Starwood Hotels & Resorts Upgrades Global Learning System with Cornerstone OnDemand

Cornerstone OnDemand Inc., a leader in on-demand, integrated talent management software and services, today announced that Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: HOT), one of the world’s largest hotel and leisure companies, will use Cornerstone’s learning and development platform, Cornerstone Learning, to train and develop its employees around the globe.

Starwood owns and manages 900 properties in more than 100 countries under internationally renowned brands such as W®, Westin®, Le Meridien®, Sheraton® and St. Regis®, among others. The initial launch of Cornerstone Learning will include 75,000 users, representing nearly half of the company’s 155,000 global employee base.

Starwood’s dedication to meeting and exceeding the expectations of its customers has earned superior ratings from hotel guests and industry trades. To maintain its high quality standards, the company not only counts "knowledge and growth through learning" among its core values, it also is committed to increasing operational efficiencies through the use of technology.

After encountering issues with its on-premise learning management system (LMS), Starwood’s learning and development team sought a more flexible, scalable and user-friendly solution for training and developing its talent.

"As an international organisation, employee learning initiatives are essential to helping Starwood maintain consistency in service and guest experience at all of our properties," said Allison Barber, Vice President of Talent Management for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.

"By using Cornerstone, we are able be more strategic in configuring our learning management system to support our overall business goals and create efficiencies within the organisation. The blend of different course styles, as well as the on-demand access, also allows us to target learners more specifically versus taking a one-size-fits-all approach."

Cornerstone offers a true Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) on-demand solution, making it a faster and more efficient way for Starwood to deploy, manage and maintain its LMS system. It also means the company won’t have to deal with the hassles of version upgrades, maintenance and hardware/IT costs.

"We are thrilled to add an impressive organisation such as Starwood Hotels & Resorts to our expanding list of global clients," said Adam Miller, President and CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand.

"Learning and development programs are essential in helping companies in the service industry maintain brand consistency and customer loyalty. And by taking advantage of Cornerstone’s SaaS delivery model, Starwood will be able to roll out its new LMS system in a matter of weeks instead of months and see a more immediate impact on its business."

One of the platforms of Cornerstone’s integrated talent management offering, Cornerstone Learning allows organisations to strategically and cost-effectively create, manage and deliver personalised training and development activities that bring together targeted, fully blended learning programs for all employees. Organisations can take advantage of different training formats that best meet their needs, such as e-learning, virtual classrooms, instructor-led training and learning content management systems (LCMS).

Cornerstone distributes more than 30,000 online courses in 19 different languages.

Cornerstone recently was positioned in the "Leaders" Quadrant of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Corporate Learning Systems (CLS) report (June 2008), which positions vendors according to their ability to execute and their completeness of vision.

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Notes for Editors

About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with approximately 900 properties in more than 100 countries and 155,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Meridien®, Sheraton®, Four Points® by Sheraton, and the recently launched Aloft(SM), and Element(SM). Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.

About Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone OnDemand helps organisations empower their people and optimize workforce productivity with a comprehensive suite of integrated talent management solutions for learning, compliance, performance, compensation and succession management, as well as robust reporting and analytics. Cornerstone also provides more than 30,000 pre-integrated training titles. The Company’s multi-tenant, multi-user software-as-a-service (SaaS) architecture provides customers with rapid deployments, minimal IT costs, greater flexibility, proven reliability and a lower total cost of ownership. Cornerstone’s triple-digit growth has been supported by a market-leading customer retention rate. Leading enterprises such as Aon, Bank of the West, Flextronics, Pearson, Randstad, Ticketmaster and Trend Micro count on Cornerstone to help them achieve organizational excellence and competitive advantage. Cornerstone OnDemand is headquartered in Santa Monica, California and has international offices in London, Paris, Munich and Tel Aviv.

For more information, visit www.cornerstoneondemand.co.uk

Cornerstone® and Cornerstone OnDemand® are registered trademarks of Cornerstone OnDemand Inc.

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2008 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Further information from:

Sinead Reynolds-Berti, Cornerstone OnDemand, + 33 (0) 6 28 33 55 66; sberti@cornerstoneondemand.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, + 44 (0) 1727 860405; www.boblittlepr.com