SmartForce Accelerates Latin American Expansion

SmartForce to Introduce 500 Additional Hours of Spanish Language eLearning Content

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.-October 15, 2001
SmartForce (Nasdaq: SMTF), the world’s largest e-Learning company, today announced a multi-year agreement to provide e-Learning to enterprises throughout Central America. San José, Costa Rica-based Aura Interactive, a leading Latin American provider of eLearning solutions for corporate, education and government organizations, has entered into an agreement to distribute SmartForce e-Learning in Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic and Panama. Under the agreement, Aura Interactive will collaborate with SmartForce on the sale and marketing of SmartForce eLearning solutions, including the fully hosted SmartForce eLearning platform and SmartForce Global LMS, the company’s behind-the-firewall learning management system offering.

In addition, Aura Interactive and SmartForce will collaborate on the localization of 500+ hours of SmartForce e-Learning into Spanish for resale in the Iberamerican markets. Aura Interactive has also been certified as a SmartForce Custom Content Development Partner. This relationship provides SmartForce the capacity to deliver multilingual (Spanish/English) custom e-Learning solutions to its multinational clients ensuring consistent quality and compatibility with the SmartForce and Global LMS platforms. This collaboration greatly enhances SmartForce’s ability to meet the localization requirements of the region. It will also result in the doubling of SmartForce’s Spanish language offerings.

Central America’s technology, manufacturing and service sectors have fueled economic growth in the region and have expanded their use of the Internet for business processes. Continued growth, however, will depend partially on the region’s ability to meet the increasing demand for workers with specialized business and IT skills. SmartForce eLearning, a strong contributor to companies’ business growth, will help organizations standardize and enhance their enterprise-wide-learning initiatives, reduce costs, execute business strategies and expedite the time to market for new products and services.

“SmartForce’s presence in Central Americais unmatched,” said Randolf Kissling, CEO of Aura Interactive. “Central American companies are beginning to recognize the power of eLearning to enhance human capital in order to achieve organizational objectives. SmartForce has created the world’s first enabling infrastructure for eLearning in the enterprise, an infrastructure that helps companies increase productivity, deliver products faster, and transform their entire organizations. For these reasons, we have chosen SmartForce as our premier e-Learning partner.”

SmartForce has expanded e-Learning throughout Central America by leveraging its leadership position in the industry, a globally scalable platform, strategic partnerships with leading companies, and localized content in nine languages including Spanish. It is, by a large margin, the strongest e-Learning company in the Spanish-speaking world and the only US-based eLearning company to offer Spanish-language mentoring. SmartForce’s presence in Latin America and the Caribbean now spans 15 countries: Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.

“This agreement with Aura Interactive solidifies our expansion into Central American markets,” said Greg Priest, chairman and CEO of SmartForce. “SmartForce’s global eLearning solutions will be a significant offering for Aura Interactive’s large base of Central American customers. Companies will benefit from SmartForce’s solid reputation as the industry leader and from a comprehensive solution proven to deliver measurable return on investment for Central American companies.”