Plateau Systems Recognized as Leader in Bersin & Associates' 2006 Performance Management Study

Report Acknowledges Plateau for Delivering Highest Performance Management Scalability and for its Rapid Growth Rate

Arlington, Va. • May 22, 2006 - Plateau Systems, a leading provider of software for developing, managing and optimizing organizational skills and talent, today announced that it was recognized as a leader in meeting organizational requirements for performance management in Bersin Associates' Performance Management 2006: Market Analysis, Trends, Best Practices, and Vendor Profile, the first extensive study on the emerging performance management market. The study recognizes Plateau's comprehensive performance management solution, its impressive performance management growth rate, superior ability to scale, and unparalleled capabilities for integrating performance management and learning. In addition to covering a wide range of performance management-related topics, the report focuses on issues that affect broader talent management initiatives, including the importance of and trend towards integrating performance management, succession planning, and learning on a common platform.

"Plateau provides a complete performance management solution that includes development plans, performance appraisals, multi-rater/360 assessments, goal-setting and cascading goals, development planning, competency management, and a unique and best-of-breed succession planning module," said Josh Bersin, president and founder of Bersin & Associates, a research and advisory firm focused on enterprise learning and talent management. "We believe that Plateau's global-enterprise class technology, powerful and proven architecture for domain management and enterprise-wide configuration, and well-designed, platform that supports the most comprehensive integration to learning, coupled with the company's leadership position in the global enterprise LMS market and ability to execute, make Plateau Performance a strong solution for global performance and talent management."

HR and training managers interviewed for the study identified Performance Management, Leadership Development, and Succession Planning as their three highest priorities for 2006. In addition to performance management, the study outlined the top integration issues that affect talent management. The report cited integration between performance management and Learning Management Systems as the most important issue and biggest challenge facing organizations today, outranking integration with compensation systems by a 2-to-1 margin.

"We believe that LMS integration will be the most common integration in the next few years, driven by both the development planning process as well as the growing need for succession planning applications." said Bersin. "Automating development plans and implementing any type of competency-based talent management requires organizations to synchronize competency, course catalog, and course completion data between the LMS and performance management system. Only by integrating the two systems can one get a ‘complete' view of and employee's performance, competencies, training history, certified skills and certifications. This is one of the reasons we believe that many customers will choose to purchase a performance management system that integrates ‘out-of-the-box' with their LMS."

"We are seeing a trend among organizations increasingly demanding best-of-breed performance and learning capabilities on a single talent management platform," said Paul Sparta, CEO of Plateau. "This study validates Plateau's commitment to delivering, first and foremost, best-in-class performance management and succession planning capabilities that meet the current and future needs of customers. Our solution was also built on a comprehensive talent management platform to provide organizations with seamless learning, performance and succession management, and a single source of organization-wide talent management information."

Performance Management 2006: Market Analysis, Trends, Best Practices, and Vendor Profiles is the first comprehensive study of the emerging performance management market. Findings are based on a quantitative survey of 553 HR and training managers and executives on performance management, in-depth interviews with more than 50 organizations currently using a performance management system, briefings with 21 software and services vendors, and a quantitative survey of 125 HR managers with experience in implementing a performance management system. The complete study is available at www.bersin.com/perfmgt

Join Josh Bersin, principal and founder of Bersin & Associates on June 7, 2006 at 2 PM EDT for a discussion of key findings from this report. To register, go to http://www.plateau.com/bersin/

About Plateau Systems

Plateau is a leading provider of adaptable, Web-based software for developing, managing and optimizing organizational skills and talent to increase workforce productivity and business operations performance. Plateau's software is being used by some of the world's largest, most successful enterprises that include 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 headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. For more information, please visit www.plateau.com.

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