Media Centre

Plateau Systems

Master List

Plateau Systems UK Ltd
Royal Albert House, Sheet Street, Windsor, Berks, SL4 1BE
tel 01753 705006; fax 01753 831541; www.plateau.com

26 June 2006

Plateau Systems reveals the path to talent management

Key challenges and trends in learning and performance management highlighted at conference, organised in London by Plateau Systems.

"One of the difficulties facing corporate learning today is that people within an organisation only look at individual parts of the 'talent management suite'," observed David Wilson, a corporate learning analyst with Elearnity. Wilson was speaking at a recent conference organised by Plateau Systems - providers of software for developing, managing and optimising organisational talent - in London which looked at the development of 'talent management', the latest manifestation of 'human capital management'.

According to Wilson, today's key issues for corporate learning include:

• The need to effectively align learning and development activities to complement strategic business strategic needs and values.

• A shift from measuring inputs (events) to assessing outputs (results).

• The diversification of learning channels - including greater use of e-learning, electronic performance support systems (EPSS), rapid learning and so on - delivery options and learning content.

• Streamlining management processes and systems - improving service levels, efficiency and responsiveness.

The realisation that work and learning are interrelated and interdependent and can no longer be thought of as separate from each other.

"Increasingly, we're recognising the 'formal versus informal', 'structured versus unstructured' learning debate and seeing the resulting diversification of learning content processes," said Wilson.

Earlier, Paul Sparta, CEO of Plateau Systems, stated that talent management systems would be the next 'human capital management' solution, following the advent and evolution of the 'learning management systems' market some ten years ago. He explained that, these days, organisations need highly functional software to develop, manage and optimise organisational skills and talent.

"They also need scalability and adaptability in these systems to allow them to meet the organisation's needs both today and tomorrow," Sparta added.

Talent management applications deal with:

Workforce planning
Workforce acquisition
Performance management
Career development
Succession planning
Learning management
Compensation management

"Ultimately, competency management underpins all of these things," explained Sparta. "Moreover, talent management applications also have relationships with business process management, content management and knowledge management."

"If you can manage learning, performance, career and 'succession' within an organisation effectively, you are engaging in 'talent management'," he added.

According to Sparta, Plateau Systems recently launched Plateau OnDemand, the industry's first subscription-based talent management solution to deliver best-in-class performance, succession, and learning management capabilities in an affordable, fully managed solution.

"The cost of software development has fallen sharply and the advent of internet delivery has changed the availability and deliverability of powerful management systems," he said.

"With Plateau OnDemand, companies of any size can harness the enterprise-class power and functionality of Plateau's proven solutions - anytime, anywhere - to meet their organisational needs," stated Don Hernandez, Plateau Systems' vice president of sales in Europe. "Unlike other on-demand solutions, Plateau provides powerful and adaptable enterprise class software and services with the ability to integrate performance, learning, and career and succession planning.

"Organisations can now increase workforce performance and meet their business goals by delivering targeted learning based on performance and career plans. They can also automatically link performance scores and promotion-readiness ratings to succession planning."

"Organisations of all disciplines and sizes, across a wide range of industries, are demanding a talent management solution that combines best-of-breed, enterprise-class functionality, reliability, and flexibility in an affordable, low risk solution," said Sparta.

"With Plateau OnDemand, companies no longer have to sacrifice quality and solution depth for affordability. Plateau is removing the barriers that have historically limited organisations in adopting a talent management strategy that can meet both their immediate and long-term strategic needs."

End

Notes for Editors

About Plateau OnDemand

Plateau OnDemand, which can be bought and implemented in stand-alone form or as part of an integrated solution, comprises:

• Plateau Performance Goals & Appraisals

• Plateau 360 Multi-Rater

• Plateau Goals Alignment

• Plateau Career & Development Planning

• Plateau Succession Planning

• Plateau Learning Management System

Plateau OnDemand delivers the functionality, configurability and security required to meet complex business requirements for organisations of any size, including full internationalisation and localisation capabilities.

Plateau OnDemand ensures rapid, cost-effective deployment by using pre-configured forms and processes built around best practice methodologies, reducing the costs associated with extensive setup, configuration, and testing.

Comprehensive hosting and managed services enable organisations to eliminate their IT hardware investments and maintenance costs while minimising the need for onsite IT resources.

Implemented by Plateau's Global Services organisation, Plateau OnDemand includes initial deployment, consulting, and training services as well as on-going management of hardware and software components. Hosted and managed through Plateau, the solution ensures security, 99.5 per cent uptime, redundancy, 24x7 customer support, change management and product upgrades to the most current version of the product.

All Plateau learning, performance, and career and succession planning products are generally available. Flexible delivery options include on-demand, infrastructure hosting, and on-premises deployment. Expanded on-demand capabilities are available for delivery in two weeks.

About Plateau

Plateau is a leading provider of adaptable web-based software for developing, managing and optimising organisational talent to increase workforce productivity and business performance.

Plateau's software is being used by some of the world's largest, most successful enterprises, including the American Red Cross, General Electric, Internal Revenue Service, and Wendy's International.

Industry analysts, including Forrester Research and Bersin & Associates, have rated Plateau a leader in functionality, technology, and customer satisfaction. The company is based in Arlington, Virginia, in the USA.

For more information, visit www.plateau.com

Further information from:

Don Hernandez, Plateau Systems, 01753 705006/ 00 49 (173) 320 4807
Wendy Werve, Plateau Systems, 00 1 703 292 0381; Wendy.werve@plateau.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 01727 860405