Medallia Programmers Compete in International Finals

MENLO PARK, CA—March 6, 2006—Medallia announced that four of its programmers qualified to compete in TopCoder’s Open Finals against a field of 48. The contest is scheduled for May 3–5, 2006 in Las Vegas.

The 48 finalists were culled from more than 2,000 entrants and survived five preliminary rounds in the competition.

“Such a large representation of Medallia programmers at a global championship is testament to the strength of our engineering,” said Borge Hald, co-founder and chief executive officer. “Our world-class programming team drives our technology leadership in on-demand enterprise feedback and is the bedrock of our continued success.”

It is the second major international competition that has recognized Medallia programmers. Earlier, Medallia programmers won two gold and two silver medals in the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) World Championships.

“The fact that we have a team of outstanding programmers both in Silicon Valley and in Norway provides our customers with a technology platform that is robust, customizable, and extremely efficient,” said lead programmer Juan Pablo Dellarroquelle.

“Our programming group has been a key factor in our ability to expand into other industries,” Dellarroquelle said. “We are able to build scalable and flexible solutions that have applications in industries as diverse as the financial services, fitness, timeshare, hospitality and lodging industries. That we have done well in competitions is another proof point of our technology leadership.”

To qualify for the finals of the TopCoder’s Open, programmers were given 75 minutes to solve three problems. Solutions were then tested and measured on a scale that deducted points for every coding mistake. “It is equally nerve-wracking to be operating against a time clock and then to have wait for the judges to review the work,” said TopCoder finalist and head of the Oslo office, Øyvind Grotmol. “But the task of solving a problem in an error-free manner in a short time has many beneficial rewards as we apply our skills to developing the best enterprise feedback solutions.”

“Our clients are global,” said Hald, “and it is important for us to attract programmers from around the world. While Silicon Valley has considerable talent, programming is truly a global endeavor and 80 percent of our team comes from outside the United States.”