LONDON, February 6 /PRNewswire/ --

- Latest 8.2 Version Offers New Compensation Management Module, Reporting Architectures and Unified Talent Development Workflows

SumTotal(R) Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUMT), the market leader and global provider of talent development solutions, today announced the 8.2 version of its Talent Development Suite (http://www.sumtotalsystems.com/products/Talent-Development-Suite.html), empowering organisations to align, engage, develop and retain employees to gain productivity and a significant competitive advantage. The latest release includes a new compensation management module, tighter integration of the performance management and learning management systems (LMS) for unified talent development, new reporting architecture, and continuing education credits to align talent development with strategic initiatives such as compliance.

With the addition of compensation management and combining otherwise isolated Learning and Performance tasks, SumTotal is truly offering its customers the strongest, most comprehensive talent development solution on the market today, said Arun Chandra, CEO, SumTotal Systems. In a time when organisations have to do more with fewer resources, our best-of-breed functionality and unified approach offers an efficient solution for improving overall organisational productivity.

Unlike siloed Learning and Performance solutions on the market, SumTotal is the only vendor that allows actionable career development based on performance ratings with the ability to launch Learning courses from the Performance Management module based on identified skill gaps. Additional new features and cross-platform workflows include improved, unified reporting capabilities, enhanced 360-feedback functionality and continuing education credits to help meet the compliance needs of industries such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals and other regulated industries.

We believe everyone wins with SumTotal's integrated Talent Development Suite, which truly links performance and development, said Melissa Gustafson, of Newmont (http://www.newmont.com/en/). For administrators, improvements like new reporting features and workflows make the system more powerful and easier to navigate. Employees are more motivated and better equipped to advance their own careers. And organisations as a whole have tools and data that will help them derive more value from the workforce.

SumTotal's Integrated Talent Development Suite is helping Pemex Exploration and Production (PEP) in several ways. For example, the consolidation and better use of relevant data in a Talent Profile combined with the Suite's calibration tools allows us to have a much better insight into the talent pool, and has paved the way to improve the process for designing the career plan for the high potentials, said M.Sc. Pablo Arturo Gómez Durán, the project leader in PEP (http://www.pemex.com/index.cfm?action=contentsectionID=123). With the ability to create succession plans, we have been able to target individual learning activities that foster the professionals' development in this company, which in turn is considered one of its highest priorities, as in the next five years it is estimated that approximately a fifth of the high rank officials would retire.

The new compensation module enables managers and the HR team to import up-to-the-minute performance ratings into a user-friendly worksheet that helps businesses allocate pay increases based on merit, provide incremental bonuses, manage raises during promotions and make other adjustments, all while adhering to budget guidelines. By integrating compensation with performance management processes, organisations ensure that employee increases are fair, equitable and merit-based.

In today's environment of downsizing, restructuring and business transformation, career development solutions are critically important to successfully manage and execute talent transitions, said Josh Bersin, president of Bersin Associates (http://www.bersin.com/), a research and advisory firm focusing on enterprise learning and talent management. Integrated learning and performance management should be considered a must-have within the tapestry of corporate HR systems.

To learn more about the new compensation management module, register for SumTotal's webinar (http://www.sumtotal.co.uk/events/ws_comp_mgmt.html), Pay Your Employees What They're Worth: SumTotal Compensation Management.

For more information about the Talent Development Suite version 8.2, or to see a video demo of the new solution, visit: http://www.sumtotalsystems.com

About SumTotal Systems, Inc.

SumTotal Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUMT) is the market leader and global provider of talent development solutions. SumTotal deploys mission-critical solutions designed to drive learning, align goals, develop skills, assess performance, plan for succession and set compensation. SumTotal's solutions aim to accelerate performance and profits for more than 1,500 companies and governments of all sizes, including six of the world's 10 biggest pharmaceutical makers, six of the 10 largest automotive companies in the world, four of the five branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, three of the world's top five airlines, five of the six largest U.S. commercial banks and two of the world's top five specialty retailers. Mountain View, Calif.-based SumTotal has offices across Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. For more information about SumTotal's products and services, visit http://www.sumtotalsystems.com.

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

Contact: Rachel Pattison, EMEA Marketing Manager, +44(0)7795-816973.