SumTotal Systems

SumTotal Systems, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Software
Founded	1985
Headquarters	Gainesville, Florida, USA
Key people	John Borgerding, CEO Hardeep Gulati, COO Jeffrey Laborde, CFO Rishi Rana, GM - India & APAC Holly Rollo, CMO Bill Shaheen, EVP, WW Sales Jeff Lyons, COS
Website	www.sumtotalsystems.com

SumTotal Systems, Inc. is a software company based in Gainesville, Florida that provides human resource management software to businesses and government agencies.^[1]

The company sells software and services using the software as a service (SaaS) model, and has multiple regional offices.^[2]

Company

SumTotal services include planning, analytics payroll and benefits.^[3] However, it has a long history of mergers and acquisitions.

Asymetrix

Asymetrix Learning Systems was based in Bellevue, Washington, and founded in 1984 by Paul Allen and funded through his Vulcan Ventures.^[4] Asymetrix spent almost ten years doing research and development of authoring software for online education, and was recapitalized in 1995 with more funding from Allen.^[4] One of its first products from this period called ToolBook would prove to be quite long-lived.^[5] An early 3 dimensional rendering system Asymetrix 3D F/X was released in 1994 and later renamed Web3d.^[6][7][8][9]

In October 1996, SoftBank invested about $3.8 million. In September 1997, Asymetrix acquired Aimtech for about $3.1 in stock. September 1997 it acquired Oakes Interactive Incorporated, Acorn Associates Incorporated and TopShelf Multimedia, Incorporated for about $2.1 million. In October 1996, the company spun off its client/server tools into a newly created wholly owned subsidiary, ASX Corporation, which was renamed ConQuer Data, Inc. and later renamed Infomodelers, which was then sold to Allen. In the first half of 1998 it acquired New York-based Meliora Systems and Illinois-based Strategic Systems Associates Their initial public offering (IPO) in June 1998 raised about $31 million. After the IPO, Allen controlled about 45% of the shares.^[4] In September 1999 it issued $10 million in preferred stock to Vulcan and Marshall Capital.^[10]

Click2learn

In October 1999 Asymetrix's name was changed to Click2learn, when James A. Billmaier was its chief executive.^[11] For all years from 1995 to 1999, like many companies in the dot-com bubble, it reported growing revenues but repeated operational losses. In January 2000 Kevin M. Oakes became chief executive.^[12] In early 2000, the InfoModelers spinoff was acquired by Visio Corporation.^[13] In May 2001 Click2learn acquired IntelliPrep Technologies, Incorporated. As products were consolidated into the Aspen Enterprise Productivity Suite, losses continued through 2002, resulting in employee reductions.^[14]

Docent

Docent was founded in 1997 and based in Mountain View, California.^[15] David Mandelkern was a co-founder and chief technology officer. Pardner Wynn was a co-founder and first chief executive.^[15] David R. Ellett became Docent's chief executive in July 1998. Its Nasdaq IPO on September 29, 2000 raised about $85 million.^[16] The company developed business-oriented training software. Pardner and Cynthia Wynn (then married) had developed Stanford Testing Systems in 1994, doing business as TestPrep,^[17] which was incorporated into Docent. It was funded by venture capital in six rounds from investors such as Norwest Venture Partners, Advanced Technology Ventures, and Invesco. It had operating losses for 1997, 1998, and 1999.^[15]

Docent acquired gForce Systems in October 2001 for about $5.3 million, which included about $4.7 million in liabilities. Following two more years of operating losses, R. Andrew Eckert joined as president in December 2001 and became chief executive in April 2002.^[18] After growing to over 200 employees at the time of the IPO, by 2002 the company reduced its staff by about 40 to cut costs.^[19]

SumTotal

In October 2003, Click2learn and Docent agreed to a merger. At the time, Click2learn had about 100 employees in Hyderabad, India, and 200 others.^[20] Docent had 170 employees. The combined company became Hockey Merger Corporation in February 2004 while a new name was planned.^[21] On March 18, 2004, the new name SumTotal Systems was announced for the combined company.^[22] Former shareholders in Click2learn owned about 52% and Docent about 48% of SumTotal. Shares in the new company were listed on the Nasdaq exchange with symbol SUMT (previous symbols were CLKS and DCNT).^[22]

In October 2005, SumTotal acquired Pathlore, a specialist in state and local government and healthcare.^[23] The company acquired privately owned software company MindSolve Technologies, founded in 1994, for about $5.2 million in 2006.^[24] In July 2011 SumTotal acquired CyberShift (workforce management and expenses management software) and Accero (payroll and benefits).

In May 2009 Vista Equity Partners agreed to acquire SumTotal for about $160 million, and the deal closed in July.^[25][26]

Awards

• SumTotal elixHR named Top HR Product of 2013 ^[27]
• 2013 Best of Elearning! Awards in Four Categories - Best Learning Management System (Enterprise), Best HR Solution, Best Simulation Tool, Best Development Tool ^[28]
• 2013 Gold Brandon Hall Group Excellence Award for Extended Enterprise Learning in conjunction with USA Funds ^[29]
• Leader in Forrester Research Inc.’s Talent Management Wave <ref name="Talent Management”>"The Forrester WaveTM: Talent Management, Q1, 2013". Retrieved January 3, 2014. </ref>
• Excellence in Talent Management Initiatives, Asia's Best Employer Brand Awards^[30] held in Singapore on 22 July 2011 at Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Center.
• Named top LMS vendor by Aberdeen Group, with 75 percent of its surveyed customers citing satisfaction with their company's learning program.^[31]
• Leaders Quadrant by Gartner, Inc.^[32]
• Software as a service for talent development, ResultsOnDemand, placed on KMWorld's Trend-Setting Product List of 2009.^[33]
• Called one of the top vendors in talent management systems by Bersin & Associates in its report, Talent Management Systems 2010: Market Realities, Implementation Experiences, and Solution Provider Profiles.^[34]
• Named to the Deloitte 2008 Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications and life sciences companies in North America.^[35]
• Top 20 most popular software solutions for both LMS and Talent Management Software.^[36][37]

References