With SumTotal, Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Supercharges Learning and Development

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Sept. 7, 2006--SumTotal(R) Systems said that Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has purchased SumTotal TotalLMS(TM) 7.1, an award-winning enterprise software platform for managing talent and delivering online learning. Providing top-notch training to its 9,000 employees around the globe has always been a priority for Cooper Tire. And the new learning management system (LMS) from SumTotal dovetails with Cooper's commitment to innovation.

"Initially, the SumTotal system will offer our managers a strategic and streamlined way to monitor certifications and track training for health and safety as well as quality and environmental standards," said Elicia Davis, development systems manager for Cooper Tire. "This state-of-the-art, automated system will replace many of the manual processes we've had in place across our plants for monitoring certifications."

Cooper Tire has 59 manufacturing, sales, distribution, technical and design facilities around the world. Before purchasing TotalLMS, Cooper handled its training requirements in a largely decentralized way. Each facility relied on separate systems to monitor its own training records, schedules and certifications.

"We place a high premium on managing the development of our employees, and this new system is an extension of a long-standing commitment we've made to world-class training," said Davis. "Our workforce has always taken training on an array of topics, but TotalLMS will give our employees a single source for tracking and managing all things related to training and professional development."

Beyond centralizing the tracking of all learning and development at Cooper Tire, Davis says SumTotal's LMS will eventually offer a web-based portal that delivers training to employees at any time of day, from anywhere in the world. Davis added, "Fulfilling that vision is still a couple of years away."

But once implemented, Cooper Tire will have a platform that provides staff in Europe, Asia and North America with online learning plans, web-based courses, a comprehensive catalogue of training opportunities and a system for assessing employees' skills.

"Organizations, like Cooper, that are serious about measuring the impact learning will have on employee performance, are implementing an LMS as a critical first step," said Peter McStravick, senior research analyst for Learning Services at IDC. "With an LMS in place, Cooper can give its training program a competitive edge."

"We believe employers choose our system, in part, because it can shoulder the burden of storing the massive amount of data tied to what workers learn each day," said Don Fowler, chief executive of SumTotal, "yet strategically steer workers to what they need to know in the future to meet their company's goals."

About SumTotal Systems, Inc.

SumTotal Systems is the largest provider of talent, learning and business performance technologies and services. SumTotal deploys mission-critical solutions that align talent and knowledge with business goals to generate significant bottom-line results. With more than 17 million users worldwide, SumTotal has helped accelerate performance and profits for more than 1,500 of the world's best-known companies and government agencies including Accenture, Aetna, Cendant, DaimlerChrysler, Delta Air Lines, Harley-Davidson, Microsoft, Novartis, PNC Bank, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Bancorp, United Airlines, Vodafone, Wachovia and Wyeth. SumTotal has offices throughout the United States, in London, Frankfurt, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Hyderabad, India. For more information about SumTotal's products and services, visit www.sumtotalsystems.com.

SumTotal and the SumTotal logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of SumTotal Systems, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States or other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.