SmartForce partnerships—more than a seal of approval
SmartForce has established alliance partnerships with key companies in the information technology industry: Cisco, Informix, Lotus, Microsoft, Netscape, Novell, Oracle, SAP, and Sybase. In 1997 we also entered into partnership with the companies driving the “100% Pure Java” training initiative: IBM, JavaSoft, and Netscape. These are not just the “press release partnerships” that are so prevalent in today’s market environment. Rather, the real power of our partnerships lies in the operational and long term benefits they have for both SmartForce and the alliance partner. 
Through our partnerships:
SmartForce gains early access to the partner’s product plans, software, and source materials. This is critical to our ability to move quickly to market with educational software for the latest software releases.
Our titles are given the partner’s “authorized” seal of approval so that customers know that the product has been certified by the partner as delivering the training critical to learning the partner's technology.
Our partners often provide funding to support SmartForce title development, allowing us to leverage our research and development investment and deliver more titles for each R&D dollar.
We often enter into co-marketing relationships with our partners. This generates an incremental revenue stream for SmartForce from our partners’ sales to their customers and distribution channels. 
As the market for information technology education evolves, it becomes increasingly clear that education is not just one of a bundle of services that software vendors need to deliver to their customers. IT education is a key strategic focus for IT vendors. Not only does a high-quality education solution offer IT vendors competitive differentiation, such a solution is also critical to enable businesses to secure the full value of their technology investment, and is therefore a central aspect of many IT vendors’ strategy for growing market penetration.

CISCO

Since their partnership began back in 1996, SmartForce and Cisco Systems have co-developed a comprehensive range of courseware titles supporting career certifications for Cisco's networking products.

INFORMIX

Our relationship with Informix has allowed us to co-develop training for the INFORMIX-OnLine Dynamic Server. The relationship will be expanded to provide training for the INFORMIX Universal Server.

“100% Pure Java”

SmartForce has entered into partnership with IBM, JavaSoft, and Netscape to provide quality training for Java programmers and developers. The partnership is an integral part of the “100% Pure Java” initiative and the associated Java Education World Tour.

LOTUS

SmartForce and Lotus Education have a long-standing partnership to co-develop comprehensive training for Lotus Notes™ and Domino™. Titles have been developed to prepare application developers and system administrators for Certified Lotus Professional exams. Titles are also available for end-user training.

MICROSOFT

Our relationship with Microsoft allows us to provide comprehensive quality training to prepare students for Microsoft Certified Professional exams. Titles have been developed covering products such as Windows™ NT, Internet Information Server, Visual Basic®, and Office97.

NETSCAPE

SmartForce and Netscape have entered into a relationship to provide training in the use of Netscape’s Internet and intranet products. Titles have been developed covering LiveWire®, JavaScript®, Netscape Enterprise Server™ and Netscape Communicator™.

NOVELL

Our long-standing relationship with Novell has allowed us to develop a comprehensive range of training to prepare students for Certified Novell Engineer and Novell Certified Internet Professional exams. In 1997 the relationship was expanded to provide training in Novell’s IntranetWare® software.

ORACLE

Our relationship with Oracle has enabled us to develop training for Oracle developers and database administrators. Our library currently contains a comprehensive range of Developer/2000® and Oracle7™ titles, and we have recently expanded it to include courses on Oracle8™.

SAP

SmartForce and SAP have entered into a strategic relationship to provide co-developed and authorized training for SAP R/3™ end-users, power-users and project team members.

SYBASE

SmartForce and Sybase have a long-standing relationship and aim to provide quality training for Sybase’s popular PowerBuilder™ application development software.


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