Plateau Ranked #1 in Strategy and Current Offering by Independent Research Firm

Plateau Highest Rated Vendor in Architecture, Administration and Management, Content Management, Product Strategy and Partner Strategy

Arlington, Va. • April 1, 2005 - Plateau Systems, a leader in enterprise software that manages learning and knowledge readiness, today announced that it has been ranked #1 in strategy and #1 in current offering in The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Learning Management Suites, Q1 2005 report. Plateau received the highest scores in five out of the eight evaluation criteria within the strategy and current offering categories:

Architecture: How well does the product's architecture ensure secure, reliable service to global audiences?
Administration and Management: How robust are the product's administration and management features?
Content Management: How does the product manage learning content?
Product strategy: What is the vendor's strategy for its LMS product?
Partner strategy: What is the vendor's strategy toward its partner ecosystem?

The Forrester study included hands-on lab evaluations of 260 detailed criteria, product and partner strategy calls, and customer reference calls. Following this comprehensive evaluation process, the Forrester report stated: "Plateau Systems emerged the clear leader, with a strong vision and fine execution."

"Plateau Systems' OpenSuite 4.5 provides a complete J2EE open architecture, excellent support for Web services and strong security, making this product a technically robust solution," noted Claire Schooley, senior analyst in Forrester's Information Delivery research group. "Its cost is very reasonable given the product's depth of functionality." (Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Learning Management Suites, Q1 2005)

Forrester used a combination of three data sources to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the six leading providers in the learning management suites market:

Hands-on lab evaluation. Vendors spent one day with a team of analysts who performed hands-on evaluation of the product using scenario-based testing methodology. Each product was evaluated using the same scenario(s), creating a level playing field by evaluating every product on the same criteria.
Product and partner strategy calls. Forrester also had each vendor present its vision for the learning product and project road map for near-term enhancements and longer-term developments. Findings from these product calls were used to validate details of each vendor's product capabilities.
Customer reference calls. To validate product and vendor qualifications, Forrester also conducted reference calls with at least two of each vendor's current customers. Whenever possible, the interviews were conducted with customers currently running the evaluated version of the technology.

In the final results, Plateau received the highest scores in both current offering and strategy among the six vendors evaluated. Plateau's results for evaluation criteria within each of these major categories are:

CURRENT OFFERING: Plateau #1
Architecture – Received the Highest Score
Administration and Management – Received the Highest Score
Reporting and Analytics – Received the Second Highest Score
Competency Management – Received the Second Highest Score
Content Management – Received the Highest Score
End User Experience – Received the Third Highest Score

STRATEGY: Plateau #1
Product Strategy – Received the Highest Score
Partner Strategy – Received the Highest Score

"After a very comprehensive evaluation process, the Forrester Research team arrived at the same conclusion as leading companies choosing Plateau – Plateau has the best enterprise learning solutions in the market," said Paul Sparta, chairman and CEO of Plateau Systems. "These evaluation scores clearly differentiate us from the other vendors in the space. We have invested considerable time and money to deliver highly functional, scalable and adaptable solutions that are easy to implement and upgrade to enable customer success."

In addition to its strong showing in the Forrester WaveTM report, Plateau was also recognized as the leader in overall customer satisfaction among global enterprise LMS vendors in a report distributed by Bersin & Associates earlier this month. The report, entitled Bersin & Associates' 2005 LMS Customer Satisfaction Study, identified Plateau as the overall leader in customer satisfaction as rated by global enterprise customers, and the outright leader among global enterprise LMS vendors in 17 of 26 supporting customer satisfaction measures.

Individuals interested in viewing the complete Forrester WaveTM: Enterprise Learning Management Suites, Q1 2005 report can learn more at www.forrester.com.

About Plateau: Plateau is a leading provider of enterprise software that manages learning and organizational readiness. Plateau 4 Learning Management System (LMS) is built on Web-based J2EE architecture, and is the engine behind the largest LMS initiatives in the corporate, non-profit and government markets. Plateau's software is being used to manage learning and improve human performance at organizations including the American Red Cross, General Electric, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Air Force. Plateau is listed as a leader in LMS evaluations from Gartner Inc., Forrester Research, and Bersin & Associates. The company is headquartered in Arlington, VA. For more information, please visit www.plateau.com.

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