Directfit Enters Into Agreement With SmartForce; World's Largest e-Learning Company To Provide Online Training for Innovative Web-Centric IT Hiring Solutions Provider.

Business Editors

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 7, 2001

Directfit (www.directfit.com), a leading Web-centric IT hiring solutions provider, today announced an agreement with SmartForce, the world's largest e-Learning company, to provide SmartForce e-Learning solutions for Directfit.

SmartForce, the acknowledged leader, will provide an advanced, e-Learning infrastructure complete with the largest body of content, learning management functionality and online mentoring for Directfit's contract employees, furthering Directfit's mission to deliver the most qualified IT professionals to hiring managers in the most economical and efficient manner. Directfit and SmartForce will be showcased at the e-HR Future Show in booth 101 May 8-10, 2001, at the Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim, Calif.

"At Directfit, we are determined to continue to meet our promise of providing the most comprehensive tools and training to our IT professionals, ensuring each IT job seeker is not only on top of the latest technology, but is enabled to get the job that measures up to their career goals and technical skill level," said Mitch Ellner, vice president of Human Resources for Directfit. "By working with SmartForce, we are giving our employees that education and training, and providing for them what we see as the most comprehensive online learning system we know of."

"SmartForce's e-Learning solution will enable Directfit to achieve a faster return on their investment by delivering learning paths personalized to meet each IT professional's individual's needs," said Greg Priest, chairman and CEO of SmartForce. "Using SmartForce e-Learning, Directfit will have a faster and more economical way to introduce the right information to its employees at the right time."

As part of their profiling process, Directfit evaluates associates for technical proficiency levels and clients for technical needs, and then offers the means, through SmartForce, for associates to improve their skill sets and certifications to increase ability and marketability. SmartForce will provide Directfit associates with comprehensive online certification-level e-Learning covering a diverse group of networking, database, Internet, and end-user-application products and technologies for industry-standard accreditation. In addition, SmartForce offers real-time online mentoring plus interactive seminars and workshops.

About Directfit

Directfit (www.directfit.com) is a Web-centric IT hiring solutions provider delivering a custom-fit match between top IT professionals and job opportunities on a contract, contract-to-hire, or full-time basis. For the IT candidate, Directfit provides a custom-fit job opportunity with leading companies. Concurrently, the Directfit application makes it easy for companies and hiring managers to locate the most talented IT professionals. Directfit specializes in making precise matches among help desk, networking, project management, Web technologies, database administration, IT project management and telecommunications professionals and companies. Directfit has headquarters in Irvine, with 17 additional Technology Centers located throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.directfit.com or call toll free 1-877-434-7348 (4-DIRFIT).

About SmartForce

SmartForce, the world's largest e-Learning company, provides integrated enterprise e-Learning solutions. SmartForce e-Learning is available as a fully hosted Internet environment through an Internet rental model. With more than 2,500 major corporate customers, SmartForce e-Learning solutions bring the power of the Internet to the critical training business process. The SmartForce e-Learning environment is also used by leading Internet, software and other companies to provide the infrastructure to support their e-Learning initiatives. The company, which has more than 1,500 employees worldwide, has corporate headquarters at 900 Chesapeake Drive, Redwood City, Calif., 94063. Phone: [phone]. Fax: [phone]. Web site: www.smartforce.com.