SumTotal Systems, the largest provider of learning and business performance technologies and services, along with its team member, Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC), today announced that the Defense Acquisition University (DAU), a university of the Department of Defense (DoD), has chosen SumTotal’s TotalLCMS to enhance personnel training offerings and accelerate readiness for more than 135,000 personnel in the DoD’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) workforce. The contract was awarded through a competitive selection process.

AT&L is responsible for advising the Secretary of Defense on all matters pertaining to the Department of Defense’s acquisition process; research and development; advanced technology; test and evaluation; production; logistics; military construction; procurement; economic security; and atomic energy. DAU’s mission is to provide a wide array of learning opportunities for AT&L personnel, delivered at the right location and time of need. These training resources include certification, continuous learning, performance support and knowledge sharing — all designed to better enable the AT&L workforce to perform its critical support role.

One of the central goals of DAU’s strategy is to give personnel more control over their career-long learning solutions. To that end, it has created an overarching learning strategy — the AT&L Performance Learning Model — transforming the concept of learning beyond the course itself to provide solutions for critical on-the-job needs. SumTotal’s learning content management system, TotalLCMS, will help drive the aggressive performance support, targeted training and applied research programs DAU has instituted as part of the AT&L Performance Model.

“The Defense Acquisition University is the one institution that touches virtually every member of the AT&L workforce throughout all professional career stages. It is crucial that we provide them with the right resources to ready them for current and future responsibilities,” said Frank Anderson, president of Defense Acquisition University. “Implementing SumTotal’s solution is part of DAU’s commitment to a new learning paradigm that shifted our focus from the traditional classroom of the 20th century to the total learning environment of the 21st century.”

DAU will use TotalLCMS to increase the overall efficiency of its learning operations and to address initiatives, including:
Modernizing its current learning infrastructure

Improving creation, management, update, use and reuse of all of the university’s knowledge assets

Adding powerful technical resources to expand current offerings and to add a new range of learning approaches, such as collaboration, facilitated on-line learning, blended learning programs and competency-based, adaptive techniques

Decreasing the time to market of new development courseware

Increasing the ease of migration of legacy courseware and learning assets onto the new system
“The US military and its operations around the world would be literally paralyzed without an exceptionally prepared and coordinated AT&L organization, a challenge made greater by the sheer size and geographic range of its workforce,” said R. Andrew Eckert, SumTotal CEO. “DAU has established one of the broadest, most ambitious learning initiatives we’ve seen in order to meet the readiness and career-development needs of these critical personnel. The SumTotal Suite’s flexibility and scalability make it an ideal solution for the scope of DAU’s current and future programs. We are proud to play such an integral role in helping it achieve its important mission.”