CARY, NC, Aug. 28, 2014 – TrainingIndustry.com has announced its Top 20 Learning Portal Companies List, as part of its mission to continually monitor the training marketplace for the best providers of training services and technologies.
View the 2014 Top 20 Learning Portal Companies
Selection to this year's Top 20 Learning Portal Companies List was based on the following criteria:
Breadth of functionality and capabilities
Commitment to the corporate training market
Industry visibility, innovation and impact
Number and strength of clients
Geographic reach
“Our 2014 Top 20 Learning Portal Companies List showcases the continued innovation in the corporate learning marketplace,” said Ken Taylor, Training Industry Inc.’s Chief Operating Officer. “These companies demonstrate the breadth of services, tools and reporting, learning leaders need to support any learning program. In particular, the ease of customization to the client’s specific needs was a standout this year.”
“The Top 20 companies provide technology and services that have a lasting impact on corporate learning,” said Doug Harward, Training Industry Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer. “Their ability to personalize the learning environment to both the needs of the learner and the goals of the business give us confidence in the business impact of the programs they support.”
Email info@trainingindustry.com for thoughts or feedback regarding the list.
View the 2014 Top 20 Learning Portal Companies
About Training Industry, Inc.
TrainingIndustry.com spotlights the latest news, articles, case studies and best practices within the training industry. Our focus is on helping dedicated business and training professionals get the information, insight and tools needed to more effectively manage the business of learning.
TrainingIndustry.com Announces Top 20 Learning Portal Companies List
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Intertek’s New Partnership Focuses on Safety Training
ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND, Aug. 28, 2014 — Intertek, a leading quality solutions provider to industries worldwide, is partnering with social enterprise Transition Extreme to enhance safety training for the oil and gas sector.
The Aberdeen-based extreme sports center, which provides urban sports activities and youth work support, is the setting for a new suite of training courses from Intertek’s Consulting & Training (C&T) team. These are designed to underpin positive safety approaches for those in safety critical roles in offshore operations.
Incorporating high ropes training and indoor climbing activities means that delegates can experience an element of risk in a safe environment. This drives home the importance of verifying and assuring how safe a situation is, and the importance of teamwork to reduce risk.
Maxine Fawcett, Regional Principal Consultant at Intertek C&T, said her clients come from a high risk industry.
“They need to develop an instinctive approach to safety rather than it being a passive tick box exercise,” she said. “People learn through lived experiences, not purely presentations, so we want participants to have a close up but controlled encounter of potentially hazardous situations. “
As well as providing a new method for delivering important safety messages, Intertek C&T also values the partnership on a community level, as the relationship is a socially responsible endeavour to support a local charity, and also assist the ongoing sustainability of Transition Extreme by utilising the facilities during down time.
Transition Extreme facilitates the activities and Intertek works with experts at the organisation to jointly develop exercises. The working partnership has been a success so far with plans to roll out these practical sessions across further Intertek courses.
About Intertek
Intertek C&T provides a range services for the oil and gas industry. This includes specialist solutions for culture and behaviour change, assurance, improved technical or leadership skills and operational excellence to help clients enhance their safety culture and behaviour, as well as technical and personal development.
About Transition Extreme
Transition Extreme is a social enterprise using urban sports and their cultures to attract and engage the local youth population. Established in 2007, the charity is one of the region's leading youth work organisations, delivering support through sport to hundreds of young people every year.
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Corporate Visions Survey Reveals Insight on Marketing and Sales Messaging
LARKSPUR, Calif., Sept. 10, 2014 – Corporate Visions, Inc., the leading marketing and sales messaging, tools and training company, today announced the results of a survey that polled 400 business-to-business (B2B) marketing and sales professionals worldwide regarding the use of “insights” in their marketing and sales assets. Interestingly, results revealed that the type of insight-based content created most frequently is believed to be the least effective in generating engagement and closing deals with prospective buyers.
Insights are defined as context-based facts specific to a prospect that companies use to shape their marketing messages and sales conversations, and differentiate from the competition. Overall, the survey found that 81 percent of respondents use an insight-based approach as part of their marketing and sales strategy.
The four specific insight types include:
“Anecdotal” insights – Content that is created in-house and focuses on more tactical day-to-day issues such as best practices, lessons learned, and features and functionality.
“Authoritative” insights – Content that leverages the work of respected third-parties, such as analysts and external subject matter experts, and is used to reinforce key company messages around trends, problems, challenges, risks, opportunities and requirements.
“Current” insights – Content that centers around original research and surveys that are produced by the company as supporting facts for campaigns and selling messages.
“Visionary” insights – Content that leverages in-house expertise but looks to the future of the industry and defines what is next.
Respondents were also asked to review and rank these four insight types based on how frequently they appear in marketing collateral and sales tools. The rankings resulted as follows:
Anecdotal insights
Authoritative insights
Current insights
Visionary insights
Respondents were then asked to rank those same insights in order of how effective they believe they are at generating more engaging conversations and driving sales decisions. Surprisingly, the rankings fell in the exact opposite order of those in the previous question:
Visionary insights
Current insights
Authoritative insights
Anecdotal insights
“What’s surprising about the survey results is that the insights marketers and salespeople feel are the most effective are exactly the opposite of the insights they believe their companies produce,” said Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and marketing officer for Corporate Visions. “Regardless of the category, however, the real power of an insight comes from using it in proper context – identifying relevant market data points and then interpreting that information to make it meaningful to the challenges prospects are facing. In order for companies to be truly successful, they must take these insights and turn them into provocative questions and a distinct point of view that breaks the status quo bias and differentiates their solution.”
About Corporate Visions, Inc.
Corporate Visions is a leading marketing and sales messaging, tools, and skills company that helps global B2B companies create more sales opportunities, win more deals and increase sales profitability by improving the conversations salespeople have with customers. Companies engage Corporate Visions to help in three key areas:
Developing compelling messages to break the status quo, differentiating their solution, justifying a purchase decision and protecting margins;
Deploying that message through tools and visual stories to enable salespeople to engage multiple decision-makers across the buying cycle; and
Delivering sales skills training that helps salespeople confidently use these messages and tools to create, elevate and capture more value in their customer conversations.
Corporate Visions helps clients such as ADP, Motorola, Philips, UPS, Cisco and others align marketing and sales with a repeatable approach for developing and delivering winning customer conversations.
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MicroTek Expands Learning Beyond the Classroom with Avaya Collaboration Solutions (1)
CHICAGO, IL., Sept. 10, 2014, — MicroTek, a global provider of on-demand business training and meeting solutions, has chosen Avaya, a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, as a learning solutions partner to facilitate the delivery of their training and meeting solutions to their Fortune 500/international customers and certified resellers.
After an extensive market review of collaborative, solutions-based applications providers, MicroTek determined that Avaya’s conferencing portfolio of integrated audio, web and video conferencing solutions are best-in-class in user experience with respect to technical performance; cost to operate; and integration into traditional classroom, mobile and virtual learning environments. For MicroTek, this relationship is a boon to their enterprise clients—who expect performance based training and easy-to-use collaboration products that are scalable for classroom, BYOD (bring your own device) and virtual environments.
The Avaya Scopia® video conferencing solutions will be offered in MicroTek’s Learning Experience Packages and Meeting Solutions to further enhance the success of their customers’ training and program events. MicroTek is committed to finding innovative solutions for their clients to conduct training and meetings that are highly engaging, promote the highest level of knowledge transfer and are cost-effective. Using Avaya’s integrated video conferencing with virtual rooms, MicroTek will offer the ultimate hybrid learning experience that combines live classrooms, virtual learning labs and digital online content—all of which is available through online scheduling. MicroTek plans to offer cloud-based video conferencing using Avaya solutions to help ensure a seamless end-to-end learning experience.
“The ability to provide reliable, collaborative solutions that support a hybrid learning model is critical to our clients who are looking to train more students effectively, in less time and in a cost-efficient way. Our relationship with Avaya ensures that we can evolve our service offerings to meet the dynamic needs of our customers,” said Microtek President Hugh McCullen.
With a base of 12 major metro learning campuses nationwide and a network of over 3,000 fully vetted training sites worldwide, MicroTek stands to be the largest virtual/hybrid training environment in the world.
“This relationship is an important acknowledgement by MicroTek that our solutions enable business users to improve efficiency, solve problems and work collaboratively—regardless of device, location or media,” said Joseph Lohmeier, Avaya’s vice president of U.S. Channel Sales. “Like MicroTek, Avaya believes open, standards-based, collaborative platforms are the technology of the future—allowing a geographically-dispersed workforce to solve problems more quickly, communicate more efficiently and perform more effectively.”
About MicroTek
Since 1991, MicroTek has been the industry’s leading, single-source provider of training and meeting solutions. With an expansive national and global reach, MicroTek is equipped to manage and execute any sized training program—anywhere in the world. MicroTek’s end-to-end training and meeting solutions include virtual platforms, event management, instructor deployment, courseware management, scheduling and project implementation. MicroTek was named a Top Training Company for the sixth consecutive year by Trainingindustry.com.
About Avaya
Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, networking and related services to companies of all sizes around the world.
For additional information about MicroTek's training and meeting solutions visit mclabs.com or call 1.800.207.9620 to speak with a service representative.
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TrainingIndustry.com Announces 2014 Learning Portal Companies Watch List
CARY, NC, Sept. 11, 2014 – TrainingIndustry.com has announced its 2014 Learning Portal Companies Watch List, as part of its mission to continually monitor the training marketplace for the best providers of training services and technologies.
View the 2014 Learning Portal Companies Watch List
Selection to this year's Learning Portal Companies Watch List was based on the following criteria:
Breadth of functionality and capabilities
Commitment to the corporate training market
Industry visibility, innovation and impact
Number and strength of clients
Geographic reach
“This year’s Learning Portal Companies Watch List illustrates the growth and entrance of many new and upcoming organizations in this segment,” said Ken Taylor, Training Industry Inc.’s Chief Operating Officer. “These companies are used by major organizations to successfully support their corporate learning and development initiatives.”
“The companies selected for this year’s Watch List show the depth of the Learning Portal market with each exhibiting growth and innovations to enhance the impact of corporate learning.” said Doug Harward, Training Industry Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer. “We look forward to seeing what these companies will contribute to the LMS landscape in the coming year.”
Email info@trainingindustry.com for thoughts or feedback regarding the list.
View the 2014 Learning Portal Companies Watch List
About Training Industry, Inc.
TrainingIndustry.com spotlights the latest news, articles, case studies and best practices within the training industry. Our focus is on helping dedicated business and training professionals get the information, insight and tools needed to more effectively manage the business of learning.
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ITpreneurs to Bring Leading Edge Business Simulations
ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS, Sept. 17, 2014 — ITpreneurs and Simagine Business Simulations are proud to announce their partnership in offering and developing a broad portfolio of business simulations to consulting companies and training providers across the world.
These simulations can be utilized to facilitate change and improvement programs within an organization. The Simagine simulations are aligned to the trending and emerging IT best practices, including TOGAF®, DevOps, Lean IT, Agile®, as well as the well-established ITIL® and PRINCE2®. They are designed to support organizations to achieve objectives such as business IT alignment, end to end business processes optimizations, IT service management and IT architecture improvement. ITpreneurs is the leading provider of IT training content and services, and Simagine, specializes in designing, developing and facilitating innovative organizational games and simulations. The portfolio includes classroom simulations, mini-games and the unique accredited Hands-On programs for ITIL and PRINCE2. These unique programs integrate self-study, social learning and coaching environments. Participants will be trained and certified at the foundation level and in four complementary competences (process awareness, process-based working, customer-oriented working, and cooperation).
"With a flexible approach and no computer-driven scenarios, the simulations can be customized to meet the specific learning objectives of the group each time,” said ITpreneurs CEO Sukhbir Jasuja.
About ITpreneurs
ITpreneurs is the leading provider of IT training content and services worldwide. We offer training providers a whole new way to run their business: high impact, low barrier. With thousands of titles available ‘off-the-shelf’ (from Agile to XBRL), and a full range of support services, training providers can quickly, easily broaden their portfolio and create new revenue.
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Koenig Forays into U.S. Market with its IT Training Solutions
NEW DELHI, INDIA, Sept. 22, 2014 — Koenig Solutions, the leading name in IT training in India, has expanded its solutions to the U.S. The company has successfully established its presence in the domestic and international IT training market over two decades. It boasts the largest number of adept and experienced trainers in the world and has therefore, had students coming in from 50 countries.
The company is soon to open a sales office in Sunnyvale, Ca., which will be headed by Greg Hall, the U.S. corporate sales manager. What’s more, this isn’t the first time Koenig is stepping into the global forefront. The past year saw the company receive great response from its office in Africa, earning an aggregate of $7 million from the governments of Lesotho, Zambia, Tanzania and Nigeria.
About Koenig Solutions
Koenig Solutions is a leading IT specialist certifications training organization and an authorized training partner to the leading IT companies from across the globe. It is also an authorized center for conducting tests for Prometric, VUE and Novell.
The company is an authorized training partner of Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, VMware, Novell, Red Hat, Adobe, EC Council, PRINCE2®, Check Point, Zend, Android, EMC, Citrix, Linux Professional Institute, Symantec and CompTIA.
Koenig’s student base comes from more than 50 countries, and it serves major Fortune 500 companies and various government organizations, as well.
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NIIT to Provide Technical Training for Women in Bahrain
MANAMA, BAHRAIN, Sept. 22, 2014 — The National Institute for Industrial Training (NIIT) is launching a first-of-a-kind training program in Bahrain to provide technical and industrial training for women.
This is a step that is expected to increase the productivity of the sector that now stands at 26 percent of the gross domestic product in Bahrain.
NIIT has already started the screening process to select the first group of trainees who approached the institute. Prior to the training, NIIT has secured agreements with a number of companies to recruit the selected candidates to secure them jobs in the field.
NIIT acting director Abdullah Mohammed said many women are interested in joining the technical sector but would not have the opportunity to receive proper training.
“This was one of the key reasons behind structuring this scheme to be the appropriate door for women from which they can enter this world in a well-studied approach through a unique program that is being launched for the first time in Bahrain and targets women in the society,” he said.
More than 1,000 trainees joined NIIT last year and the number is expected to increase to 1,500 this year.
About NIIT
NIIT is a market-leading, global managed training services company with more than 30 years of experience in learning outsourcing. With a team of some of the world’s finest learning professionals and presence in 38 countries, we help the world’s leading companies dramatically improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their training.
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Medical Center Using Qstream for Engaging Mobile Approach to Driving Clinical Excellence
BURLINGTON, MA, Sept. 24, 2014 — Qstream, maker of mobile software that helps expand health care professionals' skills in just minutes a day, today announced that Inova Fairfax Medical Center (IFMC) in Virginia and its newly opened Advanced Surgical Technology and Education Center (ASTEC) are using Qstream's mobile, game-based platform to drive improved patient safety and clinical knowledge among an interdisciplinary operating room (OR) team.
The medical center’s trauma division has deployed four Qstream programs in the past year as part of the ASTEC's initiatives to improve patient safety through technology with surgeons, nurses, anesthetists and surgical residents. These include Qstream programs that keep staff knowledge current in critical OR safety domains, including universal protocols and fire safety in the OR and other Qstream programs that help its surgical residents to perform better on the national SCORE curriculum and the companion ABSITE surgical skills exam.
Additional Qstream programs that cover methicillin-related staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection control and fundamental surgical knowledge required for simulation programs are also in development.
With perioperative care requiring mastery of large amounts of information by clinicians to stay current and meet care guidelines, and for the hospital to demonstrate compliance, IFMC has found Qstream's mobile approach to making continuing medical education convenient, fast and fun.
“Qstream is one of the most innovative approaches to knowledge reinforcement for busy people that I've ever seen,” said Paula Graling, Education and Clinical Director of the Inova Fairfax ASTEC facility. “Our clinicians love being at the top of the leaderboards and the game-based nature of the scenario-based challenges keeps them engaged with information they might not otherwise care about. What's more, with every Qstream program we've debuted, we've found a participant who is so enthused by it that they show us another way that Qstream can help keep clinical staff sharp.”
Developed at Harvard Medical School, Qstream is scientifically proven in dozens of randomized clinical trials to boost retention by 170 percent and change clinical practice patterns to improve patient outcomes. Using Qstream, clinicians respond to scenario-based challenges that are pushed directly to their mobile device every few days. Built-in game mechanics engage users in an experience that's non-disruptive to work time. Qstream then analyzes response data in real-time to deliver predictive, actionable insights to supervisors, including areas for improvement.
About Qstream Qstream is now used by seven of the world's top 10 pharmaceutical companies and leading medical centers such as Boston Children's Hospital, Partners HealthCare, University of California Medical Centers and Baylor College of Medicine to address education on hospital-acquired conditions, value-based purchasing and HCAHPS, readmissions and transitions of care, patient safety and Joint Commission continuous readiness.
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Upside Learning Launches New Service for e-Learning Projects
Minneapolis, MN, Feb. 20, 2014 — In today's multi-device world, one of the major challenges is the wide range of devices on which eLearning needs to be supported. Different browsers, manufacturers, models and sizes, operating systems, connectivity modes and platforms further add to this challenge. To ensure that eLearning works properly on multiple devices, thorough testing is essential on actual primary devices and configurations. But not all organizations are equipped with the required resources in terms of manpower, testing tools and devices, nor can they afford to invest their time to thoroughly test eLearning on different combinations.
Upside Learning’s recently launched Multi-device Testing Lab service aims to help such organizations by testing and delivering high-quality learning projects that run consistently across device, browsers and operating systems.
The company has made robust investments in its infrastructure and is equipped with a variety of devices with screen sizes between 240 x 320 and 1280 x 800 pixels, as well as some high-DPI variants. For testing on larger displays, it has Windows PCs, Macs and laptops, while tablets and smart phones, running iOS, Android and Windows, cover the smaller ones. Tools such as Adobe Edge Inspect and Ghostlab are employed for quick and accurate turnaround.
The Testing Lab services team includes highly-experienced quality testing specialists with a cumulative experience of over 50 years in the eLearning testing domain. A meticulously planned rigorous testing process that runs through five broad stages ensures an error-free project with a fast turn-around.
Amit Garg, Director and Co-founder of Upside Learning, said the sheer number of devices has made pinpointing a standard device unlikely.
“While many organizations have started designing and developing multi-device eLearning projects in-house, it’s the testing bit that continues to be a challenge,” he said. “We hope our multi-device testing lab services help organizations deliver a good user experience to their learners and bring in cost and time saving as well.”
About Upside Learning
A globally recognized leader in training outsourcing, Upside Learning is one of the leading names in Custom eLearning, Learning Management System and Mobile Learning Solutions. For over 7 years, the company’s award-winning solutions and services have enabled 150+clients from a diverse set of industries and countries manage their learning easily and effectively.
The company’s solutions and services portfolio ranges from Custom eLearning to Catalog Courses, Mobile Learning Solutions to Learning Management System and Technical support services tailor-made to an organization be it an Enterprise, a SMB or a Training Company.
Upside Learning has been consistently picking up awards and other recognitions every year, including the most recent, 2010 Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Technology Awards for its flagship, best value Learning Management System – UpsideLMS and 2011 Apex Awards for Publication Excellence.
It is its constant endeavor to develop and provide innovative solutions to its clients thereby impacting their organizational learning and hence, performance.
For more information, visit: www.upsidelearning.com.
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Harvard Business Publishing Helps Organizations Drive Performance through Learning
BOSTON, MA, Sept. 16, 2014 – Harvard Business Publishing announced the new release of Harvard ManageMentor®, the premier on-demand learning resource for leadership and management development.
Through an innovative work-based approach, the new Harvard ManageMentor guides learners to apply what they learn directly to their work, to accelerate learning and drive business impact. Designed to equip managers and individuals for the business challenges they face every day, Harvard ManageMentor now integrates an action planning process that prompts learners to work toward specific goals over time. This major new release delivers new and proven content from world-renowned business and leadership experts, hundreds of new media elements, and a highly engaging learner experience.
“Our busy managers don’t have time to waste. They need to be able to quickly learn new skills and apply them on the job,” said John Kolmer, GPHR, Manager of Global Leadership Development at Dow Chemical, a client participant in the First Look program for the new offering.
Greater business impact via more effective learning transfer and behavior change. Learning is applied directly to work, providing a continuous reinforcement of skills. The program architecture includes “learn, practice, reflect, and on-the-job” built into every topic.
A powerful work-based approach extends learning through a focus of applying new skills on the job. This includes a new component which allows the learner to set a personal goal and develop a 90-day action plan to meet that goal. Harvard ManageMentor prompts the learner during the action planning window with tips and reminders.
For group learning, the “Café” resources include sets of materials to help learning organizations and individual team leaders facilitate rich discussions around important topics to prompt action in the specific context of the organization.
Powerful, easy-to-use measurement dashboards and reports that show how effectively managers are applying skills on the job and provide insights for learning professionals to refine their programs and show progress and business impact with stakeholders.
All of this is fueled by the research and frameworks of preeminent Harvard Business School faculty, along with other top faculty, authors, and practitioners from around the world. Developed in collaboration with client organizations and based on the latest research, the new release was driven by a team of Harvard Business Publishing’s leadership development and learning design experts.
About Harvard ManageMentor
Harvard ManageMentor® is the premier on-demand learning and performance support resource for leadership and management skill development. Harvard ManageMentor’s high quality content—regularly updated topics, videos, tools, and on-the-job activities—engage and motivate learners. Harvard ManageMentor is fueled by the latest in thinking and proven practices from Harvard Business Publishing’s world-class experts and designed to drive learning transfer and business impact for organizations.
About Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning
Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning partners with clients to create world-class leadership development solutions for managers at all levels. We leverage the management insight, thought leadership, and expertise of Harvard Business School faculty and authors from Harvard Business Review to create tailored leadership development solutions. With more than 20 years of practical experience, our innovative, technology-enabled solutions drive meaningful and lasting business results. Corporate Learning is a market group within Harvard Business Publishing.
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Global Knowledge Helping Safeguard Against Data Breaches
WOKINGHAM, U.K., Oct. 2, 2014 — Global Knowledge, the world's leading IT and business training provider, today announced expanded offerings to support customer needs for National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), providing additional courses, events and resources designed to educate businesses on practical Internet security and digital responsibility.
Global Knowledge supports its customers' NCSAM efforts with industry-recognized foundational and advanced IT security courses and certification training, as well as materials centered on cyber safety. Organizations of all sizes and across industries have an increasingly online presence – embedded in maximizing operational efficiencies and driven by corporate initiatives like BYOD and SDN, and business transformations like cloud computing. Businesses have to protect their critical data and information systems by building a skilled, knowledgeable workforce that views security from a preventative framework best achieved through continuous training.
The statistics surrounding Internet security demand attention. According to the National Cyber Security Alliance:
Every 18 seconds someone is the victim of a cybercrime.
Fifty percent of all targeted attacks are aimed at businesses with fewer than 2,500 employees.
By 2017, 3.6 billion or 48 percent of the world's population will be Internet users.
“Right now, one of the biggest challenges in fighting cybercrime is the shortage of certified IT security professionals in every industry, from government agencies and educational institutions to private businesses, while facing increased usage of mobile devices and cloud computing,” said Tori Easterly, product director, cybersecurity solutions at Global Knowledge. “We think about cybersecurity and how it relates to business transformation, changing requirements and closing skills gaps every day of the year – but this month, especially when teams are planning for the year ahead, is a great time to take a shared approach to focusing on how our customers analyze, provision and plan to protect themselves as variables continue to evolve. We understand the need and have developed comprehensive training programs to prepare teams and individuals to take a proactive approach to defending important data.”
With ongoing changes to the threat landscape and associated corporate requirements, IT professionals must be equipped with current best practices and relevant learning delivered by experts with real-world, applied experience. Global Knowledge's cybersecurity portfolio includes exam preparation training for popular industry-recognized certifications, such as Certified Ethical Hacker v8, CISSP and CompTIA Security+. Security skills-building courses through the Information Systems and Security Assurance (ISSA) curriculum enable IT professionals to address major security skills gaps, from managing risks and auditing IT infrastructures for compliance to managing critical data protection tools. Courses and expanded access to learning resources support skills building and certification preparation for vendor-neutral training paths such as CompTIA, EC-Council, ISACA and (ISC)2, as well as for products from industry leaders such as Cisco, Dell SonicWALL, Juniper and Palo Alto Networks.
About Global Knowledge
Global Knowledge is the world's leading IT and business skills training provider. Offering the most relevant and timely content delivered by the best instructors, we provide customers around the world with their choice of convenient class times, delivery methods and formats to accelerate their success. Our business skills solutions teach essential communications skills, business analysis, project management, ITIL service management, process improvement and leadership development. With thousands of courses spanning from foundational training to specialized certifications, our core IT training is focused on technology partners such as Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Citrix, IBM, Juniper, Microsoft, Red Hat and VMware. We offer comprehensive professional development for technologies like big data, cloud, cybersecurity and networking.
Founded in 1995, Global Knowledge employs more than 1,300 people worldwide and is headquartered in Cary, N.C. The company is owned by New York-based investment firm MidOcean Partners.
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Skillsoft Completes SumTotal Acquisition from Vista
DUBLIN, IRELAND & NASHUA, N.H., Oct. 2, 2014 — Skillsoft, a pioneer in technology-delivered learning solutions, announced today that its subsidiary, Skillsoft Corporation, has completed its acquisition of SumTotal Systems, LLC from Vista Equity Partners, a U.S.-based private equity firm.
SumTotal provides flexible, next-generation human resources solutions to 3,500 customers and 49 million users worldwide including many of the Fortune 500. SumTotal’s Talent Expansion solution provides personalized learning, talent and workforce processes to organizations of all sizes. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“Bringing Skillsoft and SumTotal together is an important development for our customers and the industry,” said Skillsoft CEO Chuck Moran. “The combined company will offer a comprehensive, content-rich solution that brings Skillsoft’s deep expertise in learning assets, methodologies and rich systems of engagement with SumTotal’s full suite of highly scalable, unified Talent Expansion solutions.”
The market for learning content and solutions that optimize the performance of organizations is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. There is increasing demand for a platform that goes beyond basic employee management to deliver content, talent management software, and a proven methodology for employee development and performance improvement. A more robust platform will benefit customers by lowering total cost of ownership and streamlining time to implementation and deployment.
Also driving this growth is widely projected global shortages of millions of skilled workers by the year 2020. These shortages are forcing a fundamental shift from the Information Age to a new Learning Age. Through its acquisition of SumTotal, Skillsoft will be uniquely positioned to deliver upon this market demand and deliver enduring solutions to create sustainable business advantage for the Learning Age.
“We are very excited to join the Skillsoft organization to help drive the shift to the Learning Age with learning-centric Talent Expansion solutions that help customers engage and develop their employees to achieve their desired business outcomes,” said Hardeep Gulati, CEO, SumTotal. “The powerful combination of SumTotal and Skillsoft enables pervasive learning delivered to employees across HR processes and systems, giving organizations a leadership position in the Learning Age. We look forward to extending these benefits to all of our customers across learning, talent, workforce management and payroll solutions.”
Skillsoft and SumTotal have worked together as strategic partners since 2000. Both organizations have a long history of driving innovation for organizations around the world. The complementary nature of each company’s cloud-based offerings will appeal to customers worldwide, ranging from global enterprises, government and education entities to mid-sized and small businesses. Skillsoft and SumTotal customers will benefit from the combination of the two companies, which is breaking new ground to implement more comprehensive solutions for managing and expanding workforce talent.
SumTotal will operate as a strategic business unit within Skillsoft, and SumTotal CEO Hardeep Gulati will report to Skillsoft Chief Operating Officer Jerry Nine. Gulati will act as the General Manager and Head of SumTotal, a Skillsoft Company.
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. acted as exclusive financial advisor to Skillsoft. Committed financing for the transaction was provided by Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP acted as legal counsel to Skillsoft. Evercore acted as exclusive financial advisor to Vista Equity Partners. Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal counsel to Vista.
About Skillsoft Skillsoft is a pioneer in the field of learning with a long history of innovation. Skillsoft provides cloud based learning solutions for its customers worldwide, ranging from global enterprises, government, and education to mid-sized and small businesses. Skillsoft’s customer support teams draw on a wealth of in-house experience and a comprehensive learning e-library to develop off-the-shelf and custom learning programs tailored to cost-effectively meet customer needs. Skillsoft’s courses, books and videos have been developed by industry leading learning experts to ensure that they maximize business skills, performance, and talent development. Skillsoft currently serves over 6,000 customers and more than 19,000,000 learners around the world.
About Charterhouse Capital Partners LLP Charterhouse is one of the oldest Private Equity funds in Europe having been investing in management buyouts since the 1980s. Since then, Charterhouse has completed 139 transactions with an aggregate value in excess of EUR 50 billion. Today Charterhouse is investing from its ninth fund of EUR 4 billion and focuses on backing managers of outstanding businesses to achieve their growth plans.
About SumTotal Systems SumTotal Systems, LLC, a leading provider of integrated HR solutions, is increasing the performance of some of the world’s most successful organizations. The only HR solution provider to deliver Talent Expansion, a whole new approach to discovering, developing and unleashing hidden potential within our customers’ workforce, SumTotal delivers employee enablement solutions that help organizations become great places to work. SumTotal’s people-focused applications, available on premise and in the Cloud, enable contextual, just-in-time development designed to advance employees’ skills and knowledge. Today, more than 3,500 organizations, including several of Fortune’s “Best Places to Work,” rely on SumTotal’s on premise and cloud-based Talent Expansion applications to enable their employees.
About Vista Equity Partners Vista Equity Partners, a U.S.-based private equity firm with offices in Austin, Chicago and San Francisco, with over $13.5 billion in cumulative capital commitments, currently invests in dynamic, successful technology-based organizations led by world-class management teams with long-term perspective. Vista is a value-added investor, contributing professional expertise and multi-level support towards companies realizing their full potential. Vista’s investment approach is anchored by a sizable long-term capital base, experience in structuring technology-oriented transactions, and proven management techniques that yield flexibility and opportunity in private equity investing.
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Cornerstone OnDemand Advances Talent Management in the Mobile Era
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct. 2, 2014 – Cornerstone OnDemand, a global leader in cloud-based talent management software solutions, today announced major additions to Cornerstone Mobile that further enrich the mobile experience for today’s modern worker. This includes the introduction of “Do You Know,” an engaging mobile game that solves the age-old problem of forgetting the names and faces of co-workers within a company.
Consumerization of the enterprise and generational changes in the workforce have driven shifts in employees’ needs and attitudes. With the modern workforce expecting to work where, when, and how they choose, Cornerstone Mobile is a natively built mobile application that allows workers to be as efficient and collaborative as they would be on a full web application.
New enhancements to Cornerstone Mobile support the employee experience for onboarding and recruiting, learning, performance and collaboration, including:
Mobile Game. The “Do You Know” people-matching game tests employees’ knowledge of their colleagues, helping teams to get to know each other quickly and stay connected while on the go.
Mobile Recruiting. With mobile phone sales expected to reach 1.9 billion units this year1, the number of candidates that apply through a mobile device is steadily growing; candidates can now search and apply for jobs directly from their smartphones or tablets. Additionally, recruiters now have easy access to review candidates, schedule interviews and review requisition fill details while on-the-go.
Mobile Learning. Users can easily access transcripts and launch mobile-enabled courses, including offline and online content. Employees can now take advantage of downtime during travel, in between meetings or in the evenings – dramatically increasing adoption and impact of training initiatives.
Mobile Performance. Users have the ability to provide feedback and award badges to colleagues for their performance and contributions on goals and projects. This also provides the organization with up-to-date access to skills, competency reviews and performance activities anytime, anywhere.
Mobile Observation Checklist. Now accessed easily from a mobile device, Cornerstone’s Observation Checklist assigns validators or verifiers to assess competence or successful completion of tasks as employees are in the workplace.
About Cornerstone OnDemand Cornerstone OnDemand is a leader in cloud-based applications for talent management. The company’s solutions help organizations recruit, train, manage and engage their employees, empowering their people and increasing workforce productivity. Based in Santa Monica, California, the company’s solutions are used by over 1,800 clients worldwide, spanning more than 15.5 million users across 191 countries and 42 languages.
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Cornerstone OnDemand Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Evolv
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct. 8, 2014 – Cornerstone OnDemand, a global leader in cloud-based talent management solutions, today announced that the company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Evolv Inc. With its best-in-class machine learning and data science platform, the acquisition of Evolv allows Cornerstone clients to leverage the power of big data analytics to make better workforce decisions.
Named one of the world’s top 10 most innovative companies in big data, Evolv’s platform helps leading organizations utilize relevant internal and external data to objectively evaluate the skills, work experience and personalities of their employees and job candidates. Cornerstone expects that same technology to serve as the engine to derive insights on the massive data set accumulated by the company over the past decade from its more than 1,800 global clients.
The acquisition of Evolv is expected to expand Cornerstone clients’ ability to make intelligent workforce decisions by providing:
● Machine Learning Platform Technology. Evolv applies sophisticated predictive models and algorithms to large sets of data for extracting insights from the noise, identifying patterns and uncovering the true drivers of workforce performance.
● Data Science. Evolv’s team of data scientists has applied several state-of-the-art statistical methodologies and econometric techniques to improve the predictive capabilities of its solutions.
● Big Data Infrastructure. Evolv has built highly scalable big data analytics leveraging modern Hadoop, HBase and Hive Big Data technologies to process and analyze massive data sets.
With more than 15 million users in 191 countries, Cornerstone’s system of engagement captures vast amounts of data on the workforce, including key talent, organizational and collaboration data. The acquisition of Evolv enables Cornerstone to immediately deliver best-in-class machine learning and predictive analytics capabilities to complement Cornerstone’s organically-developed talent management suite. Additionally, the combination extends the value proposition of existing Cornerstone applications by providing data-driven recommendations to clients seamlessly across the unified talent suite.
“We have seen the talent management market advance over the last decade, as global organizations shifted from a focus on process automation through client server solutions to a focus on employee engagement through a consumerized, unified talent management suite,” said Adam Miller, president and CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand. “Now we are moving to the next generation of data-driven talent management in a world of big data. Evolv has built a reputation as a leader in big data analytics, and together we have a huge opportunity to deliver even more value to organizations leveraging our solutions.”
“There are so many untapped opportunities for employers to improve their decision-making using data that already exists,” Evolv CEO Max Simkoff said. “We are extremely excited to apply our machine learning and data science expertise to Cornerstone’s organically-developed, unified talent management platform to help organizations find these new insights.”
Cornerstone anticipates that the combination will accelerate its analytics roadmap and develop a number of big data solutions for its clients, including Cornerstone View, Cornerstone Insights, Cornerstone Selection and Cornerstone Recommendations.
Under the terms of the proposed acquisition, Cornerstone will acquire Evolv for approximately $42.5 million in cash, subject to certain adjustments. In addition, Cornerstone will assume up to $2.0 million in debt and will grant certain Evolv employees restricted stock units covering up to 200,000 shares of Cornerstone common stock, subject to customary vesting requirements. The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of Cornerstone and Evolv and is expected to close within 30 days, subject to customary closing conditions.
Cornerstone does not believe the transaction will have a material impact on its non-GAAP financial metrics in 2014. Management plans to further discuss the impact of the acquisition and provide an update to its financial outlook as part of its upcoming Q3 financial results conference call.
About Evolv
Evolv is a big data company that helps solve workforce performance issues for the C-suite by utilizing a configurable cloud services platform. Evolv’s patent-pending technology platform unifies and supplements existing data from current systems, then utilizes that dataset to identify fact-based workforce insights that drive measurable ROI. By using an objective, data-driven methodology, Evolv helps companies uncover the core reasons behind workforce performance, enabling executives to make better operational business decisions that generally result in tens of millions of dollars in measurable value per year. Evolv was recently named one of the world’s top 10 most innovative companies in Big Data by Fast Company Magazine. The company, founded in 2007, is based in San Francisco, CA.
About Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone OnDemand is a leader in cloud-based applications for talent management. The company’s solutions help organizations recruit, train, manage and engage their employees, empowering their people and increasing workforce productivity. Based in Santa Monica, California, the company’s solutions are used by over 1,800 clients worldwide, spanning more than 15.5 million users across 191 countries and 42 languages.
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SumTotal Systems Announces New Enhancements to Drive Learning
GAINESVILLE, Fla., Oct. 8, 2014 – SumTotal Systems, LLC, a Skillsoft company and a leading provider of next-generation HR solutions, today announced its latest Talent Expansion® suite enhancements, which feature new ways for organizations to proactively engage, develop and retain employees so they can continue to differentiate and compete in today’s rapidly evolving business world.
A 2012 McKinsey Global Institute report projected that the global labor market will face a deficit of nearly 85 million skilled workers within the next five years. Organizations will be challenged to address this crisis if they rely solely on traditional HR approaches and recruiting, and they must shift their focus to identifying and developing talent from within their workforces to stay competitive.
“More than 25 years ago, Peter Senge, a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Business and founder of the Society for Organizational Learning, stated that the rate at which organizations and individuals learn may well become the only sustainable competitive advantage,” said Humair Ghauri, senior vice president of engineering at SumTotal. “Today, business success is based on our ability to rapidly acquire and apply new knowledge and cultivate an evergreen source of talent. Velocity is achieved through pervasive learning, and leadership in the market is earned and sustained through workforce adaptability.”
The latest enhancements to SumTotal’s learning-centric Talent Expansion platform enable customers to drive learning to the core of their company culture and provide managers and employees the tools and information they need, when and where they need them, to develop and become tomorrow’s leaders.
About SumTotal Systems
SumTotal Systems, LLC, the largest independent provider of integrated HR solutions, is increasing the performance of some of the world's most successful organizations, including AstraZeneca, Amway and Seagate. The only HR solution provider to deliver Talent Expansion, a whole new approach to discovering, developing and unleashing hidden potential within our customers' workforce, SumTotal delivers employee enablement solutions that help organizations become great places to work. SumTotal's people-focused applications, available on premise and in the Cloud, enable contextual, just-in-time development designed to advance employees' skills and knowledge. Today, more than 3,500 organizations, including several of Fortune's “Best Places to Work,” rely on SumTotal's on premise and cloud-based Talent Expansion applications to enable their employees.
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Cornerstone OnDemand’s Foundation Providing Training to 30,000 Humanitarian Aid Workers
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct. 14, 2014 – DisasterReady.org, a signature program of the Cornerstone OnDemand Foundation, today announced that it has achieved significant momentum in its mission to increase the preparedness and effectiveness of humanitarian aid workers in conflicts and natural disasters by providing free, accessible, high-quality training.
DisasterReady.org is an online training platform that provides disaster responders with free access to over 400 state-of-the-art e-learning courses and other training tools covering all aspects of humanitarian aid and disaster relief. Launched in 2013, the program’s initial milestones include:
Provided training to more than 30,000 aid workers across the globe
Delivered over 26,000 hours of training via more than 53,000 course registrations
Reached 886 organizations in 190 countries
Achieved a projected societal impact of $24 million to date
Research shows that, for each dollar spent on prevention and preparedness, four dollars in damage costs is saved. Unfortunately, 96 percent of spending for natural disasters is used for response, while only four percent is dedicated to prevention and preparedness.
Prior to DisasterReady.org’s launch, relief workers had to spend valuable aid dollars to take professional development courses in person. DisasterReady.org helps to bridge this gap by providing free and unlimited access to resources and training anytime, anywhere and from any device – including offline course-taking options. Courses are designed to meet foundational training requirements as well as provide aid workers with technical and advanced courses that grow and expand their skillsets and prepare them to serve on the ground.
While some humanitarian aid workers are able to take courses before being deployed to the next disaster, many are already working in some of the most remote, hostile field locations across the globe. With this in mind, the platform provides access to real-time information and also serves as a community for aid workers to connect and share insight and support with one another. For example, when the Ebola outbreak rapidly spread through West Africa, DisasterReady.org gathered critical resources from the World Health Organization and Center for Disease Control and quickly developed a 15-minute course on Ebola Awareness specifically for aid workers being deployed to the area.
DisasterReady.org is a collaborative effort supported by prominent aid agencies such as Save the Children, Mercy Corps, the International Rescue Committee, UNHCR, InsideNGO, Oxfam America, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and Project HOPE, among others.
About DisasterReady.org
DisasterReady.org leverages state-of-the-art learning and social networking technology to provide disaster preparedness and response training to aid workers around the globe via a dedicated web-based portal. Through DisasterReady.org, aid workers can share resources and information and access customized online learning anytime, anywhere in the world. By providing high-quality, accessible disaster response training at no cost, DisasterReady.org enables aid workers to do what they do best: save lives, rebuild communities, and restore hope.
About the Cornerstone OnDemand Foundation
The Cornerstone OnDemand Foundation transforms the way people help people. By providing Cornerstone OnDemand’s talent management technology and capacity-building programs to the nonprofit sector, the Foundation helps organizations around the world better develop, engage and empower their employees and the people they serve. The Foundation focuses its efforts in the areas of education, workforce development and disaster relief. Since its founding, the Foundation has forged strategic partnerships with many leading nonprofits, such as Teach for America, Women for Women International, KIPP, Oxfam America, Save the Children and Goodwill Bay Area.
About Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone OnDemand is a leader in cloud-based applications for talent management. The company’s solutions help organizations recruit, train, manage and engage their employees, empowering their people and increasing workforce productivity. Based in Santa Monica, California, the company’s solutions are used by over 1,800 clients worldwide, spanning more than 15.5 million users across 191 countries and 42 languages.
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The Brooks Group Welcomes New Director of Marketing
GREENSBORO, N.C., Oct. 14, 2014 — Global sales training firm, The Brooks Group, recently announced the addition of its new Director of Marketing, Mark Ward. The extensive search for such a key role left no stone unturned as the award-winning company anticipates explosive growth in the coming year with a number of innovative product launches due to be released.
Ward, who has 20 years of marketing prowess under his belt, was identified as the perfect candidate to meet the ever-expanding, complex needs of The Brooks Group. He brings with him a vast knowledge and decades of experience with some of the biggest sales and marketing firms in the industry.
“The entire corporate team here was quite impressed by the global business strategies Mark (Ward) initiated in past roles, and we wanted to implement components of that with our own system,” said Jeb Brooks, President and CEO of The Brooks Group. “He has such a knack for identifying and connecting with other organizations that could greatly benefit from our services.”
This new hire comes at a time when The Brooks Group, with a 35-year proven track record of success, seems to be hitting full stride. Named a “Top 20 Sales Training Company” by Training Industry for five consecutive years, as well as a five-time Stevie® Award Winner, is just the beginning, according to Ward.
“It’s exciting to be a part of such a motivated team that is extremely passionate about building better business practices in organizations around the globe,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to pushing the limits of what we can do next to continue helping others exceed their objectives.”
The Brooks Group has assisted more than 3,000 organizations transform their business structures into more effective and efficient models, and Ward expects to double that number over the next 10 years.
About The Brooks Group Founded in 1977, The Brooks Group has helped thousands of organizations in 500 industries transform their business practices through practical, down-to-earth skills development in sales, sales management and personal performance growth.
The Brooks Group is recognized by Training Industry, Inc. and Selling Power Magazine as a top tier sales training firm. The company offers its clients proven, best-practice tools – an easy-to-implement sales methodology, industry-leading reinforcement and accountability systems, and sales management training for performance coaching – all geared toward producing long-term, sustainable results.
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Logical Operations Buys Accent
ROCHESTER, NY. Oct. 20, 2014 - Logical Operations Inc., a company founded more than 30 years ago in Rochester, has acquired Accent Training. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Accent Training will become part of Logical Operations’ New Horizons affiliate at its 3535 Winton Place, Henrietta, headquarters, officials said. Accent Training is one of Upstate New York’s largest independent IT training companies. “We are thrilled to join forces with Accent Training, a well-known training provider in the Rochester area,” said William Rosenthal, CEO of Logical Operations. “Accent exemplifies our unwavering commitment to driving innovation in the classroom. The addition of Accent Training further enhances our leadership position for technology training in the Rochester area and our commitment to Upstate New York.” About Logical Operations
Logical Operations helps organizations and individuals maximize training with expert-facilitated/instructor-led learning, officials said. Logical Operations also has offices in the Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore and China.
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Cognotion to Provide Immersive Mobile Training Solutions for Millenial Workforce
NEW YORK, NY, Oct. 22, 2014 — Cognotion has developed a user-configurable, industry-specific, and game-based platform to train entry-level workers around the globe. The company works with multinational corporations and governments to identify talent, deliver faster functional utilization of knowledge, and decrease churn rates through immersive mobile learning experiences.
With a focus on the healthcare and hospitality verticals, as well as the customer service and retail markets, Cognotion addresses the increasingly poor performance and retention among entry-level workers around the globe, where 50 percent turnover rates are costing multinational corporations billions of dollars annually.
Cognotion’s vision is to create behavioral and cultural change. The company launched its initial products in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where 300,000 women are entering the workforce for the first time, delivering co-educational training in sectors such as Hotel, Retail, Information Technology, and Accounting. This month, Cognotion is introducing their products into the United States market, offering solutions for U.S. employers to better train and retain millennial entry-level workers.
“Cognotion is catalyzing youth employment around the world,” CEO Joanna Schneier said. “We solve complex social issues by delivering corporate training that works, helping millennials envision a way to achieve their dream careers.”
Cognotion has completed the three-month immersive Kaplan EdTech Accelerator program, powered by Techstars.
About Cognotion Cognotion was founded in 2013 and is seeking to raise investment for its Series A round.
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