SmartForce Announces Strategic Partnership With Business Simulations Pioneer Strategic Management Group, Inc.

Business/High-Tech Editors

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 25, 2000

SmartForce Will Offer State-Of-The-Art Simulations on

MySmartForce.com, Significantly Enhancing Real-World Skills

Development

SmartForce (NASDAQ:SMTF), the world leader in e-Learning for organizations and individuals, announced today the establishment of a strategic partnership with premier business simulation developer Strategic Management Group, Inc. The two companies plan to integrate SmartForce's e-Learning courseware with real-world simulations provided by Strategic Management Group's online development and delivery division, SMGnet, thereby creating exceptional, on-demand learning experiences for corporate managers and knowledge workers.

SMGnet's simulations cover the most relevant subjects in management training today, including e-Business, finance, business strategy, sales, project management, leadership, and marketing. Finance For Non-Financial Managers, SmartForce's first application using SMGnet simulations, will be available as part of SmartForce's expanded Finance curricula at www.smartforce.com. Other SMGnet simulations will be introduced by SmartForce later in 2000 and beyond.

"SMGnet's simulations will be a tremendous enhancement to SmartForce's e-Learning applications," said Greg Priest, Chief Executive Officer of SmartForce. "These highly-regarded tools will allow users to effectively learn from the practical application of theoretical concepts."

"SmartForce and SMGnet are a natural fit," said Dr. Les Spero, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Management Group. "As corporate training becomes more sophisticated, users will demand more relevant and useful tools. Our online simulations, combined with SmartForce's content, will provide users with a sophisticated learning environment that accurately reflects defined learning objectives and challenges participant's decision-making skills and analytical techniques."

Solutions that Improve Performance, Competitive Position

Strategic Management Group, founded by a group of former Wharton School of Business faculty and students, is one of the most highly-regarded management training solution providers today, serving many of the Fortune 500(TM). The SMGnet division's business simulations are ideal for individual as well as team-based management training.

The company's qualitative simulations, designed for business subjects like leadership and project management, emphasize best practices training via role-plays where learners are presented with alternative decisions and open-ended questions to various storylines. As the story's scenarios unfold, users gather facts and chart a course of action by making decisions. They collect data through online resources and interaction with characters in the story. The simulation reflects the consequences of their decisions with new conditions and circumstances, providing participants with the opportunity to respond.

For more quantitative subjects like finance and e-Business, users assume the roles of functional department executives to develop the skills to manage the strategic and tactical trade-offs surrounding major business decisions. They face crises and manage uncertainty. Specific customer responses, as well as marketing and financial results, provide the feedback necessary for enhanced learning.

Powerful, Adaptable Resources

SmartForce/SMGnet simulations can accommodate a certain amount of tailoring to make them more relevant to a particular company's needs. For enterprises requiring a high degree of specialization, SMGnet and SmartForce can create custom resources to simulate a company's unique scenarios.

After Finance For Non-Financial Managers, SmartForce plans to add other simulations this year in e-Business/e-Commerce, project management, finance, and leadership. SmartForce will host all SMGnet simulations for its e-Learning applications on its user Web site, www.mysmartforce.com. For more information about SmartForce and its e-Learning applications, log on to www.smartforce.com.

About SmartForce:

SmartForce, the e-Learning company, formerly CBT Systems, 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. SmartForce is quoted on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol "SMTF." The company, which has more than 1,300 employees worldwide, has corporate headquarters at 900 Chesapeake Drive, Redwood City, Calif., 94063. Phone: [phone]. Fax: [phone]. Web site: www.smartforce.com

About Strategic Management Group, Inc.:

Strategic Management Group, Inc. has been improving enterprise and individual performance for almost two decades. A global business learning organization, Strategic Management Group offers high-quality, technology-based performance improvement through superior consulting, instructional design, business simulations and content delivered through a number of multi-modal channels. Strategic Management Group's internet/intranet development and delivery division, SMGnet, helps companies empower their human capital by creating solutions that link business issues to knowledge worker performance and development. SMGnet focuses on combining e-Learning, assessment, performance management tools, communities, and interactive simulations into an integrated online system for continuous performance improvement.

SmartForce, SmartForce e-Learning and the SmartForce logo are trademarks of SmartForce. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.