SmartForce Announces SmartForceConnect

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – July 25, 2002—SmartForce (Nasdaq: SMTF), the world’s largest and most experienced e-Learning company, today announced the formation of its “SmartForceConnect” program, a comprehensive series of initiatives and relationships that will help to drive its learning solutions, and ultimately its customers’ learning programs, deeper into and more closely aligned with customers’ core, critical business objectives.

Commenting on the launch of the program, SmartForce Chairman and CEO, Greg Priest, said:

“For some time now we have been making substantial investments in the linkage between learning and the primary business drivers of the enterprise. We’ve been doing it through both the positioning of the learning solutions we sell and support, and through close and strategic working relationships with our enterprise customers. This has been supported by active participation in driving the emerging interoperability standards and by working closely with the vendors of other products, services and enterprise applications that in some way “connect” with our customers’ learning initiatives. SmartForceConnect will consolidate and expand the great progress that we’ve been making in this area and will be instrumental in moving learning outside of what is considered traditional training.”

Although only formally being launched today, the SmartForceConnect program brings together a number of initiatives and relationships that have already been put in place, and is expected to be the framework for many new initiatives and relationships in a number of different areas:

· For SmartForce Learning Content Solutions, continued proactive support for, and compliance with, the constantly evolving standards for interoperability including AICC, SCORM and LRN.

· For SmartForce Learning Content Solutions, a series of tools and formal partnerships with leading Learning Management Systems (LMS) vendors to allow SmartForce content solutions to be easily tracked and managed using non-SmartForce learning management systems.

· For SmartForce learning infrastructure platforms, a series of initiatives to facilitate the interoperability of other vendors’ content offerings on the SmartForce platforms.

· For SmartForce Learning Solutions generally, formal relationships and software integration tools with market-leading vendors of other enterprise applications, for example in the areas of CRM, ERP and HRM.

· For SmartForce SolutionSets (specialized learning and productivity solutions for specific business processes and functions, for example Field Sales and Contact Center productivity solutions), a series of relationships and integrations with leading vendors with other specialized applications used by those enterprise functions and departments.

Leading learning industry analyst, Cushing Anderson, program director of IDC’s Learning Services Research, commented:

“Research clearly demonstrates that learning initiatives must be linked to specific business problems to be effective. The real power of learning rests in its ability to help companies overcome business obstacles and execute change effectively through relevant, efficient delivery of content. The ability of learning solutions to integrate with mission-critical applications will increase the relevance of the learning experiences for all employees. SmartForceConnect demonstrates SmartForce’s commitment to linking learning and real business needs and results. SmartForce is in a unique position to innovate and lead the market toward this important breakthrough.”

SmartForce anticipates a number of further significant developments in support of the SmartForceConnect program over the coming weeks and months.

About SmartForce

SmartForce, the world’s largest and most experienced e-Learning company, provides integrated e-Learning solutions that enable enterprises to generate concrete, significant business outcomes by more effectively distributing knowledge around the extended enterprise. With more than 2,500 corporate customers, including many of the world’s largest organizations, SmartForce e-Learning solutions bring the power of the Internet to business processes involving learning, skills development and knowledge transfer. 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

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements regarding the benefits of e-Learning to customers, the extension of e-Learning into less traditional forms of training and the increased functionality and interoperability of SmartForce’s e-Learning solutions. All forward-looking statements in this release are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. The factors that could cause actual results or events to differ include, but are not limited to, the possibility that that companies may reduce their investment in e-Learning solutions and that development of the solutions may not proceed as planned. Additional factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are included in SmartForce’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically SmartForce’s registration statement on Form S-4 in connection with the proposed merger of SmartForce and SkillSoft and SmartForce’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2002. The forward-looking information provided by SmartForce in this press release represents SmartForce’s views as of the date of this release. SmartForce anticipates that subsequent events and developments may cause these views to change. However, while SmartForce may elect to update this forward-looking information at some point in the future, SmartForce specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. This forward-looking information should not be relied upon as representing SmartForce’s views at any date subsequent to the date of this release.

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.

CONTACTS:

Anna Yen

SmartForce Investor Relations

(650) 817-5924

Anna_yen@smartforce.com