Books24x7.com Introduces OfficePro 2000.

Business/Technology Editors

NORWOOD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 11, 2000

--New Online Reference Service Meets "Everyday Worker's" Need for

Instant Knowledge on Office Productivity and Microsoft 2000

Applications---

Books24x7.com (www.books24x7.com) today introduced OfficePro 2000, a new online service specifically designed for corporate knowledge workers that will answer questions and provide information about business productivity applications, including those introduced in Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows 2000 operating system. As the first of many "special collection" offerings by Books24x7.com, OfficePro 2000 helps the "everyday office worker" understand a variety of commonly-used business software programs, such as Microsoft Office 2000, Lotus Notes 4.6, VirusScan 4.0, AutoCad, Corel, and others, and make informed upgrade decisions on these popular packaged applications. OfficePro 2000's powerful drill-down search capability puts needed information at the fingertips of business managers and knowledge workers and reduces the burden on corporate IT departments and help desks.

"Although the Internet has made technology more mainstream, business employees still need tools that reduce the technology learning curve for applications like email and word processing," said John Ambrose, vice president of marketing for Books24x7.com. "OfficePro 2000 is a `first of its kind' offering that enables knowledge workers to be far more productive and self-sufficient when learning new software. Considering the widespread desktop deployment of many of these applications across the average enterprise, corporations stand to significantly reduce training costs using OfficePro 2000."

Initially, OfficePro 2000 will offer access to a dynamic collection of over 50 titles covering the most widely used business software applications. Approximately one half of these titles cover topics associated with Microsoft's new Windows 2000 and the Office 2000 suite including Microsoft Outlook 2000, Microsoft Excel 2000, Internet Explorer 5.0 and Windows NT. OfficePro 2000 can provide needed answers to specific Windows 2000 application questions and can also help the many organizations currently evaluating Microsoft's new operating system create an upgrade strategy.

"As with any new software upgrade, corporations must determine if and when it makes sense to incur the cost of moving to the Windows 2000 platform," continued Ambrose. "OfficePro 2000 will give evaluators a `sneak peak' at new application features, configuration requirements, and compatibility issues in order to make a more informed decision in this regard."

OfficePro 2000 is the second of many special collections slated for delivery by Books24x7.com. The company's flagship offering, ITPro, is an online reference library that offers IT professionals the best technical books from leading publishers like Macmillan Computer Publishing (Que and Sams), MIT Press, and McGraw-Hill. In use today at global organizations such as Hewlett- Packard and 3Com, ITPro enables IT professionals to retrieve instant answers to their most specific technical questions, and assists them in learning new technologies and applications. Like ITPro, OfficePro's users can take advantage of Books24x7.com's granular, full-text search facility and its sophisticated collaboration tools, bookmarking abilities and personalization features to save specific book content for easy future reference. Because OfficePro 2000 is offered through corporate subscription only, users are never subjected to distracting banner ads or teasers. If desired, Books24x7.com's partnership with Barnesandnoble.com provides knowledge workers the option to purchase frequently visited books with a single click.

Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, already a customer of Books24x7.com's ITPro, recognized the importance of providing state-of-the art tools for self-help and self-training on technical topics to its employees outside of the technical disciplines as well.

"Books24x7 has developed and perfected a way to deliver online reference content that meets our needs," said Lindy Baer, manager technical architectures for Lockheed Martin. "When we heard the company was planning to offer a similar product designed to help large enterprises like ours empower their non-technical users, we asked to be a beta user. We see great potential for the OfficePro 2000 as a corporate end-user tool, especially as companies migrate to Windows2000."

OfficePro 2000 is available immediately by subscription. Pricing starts at $39/year per seat.

About Lockheed Martin

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) is a global enterprise principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced-technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's core businesses are systems integration, space, aeronautics, and technology services. Lockheed Martin had 1999 sales surpassing $25 billion.

About Books24x7.com

Books24x7.com is the online reference service of choice for professionals requiring immediate access to trusted technical information. Launched in 1999 and based in Norwood, MA, the subscription-based online service contains best-of-breed reference materials on more than 100 technical topics from leading publishers such as Macmillan Computer Publishing (Que and Sams), McGraw-Hill, MIT Press, O'Reilly & Associates. Books24x7.com differentiates itself from other online libraries by using advanced, multi-tier searching techniques to sift through the entire collection and quickly pinpoint relevant information at the most granular level. More than 200 companies, including 3Com (NASDAQ: COMS), Boston Edison (OTC: BOSEO), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HWP) and Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) now rely on Books24x7.com as a timesaving tool to raise productivity levels and cut research costs. Books24x7.com's investors include venture capitalists Sigma Partners, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Whitman Capital and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). For more information, visit www.books24x7.com.