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Today we’re really excited to announce that Litmos has been acquired by Callidus Software Inc (NASDAQ: CALD) a premier SaaS company in the US!
Rich Chetwynd our founder & CEO had this to say;
“We are excited to join the Callidus family of SaaS solutions and look forward to continuing to innovate our product to deliver the best online learning system on the market, Callidus global coverage, dedication to SaaS, and operational maturity will allow us to be even more effective in delivering outstanding customer service and innovative solutions to our growing base of satisfied customers. With half of our clients in the United States, Callidus is the perfect environment to nurture our future growth in the rapid LMS and Mobile Learning markets.”
So will anything change?
Well you can rest assured that the same friendly team will be running the show, but one big change is that the core Litmos team will be relocating from Auckland, New Zealand to San Francisco, USA. This is awesome news as it’s going to make it soooooo much easier for us to support our growing US customer base and also make it really easy for us to attend lots more of the industry events to hang out with our elearning buddies. Callidus also has a global reach meaning more people on the ground in more countries which is a big win for our customers in New Zealand, Australia, and Europe.
Finally, with the backing of a strong SaaS company like Callidus we will have the ability to grow the team which, other than just making it an even more fun place to work :-), will also result in faster development times for many of the new features that we want to build into Litmos for you.
We can’t wait to work with the smart minds at Callidus and continue to innovate in the mobile and learning management system space.
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While some of the Litmos team were up in the US attending mLearnCon, others were back down in New Zealand accepting a TUANZ finalist award!
We’re proud to say that the Litmos LMS was selected as a finalist in the Education category of the 2010 TUANZ awards (that’s the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand, in case you wondered). Dan Allen of Litmos is shown in the photo (center) accepting our finalist award.
We’re up against a couple of heavy hitters – Kiwibank and CWA New Media – so we definitely have our work cut out for us, but we’re confident that we have as good a chance as anyone!
The winner will be chosen following a short presentation by each finalist to a judging panel, and announced at another black tie event at the Langham Hotel in Auckland on September 2nd 2010.
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Last night the finalists for the 2010 NZ Hi-Tech Awards were announced and we are extremely proud to say that Litmos is among four companies who made it to the finals in the Innovative Service category! Just for making the finals we get that cool badge on the right that we can now use all over the place.
The next step from here is to present to a panel of International judges in about 2 weeks time, then the winners of each category will be announced at a gala dinner on the 7th of May. Here’s a blurb from the Hi-Tech Awards website on what’s in store for us:
“Finalists in most categories will now undergo face-to-face judging from a line up of local judges as well as being scrutinised by the global panel of international judges including Michael Dell, the founder of Dell computers, Howard Charney, senior vice president of Cisco, and Andy Lark (vice-president of global marketing at Dell). Pat Kenealy, who runs IDG Ventures, Richard Keyse, the chair of the NZTE Beachheads Europe, and Vernon Turner, senior vice president of IDC Research are also on the elite judging panel.”
We’re so excited to have the opportunity to introduce Litmos to such an all-star panel and know we have our work cut out getting ready for that presentation. Our goal has always been to create an intuitive, fresh and easy-to-navigate Learning Management System (LMS) that people really love to use. This is definitely a step in the right direction towards achieving that goal!
For more information on the Hi-Tech Awards see this article from Computerworld.
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In a continuing effort to provide a premium service, Litmos has now officially adopted the SCORM standard in its popular Learning Management System (LMS). This strategic development in response to industry demand will further increase the adoption of Litmos by large national and international customers.
Rich Chetwynd, Founder of Litmos Limited, said: “Litmos has been independently tested and certified on March 9, 2010 as SCORM 1.2-compliant. Tests were conducted by Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL), an Initiative which comes out of the Office of the United States Secretary of Defense.”
What is SCORM
SCORM stands for “Sharable Content Object Reference Model” and is a set of technical standards developed for web-based eLearning products. The standard enables interoperability between eLearning software products and specifically, the model determines how client side learning content and LMSs communicate with each other.
SCORM 1.2 and Litmos
SCORM 1.2 is one version of the eLearning software standard that has evolved since 2000. There are currently 3 versions with the latest one offering a few different editions. Released in October 2001, SCORM 1.2 is the most common and widely adopted version in use today and will remain to be for many years to come.
The new SCORM module is available to all Litmos customers at no additional cost. The core benefit of SCORM is interoperability between other eLearning software products and Litmos. For example, the new module enables content developed in eLearning authoring tools such as Articulate and Adobe Captivate to be shared with learners via the Litmos LMS.
About Litmos
Established in 2007, Litmos Limited is an energetic New Zealand-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company focussed on re-inventing the Learning Management System. With a continued emphasis on usability and keeping it simple, Litmos was designed to help large organizations deploy and track self-paced corporate online training programs. The Litmos LMS is currently used and loved by a growing number of companies all over the world.
About ADL
ADL was established in 1997 to standardize and modernize the delivery of training and education. The Department of Defense (DoD) Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (OUSD P&R) oversees the ADL Initiative. The vision of the ADL Initiative is to provide access to the highest-quality learning and performance aiding that can be tailored to individual needs and delivered cost-effectively, anytime and anywhere. The ADL Initiative developed the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM®) and the ADL Registry.
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The last few months have seen New Zealand-based software company Litmos pushing their online training product to new heights.
Litmos, an online platform that enables trainers to deliver web-based courses, has been on the market for over two years, but never before have they received the kind of attention as in the past 6 months. Customer numbers look to be on an exponential increase as companies scramble to save dollars by moving to hosted online services.
CEO Rich Chetwynd says “It’s amazing how quickly the connection has been made between moving training online and dramatically reducing training and development costs. Classroom-based courses are a thing of the past; the future is blended learning and online training”.
Litmos has just released a brand new website along with Version 3.0 of their training platform which has a fresh new look and feel. A more intuitive interface, new audio modules, easy bulk trainee set up and course assignment are just some of the improvements you can expect to see. Litmos continues to offer companies a way to save money, but also now enables individuals to sell their courses and create an additional revenue stream. Chetwynd says “In this recessive market, any business that offers people a way to reduce costs and make money is definitely in a win-win situation.”
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A move to online training two years ago had already cut costs and resulted in major efficiency gains for New Zealand’s largest privately owned outsource call centre, Telnet.
But as part of a recent upgrade to its Exchange Server, Telnet moved a group of employees who didn’t need external facing email, from Microsoft Exchange to the messaging system within their online training product Litmos, resulting in significant benefits to the company.
Telnet’s IT Manager, Steve Hennerley says “By switching a number of email users to Litmos we have made a cash saving of NZD$12,500. We’ve also reduced risk to the business by limiting the number of staff who have the ability to send and receive personal emails through the company’s email server”.
Rich Chetwynd, CEO of Auckland-based on-line training specialists Litmos, the company which designed Telnet’s training system, said more companies every day were beginning to appreciate the huge benefits of an integrated on-line training product.
“We have designed a system that cuts costs, is easy to use, and can be readily adapted to the needs of each individual organisation. It is faster and cheaper to implement than systems from our competitors overseas.”
“As a result, the demand for Litmos is increasing as organisations look to improve productivity and save money.”
