StepStone continues aggressive growth in its Solutions division

StepStone ASA, provider of technology enabled recruitment solutions, has continued to drive aggressive growth with Q1 2006 seeing its strongest quarter through its Solutions division. The i-GRasp and EasyCruit product lines saw significant wins with 50 new customers worldwide, and sales in every territory.

France had its best quarter to date with one of Europeís leading banks, Groupe Caisse-díEpargne, and construction giant Spie batignolles, selecting i-GRasp, StepStoneís enterprise e-recruitment solution, to power their recruitment activities.

In Denmark the public sector helped achieve strong growth with new EasyCruit customers including The National Labour Market Authority, The Danish Agency for Governmental Management and The State Employerís Authority (part of The Ministry of Finance) as well as contracts from market researcher AC Nielsen and Stark DK.

In Sweden 10 new customers selected EasyCruit including construction giant PEAB in a pan-Nordic contract, Mandator and Telge, and in Norway new customers included oilfield service company PGS, the airline Widere and high-street retailer JC.

In the UK, StepStone added 11 new customers including construction giant, Mowlem, high street jeweller Signet Group, Eurostar, Adecco, British Red Cross and Cramer to its i-GRasp customer base - underscoring its dominant position within the UK market.

In addition, the partnership with the Guardian newspaper has generated The British Library and the Natural History Museum as new i-GRasp customers. In another highlight, long-standing i-GRasp customer PwC won the Onrec Award for Best Corporate Use of Online Recruitment, against stiff competition.

StepStoneís recent consultancy assignments include the successful completion of Microsoftís graduate in-take 2006, the development of a sales infrastructure for Hyster in Europe, a rollout of a global competency framework for BP and a project to recruit and train graduates for an off shore hydrocarbon operation based in Scotland.

In Norway a newly signed partnership with Agresso, the market-leader in integrated business management systems within the Norwegian public sector, will drive further growth for EasyCruit in an important market area.

i-GRasp is seeing continuing global demand for its products, and this quarter saw Virgin Atlantic select i-GRasp to power its recruiting activities in the US, Asia-Pac and Europe. New customer Cramer will deploy i-GRasp in the US and existing customers WS Atkins and Cadburys continue their global expansion.

ìItís been another strong quarter with growth across the board and a continuation of Q4ís astounding momentum. We are seeing uplift in the best-of-breed recruitment software sector across Europe and worldwide as demand for talent increases. We have a great team in place and are now focussing on consolidating our market leadership and extending our reach.î comments Matthew Parker, Managing Director of StepStoneís Solutions Division.