SumTotal? Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUMT), the largest provider of talent, learning and business performance technologies and services, said today that Arlington, Va.-based Pearson Government Solutions has deployed SumTotal Enterprise Suite 7.1 software to manage training for 3,000 customer service representatives (CSRs) who staff the 1-800-MEDICARE Helpline. Pearson Government Solutions manages the nationwide telephone line on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to help beneficiaries with their questions about Medicare and their Medicare health plans.

Specifically, Pearson uses SumTotal Enterprise Suite 7.1 to deliver online training to CSRs who field calls on topics such as Medicare's prescription drug coverage plan. SumTotal's software will also assess how well the CSRs have mastered instruction on a particular topic, as CSRs must meet a high level of proficiency on a weekly basis across a number of subject areas. With SumTotal's talent-management software, Pearson can assess each CSR's performance.

"Measuring our representatives' performance is critical to success, but we also want to capture institutional knowledge and disseminate that quickly to our customer service representatives," said Mike Bowers, senior vice president and general manager of Pearson Government Solutions' Health division. "SumTotal's TotalCollaboration product gives us an easy way to capture knowledge from our company experts, and transfer this knowledge for future reference."

TotalCollaboration enables Pearson's CSRs to get answers from company experts via threaded discussions and instant messaging. According to Bowers, the system from SumTotal will boost the 1-800-MEDICARE Helpline staff's productivity and knowledge.

"Pearson has a reputation for delivering superior service to federal government agencies," said Don Fowler, chief executive of SumTotal. "We're pleased that they have chosen to work with SumTotal's Government Solutions group to serve not only the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, but also the American public."

For more information about SumTotal's products and services, visit www.sumtotalsystems.com.