StepStone Announces a Solid Start to Q3

Continued demand for StepStone's Talent Management Solutions and talent communities across all markets

StepStone, a leading global provider of total talent solutions, today announced that Q3 is progressing in line with its expectations. Solutions continued to report a steady flow of new and renewal customers in all territories. Meanwhile, StepStone's online business is exiting the slower holiday months of July and August and entering September, a key indicator for demand over the coming months. Progress has been underpinned by the company's European leadership position in the growing market for software solutions for talent attraction and development.

Colin Tenwick, CEO of StepStone, commented: "We have been encouraged by our progress over the summer period. We continue to invest in developing market leading capabilities by capitalising on our expertise across Online and Solutions. In addition, our global up-selling strategy is continuing to achieve some notable successes."

- During the summer months of July and August Solutions contracted with 30 new customers and up-sold to 50 existing customers

- New and renewing customers during Q3 include Group 4 (Belgium), Lidl (Austria), Camden Council (UK), Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Post and ThyssenKrupp (Germany), Movenpick (Switzerland), McDonald's (France), and Deloitte (Denmark)

- Increasing demand in emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Asia, has led to StepStone signing contracts with Roca (Russia), Mobile TeleSystems (Ukraine), Japanese Tobacco International, ICBC (China) and Neo Derm (Hong Kong)

- Continued growth in the US, driven by successful up-selling to StepStone's multinational customer base. Customers secured during the quarter include Schering-Plough, Case New Holland and Gerber

- StepStone became the number one job board in Germany in terms of traffic entering Q3, with the highest number of unique visitors, almost 1.4 million visitors during July (source: Nielsen)

- A significant combined Online / Solutions contract with Aviva, the global insurance group. This will see StepStone provide a branded internal jobs board, developed by its Online business, which will interface with Aviva's existing implementation of StepStone's e‑recruitment solution

- Growing online business in France, following the acquisition of Les Villages Emploi (LVE), a network of niche job boards.

Tenwick continued: "We are pleased with the progress to date in the third quarter. We continue to acquire new customers, upsell to existing customers and strengthen our position in the growing market for software solutions. We also continue to increase market share in a number of the Online markets in which we operate.

"Customer contracting patterns over the final months of a year have traditionally been a good indicator of expectation for the coming year and we will watch their development closely. At this stage of the quarter the market is moving as expected and the company continues to deliver in line with its plans."

StepStone will announce its results for Q3 2008 on 23 October.

Total Talent Management Software by StepStone Solutions