ARLINGTON, Va. and NASHUA, N.H. - May 4, 2005 - Plateau Systems, a leading
provider of software for developing, managing, and optimizing organizational
skills and talent, and SkillSoft PLC (Nasdaq: SKIL), a leading provider of
content resources and complementary technologies for integrated enterprise
learning, today announced a fully integrated content and learning management
solution. This integrated offering will be available from Plateau in late
summer 2005 and will automate the process to deliver comprehensive content
resources throughout an organization. This content will include a
comprehensive SkillSoft catalog of more than 4,800 courses and simulations
and more than 7,600 unabridged business and IT titles from Books24x7?, in
addition to all internally customer-developed custom content. An advanced
search capability will allow users to seamlessly browse and search all
content from within Plateau's Learning Management System (LMS).
Plateau demonstrated an early version of the joint solution to more than 400
customers at SkillSoft's Perspectives User Conference and described how this
turn-key solution can greatly increase workforce productivity and skills
development.
"One of the biggest challenges organizations face today is delivering the
right information to the right people at the right time," said Paul Sparta,
chairman and CEO of Plateau Systems. "This integrated offering automates
content administration and allows users to access relevant content more
quickly than ever before."
"Plateau has been a key partner in SkillSoft's early stages of formulating
our recently announced open learning standards architecture (OLSA)," said
Chuck Moran, president and CEO of SkillSoft. "Plateau's development is an
important early step in addressing the need for seamless integration of
learning solutions by offering users of its learning management system an
easier, faster way to access on-demand learning resources."
With this solution, information about all licensed Skillsoft content is
automatically loaded into catalogs within Plateau's LMS, making it
immediately available to users. Using SkillSoft's advanced
Search-and-Learn? technology, a topic search may return chapter-level
content for SkillSoft courses, books and simulations, sorted in order of
relevancy. This powerful search engine is now embedded in Plateau's LMS,
allowing users to launch content, post it to their individual development
plans, and link it to competencies.
The resulting benefits of the integration are substantial. End users save
time by being able to view SkillSoft content from directly within the
Plateau LMS and obtaining more granular search results and relevancy
ratings. System administrators are more productive since the solution
eliminates the need to manually load SkillSoft content into Plateau and then
re-load updates.
Plateau is a charter member of the SkillSoft Alliance for Integrated
Learning, a program created for SkillSoft technology partners designed to
promote seamless integration among learning content resources, learning
management systems and other learning technologies.
About Plateau: 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, 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 headquartered in Arlington, Va. For more information, please visit
www.plateau.com.
About SkillSoft: SkillSoft is a leading provider of comprehensive e-learning
content and technology products for business and IT professionals within
global enterprises. SkillSoft's multi-modal learning solutions support and
enhance the speed and effectiveness of both formal and informal processes
and integrate SkillSoft's in-depth content resources, learning management
system, virtual classroom technology and support services. For more
information, visit
http://www.skillsoft.com.
Content provided is for information purposes only and is subject to change
without notice. SkillSoft has no obligation or commitment to develop or
deliver any future release, upgrade, feature, enhancement or function
described in this press release except as specifically set forth in a
written agreement.
This release includes information that constitutes forward-looking
statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such forward-looking
statements involve risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements.
Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include
competitive pressures, changes in customer demands or industry standards,
adverse economic conditions, loss of key personnel, litigation and other
risk factors disclosed under the heading "Management's Discussion and
Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations -- Future
Operating Results" in SkillSoft's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the
quarter ended January 31, 2005, as filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The forward-looking statements provided by the company in this
press release represent the company's views as of April 29, 2005. The
company anticipates that subsequent events and developments may cause the
company's views to change. However, while the company may elect to update
these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the company
specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking
statements should not be relied upon as representing the company's views as
of any date subsequent to the date of this release.
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding SkillSoft Corporation's
business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that
involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and
uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those
contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the
company's Annual Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal
year.