According to the recent “Learning Management Systems 2008: Facts, Practical Analysis, Trends, and Vendor Profiles” report from Bersin & Associates, “Organizations with well-implemented learning management systems see 25 percent to 35 percent improvements in effectiveness and efficiency.”

With operations in more than 25 countries, Swiss Re takes a proactive approach to aligning its expectations and interests with those of its stakeholders and continues to conduct benchmarking and implementation of best practice standards. Swiss Re is using Plateau Learning to manage the training and assessments its regionally dispersed employees so that they can meet these company standards.

“One of our greatest challenges is building an efficient and productive global organization with such a diversified and dispersed workforce,” said Hanspeter Brunner, Head Swiss Re Academy. “Plateau delivers a comprehensive and uniform solution for training and assessing the competency of all of our employees. We will have a centralized view of our entire worldwide employee base, so that we can assess the strength of our organization and address areas where we may need to improve the breadth and depth of our expertise.”

With Plateau Learning, Swiss Re will be able to customize system access and trainings to specific job families, so that managers have the flexibility to either designate attendees or allow open enrollment for certain training courses. To support Swiss Re's global workforce and regional compliance efforts, including Sarbanes-Oxley and eCode, Plateau delivers specialized distance learning programs. These online programs can be either pushed directly to or proactively accessed by the employee, and for the most critical trainings users receive automatic reminders as the completion deadlines approach.

Providing a single, consolidated source for Swiss Re's user information and data, Plateau Learning will manage all aspects of employee training from course enrollment, approval, and delivery to reporting. With Plateau's intuitive user interface and graphical reporting capabilities, managers can monitor employees' course progress from start through completion and assess employees' skills against pre-defined competencies. It also delivers job family-specific views into Learning Curricula so that all users can view predefined required and recommended trainings for their specific job.

“Recognized worldwide as a leading provider of financial services products, Swiss Re must comply with strict governance regulations as well as handle volatile and ever-changing markets, and Plateau provides the platform for ensuring that all employees are trained and evaluated to support the company's business and growth objectives,” said Paul Sparta, Chairman and CEO of Plateau. “As Plateau expands our presence in EMEA, Swiss Re joins the ranks of other global enterprises that turn to Plateau's leading Talent Management solutions to address the needs of all its workers and regional offices throughout its European headquarters and 25 countries around the world.”

Swiss Re- Swiss Re is the world's leading and most diversified global reinsurer. The company operates through offices in over 25 countries. Founded in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1863, Swiss Re offers financial services products that enable the risk-taking essential to enterprise and progress. The company's traditional reinsurance products and related services for property and casualty, as well as the life and health business are complemented by insurance-based corporate finance solutions and supplementary services for comprehensive risk management. Swiss Re is rated “AA-” by Standard & Poor's, “Aa2” by Moody's and “A+” by A.M. Best.

Plateau- Plateau is a leading provider of talent management software, content and services designed to increase workforce productivity and drive business success. Plateau's award-winning software is powering talent management initiatives across some of the world's most successful organizations, including the American Red Cross, General Electric, the Internal Revenue Service, Capital One Services and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Industry analysts at Bersin & Associates, Forrester Research and other leading information and technology research and advisory firms continue to recognize Plateau's leadership in delivering best-in-class functionality, technology and customer satisfaction. Plateau is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with offices across the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.Plateau.com.