation or group.

With a search facility, multimedia authoring tools, mobile access and a powerful answer engine, Bloomfire is a learning platform that allows users to sign in as a ‘teacher’ and upload learning materials and, as a ‘learner’, to access appropriate learning materials. Of course, users could be both teachers and learners.

Matthew Lloyd, managing director of Omniplex, explained: “Up to now, Omniplex provided e-learning authoring, delivery, tracking and reinforcement products and services – but we hadn’t specifically addressed the social media space.

“We came across Bloomfire recently at Learning Solutions, in Orlando, Florida, and we were impressed that it is a social media tool that has been specifically developed for the e-learning community.

“It’s based on the idea that everyone is a learner and a teacher,” he continued. “Indeed, Bloomfire’s ethos is that both learning and teaching are how we all become ‘better human beings’.

“Importantly, Bloomfire is about recognising, embracing and celebrating what perhaps we once knew but have forgotten: that learning is a shared mystery. We learn from other people – and our joint futures, potential and promise are inevitably and perpetually intertwined.”

Principally intended for subject matter experts – in the manner of a rapid authoring tool – Bloomfire allows users who log on to the system as a teacher to create simple learning materials.

Those who log on to the system as a learner can search for appropriate learning content and then follow that content. Learners can also elect to ‘follow’ certain teachers – in a similar way to following someone on Twitter – and so be alerted to any learning materials that that teacher uploads to the system.

Bloomfire’s CEO, Josh Little, commented: “We’re pleased that Omniplex will be the first certified Bloomfire partner. It’s clear that Omniplex is bringing together the best of the industry products and services for their global client base.

“As far as we’re concerned: Omniplex and Bloomfire – it’s a chocolate and peanut butter story!” he smiled.

“Omniplex will manage Bloomfire subscriptions for our clients,” said Lloyd. “And we add further value through our ‘Bloomfire Ignition’ professional services programme, which ensures that Bloomfire communities are launched effectively and generate the greatest uptake and impact within an organisation.

“Bloomfire is another ‘e-product’ that fits well with the expanding Omniplex portfolio,” he added. “Moreover, it fits Omniplex’s three criteria for the products we offer, in that it’s easy-to-use, affordable and innovative.

“As with everything in our portfolio, we believe that, in Bloomfire, we’ve discovered a great product which should bring some great learning and development benefits for its users and their organisations,” he said.

Omniplex, which has offices in the UK and Canada supporting clients across Europe and North America, aims to become a trusted resource to whom its clients can turn, safe in the knowledge that, as it is not tied to any one particular technology, it will give unbiased, reliable advice. The e-learning and related solutions supplied by Omniplex address the full value-chain of technology-based learning, including authoring tools and services, learning management systems, as well as innovative solutions for learning re-enforcement.

Ends

About Omniplex

Omniplex is a leading provider of e-learning authoring, delivery, tracking and reinforcement products and services. Based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, in the UK, and in Montreal, Canada, Omniplex supports clients across Europe and North America.

Further information on Omniplex can be found at www.omniplex.co.uk and www.omniplex.biz

Further information from:

Matthew Lloyd, Omniplex Ltd, +44 (0)1442 275304 / 08444 120550; matthew.lloyd@omniplex.co.uk

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Plateau Systems, a leading provider of enterprise-class SaaS solutions for talent management, has expanded its iContent solution to include best-in-class content authoring and publishing capabilities.

Under the terms of a renewed agreement with Trivantis Corporation, the leader in e-learning software for authoring and content creation, Plateau will bundle Trivantis’ integrated content authoring tool, Lectora Online with Plateau’s award-winning iContent Content-as-a-Service (CaaS) offering to provide customers with an easy way to create and publish content directly to iContent.

Trivantis’ Lectora Online is a web-based solution that enables individuals or teams of users to create, manage and store online learning content. It includes the popular creation and publishing tools from Lectora Publisher and allows users to work concurrently on a single title, without having to maintain multiple versions of it.

This reseller partnership gives organisations the ability to purchase Plateau’s iContent solution and Lectora Online from one source, simplifying the creation, management and delivery of SCORM- and AICC-compliant e-learning content.

“Content-as-a-Service has solved many of the typical challenges organisations face with online content management,” explained Lee Wright, Senior Director of Services, iContent at Plateau Systems. “By joining forces with Trivantis, we are able to further extend iContent’s already robust capabilities and give our customers one of the industry’s top content authoring tools now integrated with iContent.”

iContent forever changed e-learning by delivering the industry’s first solution for managing and hosting critical learning and talent content, including knowledge assets that facilitate formal and informal e-learning.

Organisations deploying this unique CaaS solution are significantly decreasing content overheads and infrastructure costs and reducing maintenance and delivery issues. By offloading these burdens to iContent, customers can focus their time, resources and attention on creating effective training content rather than on managing it.

“The addition of online course authoring, provided by Lectora Online, to the iContent solution creates a powerful combination that gives organisations the ability to not only reuse existing content, but to create, edit and publish new content on the fly, all from their browser, ” said John Blackmon, Vice President of Authoring Systems at Trivantis.

To learn more about the iContent, visit http://www.plateau.com/talent-management-suite/icontent.html For more information on Plateau, visit www.plateau.com

End

About Trivantis Corporation

Cincinnati, Ohio-based Trivantis Corporation creates world-class e-learning software and services that enable the creation, distribution, and management of e-learning content. Designed to help overcome the technical barriers traditionally associated with electronic publishing, Trivantis solutions provide educators, the business sector, and government agencies the ability to create and publish high-quality content with multi-platform publishing capabilities. Trivantis Corporation produces Lectora, the world’s leading e-learning software used by most Global 2000 companies and all five branches of the United States Military. Trivantis also creates CourseMill, a world-class learning management system for deploying, hosting, and tracking e-learning content.

About Plateau Systems

Plateau is a leading provider of unified SaaS solutions for developing, managing, rewarding and optimising organisational talent to increase workforce productivity and maximise operating performance. Plateau delivers a best-of-breed talent management solution with deep functionality for learning management, performance management, compensation management and career and succession planning. These flexible solutions can be deployed individually or together to enable current and prospective customers to future-proof and expand their investments in accordance with their specific business needs and growth.

Plateau was founded in 1996, is based in Arlington, VA, in the USA, and has offices across the USA, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

Further information:

Wendy Werve, Plateau Systems, + 1 703 678 0381, Wendy.werve@plateau.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405, bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Plateau Systems, a leading provider of enterprise-class SaaS solutions for talent management, has announced Plateau Foundation, the talent management industry’s first platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solution, allowing customers to implement specific extensions to the Plateau Talent Management Suite to address their specific business requirements.

According to Heath Williams, vice president of international sales at Plateau: “In Europe, we’re finding that customers are looking for talent management solutions that are easily adaptable to their specific business requirements. It is only now, as technological advances are made, that software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions – such as Plateau Foundation – have the functional breadth and flexibility that they need in order to build and keep their competitive advantage in terms of corporate knowledge and skills.

“Already, we have a number of Europe-based companies, especially in the pharmaceutical and financial services industries, that have expressed an interest in Plateau Foundation,” he added. “This is because the current challenging economic conditions in Europe are forcing companies to think ever more seriously about talent management issues – especially competencies, skills gaps and succession planning.”

“This PaaS offering represents the next generation of talent management solutions,” said Paul Sparta, Plateau Systems’ chairman and CEO. “By evolving our platform and separating talent management extensions from the application code base, Plateau is among the first talent management providers to allow enterprise customers to take advantage of SaaS in a way that also supports their specific talent management processes.”

Plateau’s PaaS solution, a Java-based application extension framework that uses the Spring Framework and Eclipse IDE, provides a flexible and seamless development platform to ensure that customers’ personalised talent management processes and application extensions are preserved during the normal upgrade processes of Plateau’s SaaS application.

In addition to providing support for upgrade compatible extensions, Plateau Foundation facilitates the development of extensions that align with vertical or company-specific requirements, such as government requisition and approval forms and cloud-based business performance measurement systems. Plateau Foundation also uses the security framework and reporting capabilities of the core product – and all extensions automatically inherit those definitions and policies.

“A flexible, unifying platform approach for HR applications can provide significant benefits not just to HR professionals, but also to the IT teams who support them – and to the business as a whole,” said Bruce Guptill, SVP and Head of Research at Saugatuck Technology, Inc.

“It enables company-wide standardisation of data, interfaces and operations, which in turn lead to improved abilities to respond to and manage changes in the business. In turn, this leads to reduced long-term costs through improved efficiencies.

“Such an approach can also significantly reduce the costs of implementation and support. It’s a powerful approach to addressing important HR and business needs and to enabling a competitive future for the business itself.”

Generally available immediately, Plateau Foundation will initially be used by customers and Plateau to build application extensions. There are plans to open the platform to partners and third-party developers.

For more information about Plateau’s Talent Management solutions, visit www.plateau.com.

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About Plateau Systems

Plateau is a leading provider of unified SaaS solutions for developing, managing, rewarding and optimising organisational talent to increase workforce productivity and maximise operating performance. Plateau delivers a best-of-breed talent management solution with deep functionality for learning management, performance management, compensation management and career and succession planning. These flexible solutions can be deployed individually or together to enable current and prospective customers to future-proof and expand their investments in accordance with their specific business needs and growth.

Plateau was founded in 1996, is based in Arlington, VA, in the USA, and has offices across the USA, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

Further information:

Wendy Werve, Plateau Systems, + 1 703 678 0381, Wendy.werve@plateau.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405, bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Plateau Systems, a leading provider of enterprise-class SaaS solutions for talent management, has published the Spring 2010 release of Plateau Talent Management Suite version 6 (TMS V6).

The Spring 2010 release of the Plateau TMS V6 addresses user requirements for a flexible, comprehensive talent management solution that allows customers to manage employees more effectively, improve and align employee performance with compensation, and support strategic decision-making and planning.

Delivering more than 30 new features and enhancements, this latest release makes talent management more visible, inclusive and accessible across an organisation’s entire user community.

Underscoring Plateau’s commitment to making customers successful, Plateau TMS V6 extends the core capabilities of Plateau’s performance, compensation, career and succession planning and learning solutions to provide the company’s more than 10 million users with a fast, flexible and practical way to deliver their key talent management processes.

“Enterprise-class SaaS solutions for talent management require an easy to use, yet powerful application that can provide organisations with a complete view of their talent,” said Paul Sparta, chairman and CEO of Plateau Systems.

“Navigating the complexities of today’s dynamic business conditions requires talent management vendors to develop solutions that specifically address those requirements and deliver them as part of an extensible application that can grow with the customer. Our Spring 2010 release of Plateau TMS V6 equips users with the industry’s most complete set of talent management functionality, built on an extensible platform that can be adapted to meet their requirements.”

Significant updates available in the Spring 2010 Release of Plateau TMS V6 make it easier for organisations to determine if they have the right people with the right skills in the right job – at any particular time. Release highlights include:

• Enhanced manager experience – Extended ‘My Team’ views with dynamic drill-down capabilities and expanded collaboration features allow managers to access key information and status at both the individual and team level, delegate privileges and activities and solicit performance feedback from users outside of a direct reporting chain.
• Streamlined end-user experience – Expanded search features and language capabilities, coupled with seamless navigation across the full talent management suite and easy access to over 80 social, collaboration and knowledge-sharing tools that increase employee engagement combine to deliver a more cohesive, consistent and relevant end-user experience.
• Insight and control – Configurable and drillable, flex-powered dashboards increase manager and end-user productivity and facilitate informed decision-making by providing real-time visibility into critical talent management data and processes.
• Advanced administrator capabilities – Workflow flexibility and enhanced administrative features allow administrators to more easily access and implement their core talent processes, including designing and defining multi-step approval processes and configuring performance review templates and settings.
• Greater global deployments and increased user adoption – New multilingual data framework and data localisation capabilities encourage cross-geography team-building, foster anytime, anywhere collaboration and knowledge-sharing and drive increased user adoption and utilisation within and across global customer organisations.
• Extensible in the cloud – Built on Plateau Foundation, a flexible new Java-based extension framework, Plateau TMS V6 delivers a Platform-as-a-Service that uniquely enables a customer to implement company and/or industry-specific extensions in the Plateau SaaS application to support their critical talent processes.

The Spring 2010 release of Plateau TMS V6 is currently available. For additional information on the features and enhancements in this release, visit http://www.plateau.com/whatsnew. For more information about Plateau, visit www.plateau.com.

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About Plateau Systems

Plateau is a leading provider of unified SaaS solutions for developing, managing, rewarding and optimising organisational talent to increase workforce productivity and maximise operating performance. Plateau delivers a best-of-breed talent management solution with deep functionality for learning management, performance management, compensation management and career and succession planning. These flexible solutions can be deployed individually or together to enable current and prospective customers to future-proof and expand their investments in accordance with their specific business needs and growth.

Plateau was founded in 1996, is based in Arlington, VA, in the USA, and has offices across the USA, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

Further information:

Wendy Werve, Plateau Systems, + 1 703 678 0381, Wendy.werve@plateau.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405, bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Giunti Labs – the leading learning and mobile content management solution provider – has been given a ‘Learning Impact Leadership Award’ at this year’s IMS Learning Impact Awards, held in Long Beach, California, in May.

Giunti Labs, along with the Region of Tuscany, in Italy, received the award for ‘Building Europe’s largest lifelong learning for employment initiative’. The project – known as the Training Innovation Research and (job) Orientation (TRIO) – uses the Moodle LMS and the HarvestRoad Hive digital repository (DR).

Giunti Labs leads a consortium of companies running the work-related e-learning regional initiative, TRIO – Tuscany’s web portal learning system (www.progettotrio.it).  This web portal offers a wide range of learning products, with a catalogue of some 1,500 work-skills related e-learning courses – the most popular of which are IT, language and business related learning materials.

To date, some 542,000 courses have been delivered to some 150,000 users since TRIO’s inception in 2002. There are currently at least 70,000 active learners on the system, downloading 40,000 training hours per month.

Moreover, surveys show that five out of six users go on to take another TRIO-delivered course and the system has a 95% satisfaction rating with users.

The learning materials are delivered via the TRIO web portal in an innovative approach to providing continuing professional development opportunities for public and private sector organisations. In this, the project contributes to the implementation of European policies on lifelong learning.

According to Fabrizio Cardinali, CEO of Giunti Labs: “The TRIO project consortium, under Giunti Labs’ leadership, has introduced an extended implementation of Moodle to be the core of the new TRIO platform. This is integrated with HarvestRoad Hive, a federated digital repository system developed by Giunti Labs that manages any form of content such as SCORM/AICC courseware, learning objects, digital assets, e-books and podcasts.

“By adding the HarvestRoad Hive DR infrastructure to Moodle, TRIO managers are able to unbundle their content offering from any specific delivery platform,” he continued. “This enables this content to interoperate with any kind of third party learning or course management system and to interchange standard content catalogues with other public administration in Italy, Europe and worldwide – thus fostering maximum reuse and sharing of the produced work-based curricula.”

In the TRIO architecture, Moodle functionality is complemented by information services (KCMF), virtual classroom services (DimDim), collaborative social networking services for sharing knowledge and experiences (Elgg) as well as experimental mobile services via mobile learning modules offered by the HarvestRoad Hive DR add-on.

“TRIO represents ‘excellence’ in the world of e-learning because it addresses the continuous evolution of training needs successfully,” explained Cardinali.

“It meets the growing demand for training, providing opportunities for re-training, knowledge increase or re-orientation, to ensure the business skills needed to succeed. In this, it supports and sustains the training needs of public and private bodies, promoting the development process of e-government, and contributes to the creation of an integrated regional system of education, training and work.”

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About the IMS Learning impact Awards

The IMS Learning Impact Awards are designed to recognise ‘the most impactful use of technology worldwide in support of learning’. This awards programme evaluates established, new and research efforts in context at an implementing learning institution.

About TRIO

TRIO offers services and tools through dedicated web portals (WLG) to government agencies, accredited training organisations and private organisations to support or supplement traditional training provision with online learning resources and service.

These services are also delivered through a network of ‘physical assisted internet access points’ (Paas). These are managed by territorial municipalities to enhance support services for TRIO’s e-learning provision, as well as help individuals experience ‘social inclusion’ and also gain qualifications.

About Giunti Labs

Giunti Labs http://www.giuntilabs.com is a leading Online and Mobile Learning Content Management Solutions provider with offices around the world. Giunti Labs provides a wide range of solutions for content development, content management and content delivery, covering:

• Multi-language bespoke content production
• Content management and digital repository platforms
• ePortfolio and skills management solutions
• Mobile learning technologies
• Consulting and professional services

Giunti Labs provides solutions to many sectors including public sector, defence, manufacturing, finance, retail, ICT, education and healthcare.

Giunti Labs is part of Giunti Group, a leading educational and cultural heritage publisher with roots back to 1841. Over the years, Giunti has built a catalogue of over 12.000 titles and has acquired new brands worldwide.

Further information from:

Minna Leikas, Giunti Labs, +39 3474435167, m.leikas@giuntilabs.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405, bob.little@boblittlepr.com