Columbus, Ohio — September 30, 2003 — Pathlore Software Corporation said today that the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) has bought Pathlore’s learning-management system (LMS). The LMS delivers, tracks and reports on training distributed over the Internet.

“We have more than two dozen databases holding our employees’ training records, so our goal is to consolidate all of the training activities and records in one location with the LMS,” said Noble Morrell, training manager at KDOT. “Once that’s accomplished, we can apply the learning-management systems’ analytical tools to pinpoint what people need to know.”

Heretofore, KDOT hasn’t measured this sort of thing. Adding to that challenge is a workforce spread across six district offices, 26 area offices and 112 sub-area offices. But, KDOT sees the Ohio software maker’s product as a way to appraise the training workers take. With the LMS’s analytical tools, KDOT can measure, for example, what percentage of the agency’s equipment operators have met their safety and technical training requirements. And the Kansas agency will draw on Pathlore’s wares to track certifications for employees such as equipment operators, surveyors and engineering technicians. The state agency will also use the LMS to send courses via the Internet to transportation workers in field offices across Kansas.

“If we’re teaching someone to read a core sample from a section of road, then we also want to know how well they understand the process,” Morrell adds. “The LMS lets us analyze the effectiveness of training.”

And while Kansas is becoming a leader in tackling this sort of thing, it isn’t the only U.S. state concerned about delivering value. Indeed, market researchers at IDC state in a 2003 e-learning forecast that “doing more with less is a mantra of state and local governments, which are increasingly required to deliver much higher levels of constituent service with fewer personnel resources.”

“To justify the cost of training, HR executives are looking to provide management with the analytical information that highlights the results of online and classroom instruction,” said Michael Brennan, a program manager at IDC. “Pathlore’s products include these features as part of the software’s standard architecture; the company’s plainspoken description of its product often belies the power.”

“KDOT will be taking full advantage of the Pathlore LMS Analytics feature that our customers have used for years,” said Leonard Greenberg, chief technology officer at Pathlore Software Corporation. “Assessing the business value of education is part of what customers should expect from any LMS.”

The agency’s 3,100 employees care for the state’s transportation infrastructure, including roads and bridges. KDOT carries out transportation studies, too. Along with maintenance and planning, the Kansas agency inspects the work of numerous contractors at several hundred worksites across the state.

Pathlore also serves the state departments of transportation in Arizona, Arkansas, Minnesota and Missouri as well as the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

About Pathlore
Founded in 1995, Columbus, Ohio-headquartered Pathlore develops software that manages, tracks, and reports on corporate training. Customers use Pathlore's products to increase sales, comply with government regulations, and adhere to quality initiatives. The privately held company’s client roster includes Delta Air Lines, NEC America Inc., Novartis, PNC Bank, Southwest Airlines, more than 100 hospitals and health care providers, and government agencies in more than 30 states including California, Ohio, and Texas. Pathlore also has offices in Australia, Italy, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. For more information, go to http://www.pathlore.com.