SumTotal Systems

SumTotal Systems, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Software
Founded	1985
Headquarters	Gainesville, Florida, USA
Key people	Bill Donoghue, CEO Jeffrey Laborde, CFO Bill Shaheen, EVP, WW Sales & Marketing Charles Platt, COS Jeff Lyons, EVP Services Humair Ghauri, EVP Products Rishi Rana, GM - India & APAC
Website	www.sumtotalsystems.com

SumTotal Systems, Inc. a software company based in Gainesville, Florida that provides human resource management software and services to private and public sector organizations.^[1]

The company delivers its solutions through multiple cloud-based vehicles: Software as a Service (SaaS), Hosted Subscription and in some cases premises-based licensure to meet the needs of a wide range of businesses. The company has multiple regional offices in the US, Canada and around the globe including Europe and APAC.^[2]

Company

SumTotal's solutions include learning management, workforce management, talent management, HR, planning, analytics, payroll and benefits ^[3] and has a long history of organic growth as well as M&A activity. The origins of the company, as it is known today, trace back to the 2003 merger of Click2learn (Asymetrix) and Docent Software.

In August 2014, Skillsoft Limited, a pioneer in technology-delivered learning solutions, announced that its subsidiary, Skillsoft Corporation, has entered into a definitive agreement for the acquisition of SumTotal Systems, LLC from affiliates of Vista Equity Partners (“Vista”), a U.S.-based private equity firm. ^[4]

Company Evolution

Asymetrix

Asymetrix Learning Systems, based in Bellevue, Washington, was founded in 1984 by Paul Allen and funded through his Vulcan Ventures.^[5] Asymetrix invested nearly 10 years of development work in authoring software for online education. The company was recapitalized in 1995 with more funding from Allen.^[5] Among the first products from this development period, ToolBook, would prove to be quite long-lived and is still supported by SumTotal.^[6] Other titles included Asymetrix Librarian and the e-Learning Network - an early software as a service product. Additionally, an early three-dimensional rendering system Asymetrix 3D F/X was released in 1994 and later renamed Web3d.^{[7][8][9][10]} The company later developed Compel (a graphical presentation and prototyping program).^[11] Asymetrix also produced a variety of screen savers for a short period.

In October 1996, SoftBank invested about $3.8 million in Asymetrix. In September 1997, Asymetrix acquired Aimtech for about $3.1M in stock. 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. It was later renamed Infomodelers, which was then sold to Allen.

Further acquisitions followed. In September 1997 Asymetrix acquired Oakes Interactive Incorporated, Acorn Associates Incorporated and TopShelf Multimedia for approximately $2.1 million. In the first half of 1998 it acquired New York-based Meliora Systems and Illinois-based Strategic Systems Associates.

In 1998 Asymetrix went public. The June IPO initial public offering raised approximately $31 million (3M shares @ $11). After the IPO, Allen controlled about 45% of the shares.^[5] Asymetrix was listed on the Nasdaq exchange with the ticker symbol ASYM, however the market reception was lukewarm.^[12]

In September 1999 Asymetrix issued $10 million in preferred stock to Vulcan and Marshall Capital.^[13]

In October 1999 Asymetrix's name was changed to click2learn.com, when James A. Billmaier was its chief executive.^[14] In 1995 to 1999, like many companies in the dot-com bubble, Click2learn reported growing revenues but continued operational losses. In January 2000 Kevin M. Oakes took over as chief executive.^[15] In early 2000, the company spun off its graphics and rendering software as InfoModelers and was acquired by Visio Corporation.^[16] Other noteworthy acquisitions included the May 2001 purchase of IntelliPrep Technologies, Incorporated and Meliora who made Ingenium. As products were consolidated into their Aspen Enterprise Productivity Suite, losses continued through 2002, resulting in operational cost control measures including reductions in workforce.^[17]

Docent Software

Docent was founded in 1997 and based in Mountain View, California.^[18] David Mandelkern and Pardner Wynn founded the company with Wynn as Chief Executive and Mandelkern as Chief Technology Officer.^[18] The company developed business-oriented training software. Pardner and Cynthia Wynn (then married) had developed Stanford Testing Systems in 1994, doing business as TestPrep,^[19] which was incorporated into Docent software holdings.
Docent was funded by venture capital in six rounds from investors such as Norwest Venture Partners, Advanced Technology Ventures, and Invesco. As with most technology startups it had operating losses for 1997, 1998, and 1999.^[18]

David R. Ellett replaced Wynn as Chief Executive in July 1998 on the cusp of the dot-com bubble. Despite the market's broader resistance to technology and internet-related business, in 2000 Docent filed for IPO Initial Public Offering and went public on NASDAQ on September 29, raising approximately $85 million in the process.^[20]

Later, Docent acquired gForce Systems in October 2001 for $5.3 million, which included about $4.7 million in debts and liabilities. Following the years of operating losses, R. Andrew Eckert joined as President in December 2001 and ultimately replaced Ellett as Chief Executive in April 2002.^[21]

After growing to over 200 employees at the time of the IPO, by 2002 the company had reduced its staff by 20% to cut costs.^[22]

SumTotal Systems

In 2003 click2learn (formerly Asymetrix) and Docent announced intentions to merge. click2learn's shareholders received slightly more than half of the stock in the merged company.^[23][24] The merger completed in 2004,.^[25] The combined company was named SumTotal Systems and continues to this day to be headquartered in Gainesville, Florida. At the time of the merger, click2learn employed over 300 people, 100 of which in Hyderabad, India and Docent employed an additional 170.^[23][26]

The combined company became Hockey Merger Corporation in February 2004 while a new name was planned.^[27] On March 18, 2004, the new name SumTotal Systems was announced for the combined company.^[28] 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).^[28]

In October 2005, SumTotal acquired Pathlore, a mid-market learning management systems company which had expertise in state and local government and healthcare. Pathlore enables SumTotal to expand its reach to mid-market clients.^[29] In 2006 SumTotal acquired privately owned software company MindSolve Technologies, founded in 1994, for about $12 million. Mindsolve was an innovative provider of performance management software, giving SumTotal expertise in this emerging market.^[30]

In May 2009 Vista Equity Partners, the largest software-only private equity fund, agreed to acquire SumTotal for $160 million and closed the transaction in July 2009.^[31][32]

CyberShift

The latest of SumTotal's acquisitions occurred in July 2011 with CyberShift, a Parsippany, NJ software company pioneering SaaS multitenancy workforce management and expense solutions, coupled with the acquisition of Accero, a large-enterprise payroll and benefits solution provider.^[33] These two companies rounded-out SumTotal's broader solution by adding the employee time and attendance, absence management, scheduling and payroll processing elements to their end-to-end employee life-cycle management solution. At the time of the acquisition, CyberShift's 1000 customers grew SumTotal's customer base to more than 3400 while boosting the company's employee population to more than 1000.^[34]

SkillSoft

In September 2014, SumTotal was acquired by SkillSoft, a leading provider of online learning to corporate training organizations.^[35]

Awards

• SumTotal elixHR named Top HR Product of 2013 ^[36]
• 2013 Best of Elearning! Awards in Four Categories - Best Learning Management System (Enterprise), Best HR Solution, Best Simulation Tool, Best Development Tool ^[37]
• 2013 Gold Brandon Hall Group Excellence Award for Extended Enterprise Learning in conjunction with USA Funds ^[38]
• Leader in Forrester Research Inc.’s Talent Management Wave ^[39]
• Excellence in Talent Management Initiatives, Asia's Best Employer Brand Awards^[40] 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.^[41]
• Leaders Quadrant by Gartner, Inc.^[42]
• Software as a service for talent development, ResultsOnDemand, placed on KMWorld's Trend-Setting Product List of 2009.^[43]
• 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.^[44]
• 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.^[45]
• Top 20 most popular software solutions for both LMS and Talent Management Software.^[46][47]

References