SumTotal Systems Unveils New ToolBook Update
June 06 2005 - 6:55AM
Business Wire
Groundbreaking New Version of Simulation and Authoring Solution
Improves Developer and Learner Experience; Increases Ease of
Platform Integration and Content Delivery SumTotal Systems
(NASDAQ:SUMTE), the largest provider of learning and business
performance technologies and services, today announced the
availability of ToolBook Service Pack 2, the newest version of its
award winning simulation and content authoring solution. Responding
to customer demand and evolving industry trends, SumTotal has added
significant new capabilities to the product, including Java-free
deployment, support for SCORM 2004 content, browser support for
Firefox and Mozilla, tighter integration with the SumTotal platform
and enhanced online tutorials. ToolBook helps organizations create
compelling content and simulations that are a critical success
factor in any organizational learning initiative. Using ToolBook,
companies can create professional, standards-based simulations,
tutorials, assessments, courseware and other interactive learning
content without in-depth programming skills. Based on AICC and
SCORM standards, ToolBook also makes it easy to launch and track
ToolBook content through a standards-compliant learning management
system (LMS). ToolBook Service Pack 2 represents the most powerful
version of the solution ever brought to market, delivering an
easier, more flexible user experience to learners and content
authors alike. With enhanced usability features and greater
automation of redundant tasks, ToolBook Service Pack 2
significantly increases content development speed and productivity,
enabling authors to get critical training and just-in-time
information to learners more quickly. New, advanced capabilities in
Service Pack 2 include: Java-free Deployment Responding to growing
customer demand, this ToolBook release enables users to launch and
interact with ToolBook's rich Web content without the need for Java
in their Web browsers. This decreases restrictions on content
development and delivery, making it much easier for a broader user
audience to access and use courses and learning activities. SCORM
2004 Support ToolBook Service Pack 2 adds support for SCORM 2004,
the latest version of the "Shareable Content Object Reference
Model" learning standard. This support strengthens the integration
of ToolBook content with SumTotal's TotalLMS or other SCORM
2004-compliant learning management systems. It also ensures the
smooth deployment of learning content through an LMS, reducing
cycle time for content authors and the total cost of learning
initiatives overall. In addition to SCORM 2004, ToolBook continues
its support for the SCORM 1.2 and AICC standards. Expanded Browser
Support Providing increased flexibility and options for the
ToolBook user community, ToolBook Service Pack 2 incorporates new
support for Mozilla and Firefox browsers in addition to its ongoing
support for Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape. Now larger
audiences of users can run ToolBook content through a broader
variety of Web browsers without having to install new applications
or worry about incompatibility of the content with their systems.
Enhanced Online Tutorials and Developers Exchange ToolBook Service
Pack 2 improves the content development experience by incorporating
new tutorials designed to help reduce the learning curve for new
ToolBook users and to help long-time users familiarize themselves
with some of the newer or more complex ToolBook capabilities, such
as creating simulations. Content authors can also locate and help
develop new tools in the Developer's Exchange, one of ToolBook's
extensibility features. MedStar Health, which uses ToolBook to
develop learning content and critical regulatory compliance
training for more than 22,000 employees, was one of more than 500
SumTotal customers that beta-tested ToolBook Service Pack 2.
"ToolBook is the easiest solution we have found for content
development, particularly because it doesn't require us to know
complicated back-end coding or to bring in an IT expert," said Amy
E. Uranachek, e-learning specialist/ coordinator at MedStar Health.
"The Java-free deployment in ToolBook Service Pack 2 is incredibly
important to us, as we have such a diverse population of computer
systems throughout our hospitals and other businesses. Our users
will now have trouble-free access to training and we'll save the
significant time and legwork that used to go into modifying content
or individual desktops to be able to run our learning activities."
Dave Carter, senior training and development representative at
Eastman Chemical Company, agrees. "We're creating a wide variety of
training, development and compliance content for more than 10,000
employees worldwide, many of whom may have different Java versions
on their computers," said Carter. "We are looking forward to not
having to worry about whether content will run easily and
consistently on everyone's machines. We can now create and deliver
our content once and move on to other critical projects." For
Cornell University, which uses ToolBook to create accounting
process training for faculty and accounting certification for the
school's finance staff, it is essential that ToolBook content be
compatible with the Firefox and Mozilla browsers. "The two new
browsers and Java-free capability are the two biggest pieces for us
in ToolBook Service Pack 2, because they make it much easier to
deliver content to our users," said Steve Jackson, manager of
customer training and development in the Financial Affairs Division
at Cornell. "Our department doesn't have control over how computer
systems roll out in each department. What matters to me is whether
content will load onto a user's machine and run with little or no
tweaking. As training professionals, we always keep our eyes open
for new solutions on the market. But we always keep coming back to
ToolBook, because it enables us to easily develop content that
works the way we need it to." "Our primary focus in developing
ToolBook Service Pack 2 was to address the end-user experience. We
spend considerable time talking to the active, dynamic ToolBook
user audience, which includes more than 13,000 organizations around
the world," said R. Andrew Eckert, SumTotal CEO. "We have a deep
understanding not only of their organizations' overall business
objectives, but of what it's like to have the day-to-day,
in-the-trenches job of supporting learning initiatives for global,
multi-divisional, multi-geographical companies with thousands of
employees. We know that's no small task. So we continue to develop
ToolBook and our other products to make it easier for training and
development professionals to do their jobs and, as a result,
empower them to make a greater contribution toward achieving the
bottom line goals of their organizations. " For more information on
ToolBook Service Pack 2, or to download a 30-day trial version of
the product, visit the SumTotal Systems Web site at
www.sumtotalsystems.com. About SumTotal Systems SumTotal Systems
Inc. (NASDAQ:SUMTE) is the largest provider of learning and
business performance technologies, processes and services. Formed
by the merger of industry pioneers Docent and Click2learn, the
company is uniquely focused on helping organizations harness and
manage mission-critical intellectual power to solve real-world
business problems and produce significant bottom-line results.
SumTotal has helped accelerate performance and profit for more than
675 of the world's best-known companies and federal and local
government agencies, including Microsoft, United Airlines, US Army,
Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard, Vodafone, Aetna, Accenture,
Cendant, Harley-Davidson, Wyeth, Wachovia and D & B. SumTotal
Systems is headquartered in Mountain View, CA, with offices
throughout the US, as well as in London, Paris, Heidelberg, Sydney,
Tokyo and Hyderabad, India. For more information on SumTotal and
its solutions and services, visit www.sumtotalsystems.com. Safe
Harbor Statement/ Forward-Looking Statements "Information in this
press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements
represent SumTotal Systems' expectations or beliefs concerning
future events and include statements, among others, regarding
SumTotal Systems' new product, SumTotal Enterprise Suite 7.1. These
statements are not historical facts or guarantees of future
performance or events and are based on current expectations,
estimates, beliefs, assumptions, goals and objectives, and involve
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may
cause actual results to be materially different from the results
expressed or implied by these statements. Readers of this press
release are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any
forward-looking statements. Additional factors that could cause
actual results to differ include, but are not limited to (i)
unknown errors or bugs in SumTotal Enterprise Suite 7.1; (ii)
inability to fix in a timely fashion unanticipated bugs, errors or
defects that materially impact the functionality or usability of
SumTotal Enterprise Suite 7.1, or unanticipated problems in
customer upgrades to SumTotal Enterprise Suite 7.1 from prior
SumTotal products (iii) unexpected shipment problems or delays of
SumTotal Enterprise Suite 7.1; (iv) customers or partners delaying
purchasing or upgrade decisions until there is widespread market
acceptance of SumTotal Enterprise Suite 7.1; (v) the acceptance of
SumTotal Enterprise Suite 7.1 and future product offerings; (vi)
the ability to successfully implement SumTotal Systems' solutions;
(vii) the ability to successfully address technological
developments and standards; (viii) ability to successfully manage
growth, significant current and expected additional competition,
and the need to continue to expand product distribution and
services offerings; and (ix) other events and other important
factors disclosed previously and from time to time in SumTotal
Systems' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
including the quarterly report filed on Form 10Q on November 15,
2004 and its Form 8-Ks filed on February 2, March 8, 10 and 17, and
April 6, 20 and 28, 2005. SumTotal Systems assumes no obligation to
update the information in this press release."
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