USDA DEPLOYS MGEN'S LATEST LEARNING, KNOWLEDGE AND HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT SOLUTION

-- USDA to Provide Personnel With a Variety of Knowledge Asset Applications to Streamline Business Processes and Reduce Training Expenses --

Foxborough, MA - May 7, 2002 - mGen, Inc. today announced the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has deployed mGen Enterprise 3.0, the newest version of mGen's learning, knowledge and human capital management solution. mGen Enterprise integrates knowledge asset applications, including training, news and information, knowledge communities, organizational knowledge management and human capital management.

The USDA purchased the new version of mGen Enterprise to deliver several critical features to the organization: compliance with all government-related standards; the ability to function across several layers of administration in large, dispersed organizations; and the ability to create an integrated environment of learning, human capital management and information sharing. Using mGen Enterprise, the USDA can now deliver training and communications materials to, and share intellectual capital with, 110,000 employees and, eventually, public/private sector clients across the U.S.

"As a partner of mGen's, we are extremely excited by the opportunities mGen Enterprise has presented," said David Vennell, USDA, Office of Communications, USDA On-Line University Administrator. "With the new version, we can link the various agencies of the USDA under one standards-compliant platform and leverage content across agency boundaries, reducing the amount of duplicate courseware. This will allow us to reduce costs and develop more content and courses to the employees and public/private sector clients that make up the USDA."

The USDA has already achieved great success with the mGen Enterprise platform. With the help of mGen, the USDA created and hosted agency-specific courseware for dairy brokers and producers participating in the Dairy Options Pilot Program. Vennell added, "The dairy brokers and producers were given the option to take the certification program either in a traditional classroom or online via mGen Enterprise. Initially, I thought we would get a 10 percent response to the online program. However, 100 percent of the participating dairy brokers and producers opted to take the certification program online. The program has been a complete success, as 100 percent of the participating brokers and dairy producers have been certified using the mGen system. We are now positioned to begin the roll-out of the second phase of this training and expect the same successful results.

With the new advanced features of mGen Enterprise, the USDA can provide greater internal and external service to its personnel and farmers. While the USDA will continue to develop and host its own courseware, it now has the option to use third-party courseware and integrate it easily into the system due to mGen's compliance with standards, such as SCORM and AICC. This provides greater flexibility for the USDA to choose specific, compliant content that will quickly and cost-effectively achieve the mission goals for each respective agency.

In addition, it is critical that each USDA trainer has the capacity to manage content and information within each of the 20-plus internal agencies. mGen Enterprise enables the USDA to deploy multiple administrators, so content specifically addresses each agency. Finally, the ability to integrate the USDA's human resource databases with mGen Enterprise will enable the organization to apply personnel knowledge to portions of the system, including learning management and the news and information portal. By providing this compatibility, management will have a stronger grasp of the intellectual capital contained within their organizations.

"The USDA is a complex organization that must fulfill a variety of missions," said Jack Battersby, CEO and president of mGen. "mGen Enterprise is an ideal solution for large organizations, such as the USDA, that need to develop a variety of content and at the same time, leverage the knowledge assets already contained in each agency. In the case of the USDA, we enable trainers to do what they are paid to do - train. We provide the tools that enable organizations to participate in a truly blended learning environment and expand according to their needs."

Christine Boyle
Director, Corporate Marketing
508.549.0970
christine.boyle@mgen.com