Microsoft Selects Click2learn for Enterprise-Wide Global Readiness Initiative

Business Wire, Jan 21, 2003

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 21, 2003

Software giant's worldwide rollout of industry-leading Aspen Enterprise Productivity Suite(TM) will increase

organizational productivity with unified learning infrastructure

Click2learn (Nasdaq:CLKS), leader in enterprise productivity solutions, today announced that Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq:MSFT) has selected the Aspen Enterprise Productivity Suite(TM) as its enterprise-wide learning platform.

Microsoft recently selected the Aspen Learning Content Management System (LCMS), adding it to the company's existing Aspen Learning Management System (LMS) implementation. The Aspen Suite will power a worldwide readiness initiative to help Microsoft employees, partners and customers across the globe increase their competence and productivity in developing, using and selling Microsoft products.

Microsoft first started working with Click2learn approximately three years ago to improve the readiness of its worldwide sales force by rapidly educating them on new products as they were released. Based on the early success of this project, Microsoft turned to Click2learn to expand this effort into an enterprise-wide initiative, uniting 41 separate training organizations, 15 content production groups and multiple existing delivery infrastructures. This global initiative, internally dubbed "Voyager," targets more than 48,000 employees, 55,000 partners and tens of thousands of individuals seeking various levels of Microsoft certification, located in more than 62 countries around the world.

"Microsoft's success depends on readiness -- readiness to respond, readiness to sell, readiness to change, readiness to deploy -- and achieving that goal has been our overriding purpose in implementing a global learning infrastructure," said Gerry Lang, Director, Worldwide Learning and Readiness. "Microsoft is about helping people realize their potential, and in order to ensure our success and to meet the complex learning needs of an organization as a vast as Microsoft, we needed a deep, scalable, reliable platform from a company with the type of industry leadership and experience that Click2learn has built. Our deployment of the Aspen platform is a milestone in our continuing relationship with Click2learn. This relationship has enabled Microsoft to create and deliver a full-service learning content development and delivery platform for our entire worldwide organization, bringing unprecedented cohesion and immediacy to our training, learning and readiness efforts."

According to Lang, Microsoft chose the Aspen Learning Management System (LMS), which provided an open architecture with a high degree of functional integration, flexibility and customizability, and the Aspen Learning Content Management System (LCMS), which facilitated a common approach to the creation, management and reuse of training content for employees, partners and customers. Microsoft also will implement the Aspen Suite's broad range of optional modules, including collaboration, performance management and compliance, among others, to address a variety of business needs.

Microsoft will utilize the comprehensive capabilities of the Aspen suite to:

-- Provide consistent service offerings across the enterprise

-- Launch, track, manage and report custom, third-party and self-created training content

-- Deliver just-in-time information to help make employees and partners more productive in their day-to-day work

-- Assess skills and competencies, and create development plans to help employees close skills gaps and achieve career goals at the company

-- Train customers in the use and benefits of Microsoft products

-- Reach diverse geographies, departments and employees by localizing the user interface in Japanese, German, French, Spanish and other languages

-- Produce a unique "Universal Training Record," or lifetime transcript, for employees -- regardless of reorganization or job change at Microsoft -- that records all internal and external training

-- Quickly train product support and sales teams on new product versions and releases

-- Create content and courseware for individuals seeking Microsoft certification (e.g., MSCE, etc.)

-- Create or repurpose content for partner consumption to ensure that channel partners and resellers are competent with and properly represent Microsoft products and services.

"Microsoft is not only a top client, but a key strategic partner for Click2learn," said Kevin Oakes, Click2learn chairman and CEO. "It's been rewarding to see the significant business results Microsoft is achieving with Click2learn, and the recent enterprise-wide license cements Aspen as the only learning platform across the entire enterprise. We expect to continue that success by working together on mutual opportunities and joint technologies, and leveraging the strengths of each organization with customers and prospects."

According to Lang, Voyager is already paying out in significantly improved productivity and performance for user groups all over the company. "Employees can now more consistently improve performance, drive their careers through structured learning, and find relevant timely learning for their day-to-day jobs. Business groups can smoothly orchestrate learning experiences with products, solutions and company initiatives. Also, managers can objectively measure and tune individual and team readiness; and our training organization can finally maximize its impact on the business objectives of Microsoft, its customers and its partners."