OutStart, the leading provider of software solutions for learning and knowledge-sharing, today announced a series of 2004 financial, product and business highlights. The company is now well positioned as the only vendor with the resources and solutions required to meet the breadth of learning and knowledge sharing requirements for higher proficiency and productivity across an organization.
Highlights for 2004 include:
Increased customer orders in 2004 by 37 percent over 2003.
Backlog up 50 percent
Customer base grew to more than 600
Expanded the management team with seasoned executives who have 100 years of combined experience and proven track records in rapidly growing, leading companies. New team members include:
Peter Nicol – Vice President of Europe, Middle East and Africa
Steve Henkels – Vice President, Engineering
Jeff Whitney – Vice President, Marketing
Tom Higgins, Executive Vice President, Sales Americas
Acquired Quelsys, Inc. and Participate Systems and successfully integrated both solutions into its product suite, adding capabilities for proficiency measurement and knowledge sharing. As a result, OutStart is able to address the way people truly learn by combining formal training, knowledge sharing and expert collaboration, while making this information available on-demand.
Grew the customer base to more than 600 including major government organizations and global 2000 companies that span multiple vertical markets. These organizations include: Audi, the USDA, the Gillette Company, Ruby Tuesday, CUTech, Family Dollar, and many more.
Recognized as a visionary by leading analyst firm, Gartner. Evolution LMS also recognized by Brandon-hall.com as an ideal learner management solution for small and medium sized companies, based on functionality and cost effectiveness.
Evolution, the company’s award-winning learning application achieves SCORM 1.2 compliance, providing a comprehensive suite of e-learning capabilities that enable interoperability, accessibility and reusability of Web-based learning content.
Formalized a worldwide partnership with PeopleSoft/Oracle, and significantly increased the company’s global reach, signing partners in the UK, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, and South Africa.
“2004 proved to be an extremely productive year for OutStart as we met our financial goals and successfully completed two acquisitions. The resulting products from OutStart and these acquisitions comprise the full solution that we chartered back in 2001,” said Massood Zarrabian, president and CEO of OutStart. “We also expanded our business with existing customers, grew our customer base to more than 600 and strengthened our management team with seasoned professionals that will help us continue to build a world class organization.”
“Over the last several years, OutStart has distinguished itself by providing innovative solutions that improve our customers’ business. These customers have reaffirmed our value by continuing to invest in our new and complementary products and by serving as strong references for us,” said Dan Kossmann, OutStart’s chief financial officer. “Layering the additional products, customers and executives onto this foundation has us very optimistic about our results in 2005 and beyond.”
About OutStart
OutStart software powers solutions that help make people more effective in a fraction of the time and cost. Unlike traditional training or knowledge management approaches that take too long, cost too much and fail to address the entire need, OutStart’s applications address the way people learn through a combination of formal training, knowledge sharing and expert collaboration that is available on-demand. Customers like Empire BlueCross BlueShield, Cisco Systems, Steelcase, the U.S. Navy, Verizon, and Westland Helicopters rely on OutStart to increase individual and organizational performance, improve knowledge transfer, and lower operating costs. Headquartered in Boston, Mass., OutStart has offices throughout the US and Europe and can be found on the Web at www.outstart.com.
