SmartForce and Ariba Team to Deliver e-Learning to Ariba’s Extended Enterprise

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. –Jan. 30, 2001–SmartForce (Nasdaq: SMTF – news), the world’s largest e-Learning company, today announced it has formed an e-Learning alliance with Ariba Inc., the leading business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce platform and network services provider. Under the agreement, Ariba will use the SmartForce e-Learning technology platform as its core enterprise e-Learning infrastructure to provide targeted e-Learning solutions to Ariba’s extended enterprise of employees, customers, integration partners and end users.

SmartForce and Ariba will work together to create a dedicated, Internet-based e-Learning environment designed to support a variety of learning objects and events, including seminars, workshops and real-time mentoring, and will incorporate assessment and learning management capabilities. Hosted by SmartForce, Ariba will use SmartForce’s e3 object-based e-Learning architecture — which enables the creation of customized learning paths specific to business needs — as its foundation for Ariba’s next generation of e-Learning content.

Ariba and SmartForce will also co-develop and co-market a series of e-Learning offerings for the Ariba® B2B Commerce Platform(TM) and network services. These offerings will feature a wide range of collaborative learning events aimed at empowering and educating suppliers, administrators, implementors and end-users of Ariba solutions on how best to use the solutions to derive B2B eCommerce process efficiencies, cost reductions and improved trading partner relationships.

“A key element of our strategy is to drive knowledge about Ariba products, services and methodology throughout the Ariba ecosystem,” said Matt Abrahams, director of education for Ariba. “We chose SmartForce to provide our enterprise e-Learning infrastructure because of its leading-edge, object-based application architecture, and we believe this relationship will be a powerful foundation for the ongoing success of our e-Learning initiatives.”

“We are committed to creating e-Learning solutions that help companies transform critical business processes to meet the challenges of e-Business,” said SmartForce’s CEO and President Greg Priest. “No company has played a greater role in enabling global B2B eCommerce than Ariba, and we are proud to work with them to provide powerful new e-Learning solutions that support the leading Ariba B2B Commerce Platform.”

The co-developed offerings will be among the newest additions to the SmartForce e-Business portfolio, a comprehensive set of e-Learning offerings that help companies retool their business processes around the Internet.

About SmartForce e-Learning

SmartForce e-Learning is a comprehensive application infrastructure to support e-Learning initiatives in enterprises globally. Encompassing the largest body of e-Learning content in the world, and a fully integrated student environment, learning management system and a range of custom content creation and publication tools, SmartForce e-Learning provides the architecture that global enterprises are using today to implement e-Learning strategies to support their critical strategic business initiatives.

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. SmartForce is quoted on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol “SMTF.” The company, which has more than 1,500 employees worldwide, has corporate headquarters at 900 Chesapeake Drive, Redwood City, Calif., 94063. Phone: 650.817.5900. Fax: 650.817.5061. Web site: www.smartforce.com.

SmartForce, SmartForce e-Learning, the SmartForce logo are trademarks of SmartForce. Ariba and the Ariba logo are registered trademarks of Ariba Inc. The Ariba B2B Commerce Platform is a trademark of Ariba Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Contact Information:

SmartForce Marketing, Redwood City, Calif.

Ken Dickens, 650/817-5856

ken_dickens@smartforce.com

SmartForce Investor Relations

Anna Yen, 650/817-5924

Anna_Yen@smartforce.com

The Weber Group (media)

Lindsey Bowman, 650/906-9586

lbowman@ca.webergroup.com