Human Resources: Talent Management Leader Plateau Systems Announces FY 2009 Results

ARLINGTON, VA (April 28, 2010)

2009 Highlights:
Financial Growth

SaaS bookings grew 27%
76% of total new platform bookings were SaaS
Recurring revenue comprised 80% of platform bookings
22 transactions with platform contract values of over $500k.
Increased profitability, expanded EBITDA margins to > 15%
Generated $10 million in cash from operations
5-year organic revenue CAGR of 21%

Customers

Added more than 2.5 million new users
Almost 50% of transactions included multiple modules
Maintained 99.5% subscription renewal rate

iContent

Grew iContent users base 80%
14,000 custom course titles under management
Launched an average of 250,000 course per month
Plateau Systems, a leading provider of enterprise-class SaaS solutions for talent management, today announced that it recently closed a milestone year in the company's history, adding more than and two and a half million new users, maintaining an impressive 99.5% subscription renewal rate, substantially increasing SaaS bookings, and generating impressive EBITDA margins and significant cash from operations in FY 2009, ending February 28, 2009.

In 2009, 80% of the company's total platform bookings were recurring. During the same period, the company's new platform bookings grew by almost 20%, with bookings in the second half increasing almost 100% as compared with the first half. More than 75% of the company's total new platform bookings were SaaS, further validating the company as a leading SaaS solution provider. Demand for Plateau's comprehensive Talent Management Suite was also up, with nearly half of Plateau's sales transactions involving the purchase of more than one talent management module. During the year, sales of the company's performance management, career and succession planning, and compensation management product lines continued to climb, with annualized bookings growing 88% and cross-selling of the same modules into existing customers increasing more than 350%. Revenue from Plateau's iContent, Content-as-a-Service (CaaS), solution also grew in 2009 with 47 new customers deploying the solution to manage their critical talent content, including knowledge assets that facilitate formal and informal e-learning. Plateau's international bookings in 2009 continued to increase and included three transactions with a total contract value in excess of $1 million each. Overall, 22 of the company's transactions in 2009 were platform contracts valued at more than $500,000. In 2009, the company also significantly increased its cash position, generating more than $10 million in cash from operations and EBITDA margin in excess of 15%.

"In 2009, there was a clear and direct correlation between the growth in our SaaS business and the increase in customers deploying multiple modules of Plateau's talent management suite to facilitate career and succession planning, compensation planning and performance management as well as formal and informal learning," said Paul Sparta, Chairman and CEO of Plateau Systems. "Our solution allows our customers to achieve their specific business goals and provides them with unique flexibility and control over their key processes and metrics. Additionally, our clear focus on delivering outstanding support and services enables our customers to, in turn, focus on bringing the value of integrated talent management to their organizations."

During 2009, leading organizations including Bank of America, Sabre Holdings Corporation, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and National Grid USA, along with Federal Law Enforcement Training Command and several other government organizations and agencies, continued to select and deploy Plateau's SaaS-based talent management solutions to advance their career and succession, compensation, learning, performance management and training initiatives. Users from new Plateau customers comprised 78% of all users added in 2009.

Highlighting the company's leadership in delivering technology innovation that drives business success, Plateau successfully launched two major talent management solutions into the market last year: Plateau Talent Management 6.1, an enterprise class SaaS application that combines Plateau Learning, Plateau Performance, Plateau Compensation and Plateau Career and Succession Planning; and the award-winning Plateau Talent Gateway, a fully integrated set of flexible, portable web-based communication, social, and knowledge-sharing tools designed to make talent management more accessible and available across the enterprise. Both solutions were generally available in Q3 2009.

SaaS
In 2009, momentum across Plateau's SaaS business continued to increase, with SaaS bookings growing 27% over the previous year and the majority of new Plateau customers selecting Plateau's SaaS solutions to underpin their critical talent management initiatives. To support this rapid growth, the company is currently investing heavily in expanding its data center operations to ensure the highest scalability, availability, bandwidth and security for the company's more than 3.7 million SaaS users.

iContent
Plateau's 2009 iContent revenues increased 37% over the previous year as iContent's user base increased to 1.8 million. Today, more than 100 customers across the globe are embracing Plateau's CaaS solution and more than 30 industry-leading content provider partners are supporting the solution.

Market Leadership and Customer Success
During 2009, Plateau continued to earn recognition and accolades for demonstrating vision and innovation leadership and for delivering customer satisfaction and success. Most recently, leading learning and talent management analyst firm Bersin & Associates named Plateau a Learning Leader in Vendor Innovation in its 2010 Learning Leaders Program, in recognition of Plateau Talent Gateway. For the second consecutive year, leading industry analyst firm IDC positioned the company as a Major Player in its IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Integrated Talent Management 2010 Vendor Analysis.(1) Plateau was also recognized as a Leader in Gartner's 2009 Magic Quadrant for Corporate Learning Systems (CLS),(2) marking the seventh consecutive time the company has achieved this distinction since 2003, and debuted as a Visionary in Gartner's premier 2009 Employee Performance Management Magic Quadrant.(3) In addition to recognizing Plateau as an innovator and market leader in several talent management reports over the past year, Bersin & Associates highlighted Plateau's successful market evolution and well-executed corporate strategy in a research bulletin titled, "Plateau Systems: Evolution of an Enterprise Talent Management Software Company."(4)

International Operations
During the year, Plateau continued to broaden its international footprint, expanding its presence in Australia and adding new channel partners to support the company's growing customer base, specifically across Asia-Pacific and Europe. Plateau has partnered with Ambow Education, a leading provider of personalized education and training services in China to resell Plateau's talent management solutions and service offerings to its customer base, which includes many of China's largest government agencies and several Fortune 500 organizations. The company has also partnered with Davvi Talent Group in Sweden to deliver learning and talent management services and solutions to organizations across Northern Europe.

About Plateau
Plateau Systems is the industry's premier provider of enterprise-class SaaS talent management suites. Major global corporations and government agencies, including General Electric, the U.S. Air Force and Capital One Services are using Plateau's integrated talent management solutions to improve productivity and facilitate strategic workforce initiatives around learning, performance, compensation and career and succession management. Plateau is widely recognized throughout the industry for its commitment to customer satisfaction, forward-thinking vision and for consistently delivering best-in-class functionality. Founded in 1996, Plateau is headquartered in Arlington, Va., and has offices across the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information about Plateau, visitwww.plateau.com.

(1) IDC, "IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Integrated Talent Management 2010 Vendor Analysis," Doc #221561, January 2010.
(2) Gartner, "Magic Quadrant for Corporate Learning Systems," Carol Rozwell, September 10, 2008.
(3) Gartner, "Magic Quadrant for Employee Performance Management Software" by James Holincheck and Thomas Otter. February 3, 2009.
(4) Bersin & Associates Plateau Systems: Evolution of an Enterprise Talent Management Software Company," September 2009.