contact:

Brian McNamara
Hawthorne Associates
(978) 745-4878
brian@hawthorneassociates.com

Editorial Resources:

• Maritz Learning Press Kit (PDF, 621 KB)
• About Brian Carlin, President of Maritz Learning
• Press Release: Maritz Learning's Librix® Performance Management System Earns AICC Certification(09/23/03)
• Press Release: Maritz Learning and Minolta Corporation Partner To Train 6,500 Technicians (1/07/03)
• Press Release: Maritz Learning Joins Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers as Silver Sponsor (9/23/02)
• Press Release: Maritz Learning Begins Fiscal Year With Host of New Customer Agreements (9/05/02)
• Press Release: Maritz Learning Provides Learning Content and Management for Lockheed Martin (5/21/02)
  
• Press Release: Maritz Learning Launches Enhanced LMS(4/09/02)
• Press Release: Maritz Names Division VP and Maritz Learning Director of Product Development (3/14/02)
• Press Release: Maritz Announces Launch of Maritz Learning (11/27/01)
• Press Release: Maritz Announces New Management Team (11/29/01)
• Press Release: Maritz Acquires Librix Learning (10/1/01)

Minolta Corporation Partners with Maritz Learning To Train 6,500 Business Products Technicians

Improved Speed-to-Market, Lower Costs Earn Minolta Corporate University Best In Class (CUBIC) Award

January 7, 2003

Fenton, MO -- Over the past three years, Minolta Corporation's Business Products Group has worked closely with Maritz Learning, a leading provider of custom training, e-learning and performance management solutions, to improve the way it trains its service technicians. The results - an enhanced learning process, heightened product training participation, lower costs and improved speed-to-market - garnered Minolta an honorable mention award in the Best Virtual University/Best Use of Technology category of the Corporate University Best in Class (CUBIC) awards last month.

"We value our strategic partnership with Minolta, and we congratulate them on their recent CUBIC award," said Brian Carlin, President of Maritz Learning. "We believe the program has been successful because Minolta embraced e-learning technology not simply as an instructional tool, but for the strategic role it could play in reaching out to its dealer network, improving technician performance and ultimately enhancing customer loyalty and sales."

"We're proud that our program has been recognized by CUBIC as a 'best practice'," commented Jon Reardon, Vice President and General Manager of Minolta's Product and Technical Support Division. "Maritz Learning's blended learning expertise and its LIBRIX technology have played a vital role in our program's success. We look forward to continually improving upon the program's success by meeting the needs of our dealer network and contributing to Minolta's competitiveness in the business products industry."

Minolta worked with Maritz Learning to develop key components of its 'best practice' learning initiative, including the deployment of Maritz's LIBRIX Performance Management System™ for web-based management and delivery of its product training. Minolta's best practices achieved these important results:

• Classroom training events are 20-40% shorter, cutting training expenses and reducing the time technicians spend out of the field. Minolta's blended learning program uses online modules as prerequisites to teach the fundamentals and basic product knowledge essential to making the subsequent hands-on training in the classroom more productive.
• Training is better aligned with the product development cycle. The new program has brought more technicians up-to-speed on new products faster, so trained technicians are available at the time of product launch rather than months afterward. Reardon's group rapidly deploys classroom learning to train "early learners" while simultaneously developing e-learning modules to share new product knowledge across the entire network of technicians.
• Faster more extensive certification process with reduced administrative staffing requirements as a result of the automated, web-enabled assessment process - a key feature of Maritz Learning's LIBRIX system.
• Cost savings from reducing the number of fully-staffed training centers from five to three.

Over 40 leading organizations worldwide applied to HRevents' CUBIC Awards. The Best Virtual University/Best Use of Technology category recognized best practices using technology to stimulate the learning process, increase participant involvement, customize the learning experience and improve overall bottom line performance.

Building Upon Success

Building upon its current success, Minolta has again embarked on an important transition in its technical training program - this time moving from a product-centric curriculum to a "theory-based" approach - a curriculum that maps to a set of competencies specific to technicians at Minolta and industry-wide. In addition to improving the learning process, the theory-based approach is aimed at reducing costly employee turnover by establishing individual development plans with clearer career progression tracks. Maritz Learning's LIBRIX technology, highly regarded for its competency management capabilities, will play a critical role in this next phase of the training program development.

In addition to moving to a theory-based training curriculum, Minolta is also working with Maritz Learning on integrating an incentives and motivation program - a core competency of the Maritz organization for more than 70 years. "Training's role of developing competence is a critical part of individual and organizational performance improvement, but it's really only one piece of the puzzle," Brian Carlin said. "Integrating rewards and incentives into a learning program helps employees attain a high level of both proficiency and motivation - what we call 'Energized CompetenceSM' - and ultimately translates into improved bottom line performance."

About Maritz Learning
Maritz Learning designs and delivers engaging, high-impact training and development programs to improve the business performance of sales and service organizations. Maritz Learning's systematic approach to performance improvement integrates traditional training techniques, state-of-the-art e-learning content and industry-leading learning and competency management technologies with incentives, rewards and recognition initiatives to drive bottom-line results. As a business unit of Maritz Inc., Maritz Learning draws from decades of experience in helping businesses worldwide improve business and employee performance in critical areas such as sales, marketing, product launches and customer satisfaction by influencing the behavior of employees, channel partners and customers.

Customers turn to Maritz Learning for: expertise in e-learning content development; custom development of instructor-led, video and CD-ROM training; proven leadership in providing incentive and reward programs; as well as a comprehensive learning management system, complete with authoring, competency management, prescriptive learning and skills assessment tools. Maritz Learning's clients include Anheuser-Busch, A.G. Edwards & Sons, Nabisco, HON Industries, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Panasonic, Minolta and the National Restaurant Association.

About Maritz
Maritz Inc., which ranked 157th on the most recent Forbes list of "500 Biggest Private Companies," is based in the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, MO. Maritz offers marketing research, travel, and performance improvement services, which are delivered through 18 operating companies located in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Further information can be found at www.maritz.com.

Maritz(r) and the Maritz logo are registered service marks of Maritz Inc.