80 Percent of Organizations Surveyed Plan to Advance Learning Programs in 2005 80 Percent of Organizations Surveyed Plan to Advance Learning Programs in 2005: "Eighty-four percent of Fortune 1000 and government organizations recently surveyed by THINQ Learning Solutions, Inc. have plans to invest in their knowledge management systems over the next 18 months, moving to the next stage on THINQ's Learning Management Maturity Model(TM) (LM3) as part of that investment. Competency management and performance management will be areas of focus for the coming year. When asked to choose all relevant areas for investment from a list, a majority of respondents indicated that they planned to concentrate their investments in competency management (56%) and/or performance management (53%) applications. Respondents also planned to invest in Testing & Assessment (42%), Learning Management System (LMS) (40%), E- learning Content (33%) as well as Virtual Classroom and Learning Content Management System (LCMS) applications (both 30%), among others. About the LM3 THINQ LM3 is a representative model of five (5) evolutionary stages that organizations transcend in reaching their stated learning management strategies, from ad hoc to an optimized workforce. Each stage of LM3 is defined by an organization's level of engagement in nine core learning elements, including: * Program strategy & design * Learning management systems * Content management systems * Testing and assessment * Collaboration * Competency management * Performance management * Knowledge management * Change leadership. In Stage One, as few as three of these elements are engaged and being utilized to drive business value. Comparatively, Stage V organizations are running on all cylinders and driving maximum business value from their learning programs. Of those companies surveyed, 51% identified themselves as currently functioning at Stage Two of the LM3 -- Managed Learning, in which an organization has adopted both a consistent approach to learning as well as learning software applications and other technology investments to centralize information. Within twelve to 18 months, 49% anticipated that their investments would advance their learning initiatives to Stage Three -- Competency-Driven, in which learning technologies begin tying into other enterprise applications, such as ERP systems, and sharing information to build and maintain a learning culture. 'It's gratifying to see so many organizations moving along the learning continuum,' said Ray Maskell, CEO, THINQ Learning Solutions. 'Based on our customers' experiences, and the responses we've gotten from a broad range of organizations, we believe that the next 12 to 18 months will be an exciting period as learning organizations continue to mature. We're looking forward to working with our customers as they continue to tie learning to business objectives.' THINQ surveyed a group of Fortune 1000 and government organizations, including customers and other organizations. These included organizations in the financial and health services sectors as well as government and defense. More information, including complete survey results, is available online at http://www.thinq.com/lm3survey/."  ¶ 07:15