SmartForce, ranked as the largest e-learning company by International Data Corporation (IDC), has expanded its portfolio of offerings through a number of recent acquisitions and partnership agreements.
According to IDC, SmartForce has grown more than twice as fast as the average of the top ten companies on the IDC list and was identified as the eighth largest IT training company in the world.
SmartForce recently acquired Advanced Educational Systems (AES), a provider of e-testing services, and Learning Productions, a developer of advanced, Internet-based role play business simulations.
AES provides secure e-testing solutions and services to organisations to support certification and compliance initiatives within the enterprise itself. The acquisition will allow SmartForce to integrate AES` Internet-based e-testing solutions into SmartForce`s e-learning applications.
"The AES acquisition is an important step forward in the development of SmartForce`s suite of comprehensive, integrated e-learning applications, says Milton Goldschmidt, MD of SmartForce Africa.
Learning Productions simulations put the learner in the midst of `virtual` sales calls, business meetings, and customer service scenarios as they unfold, helping users gain experience in a variety of complex business world situations.
Learning Productions is developing a series of standardised role play simulations covering sales, customer service, and customer support topics, which can be configured to meet customers` specific business situations
"Our customers are increasingly demanding Internet-based training for a wide range of mission-critical business requirements. The addition of AES and Learning Productions to the company will significantly advance our strategy of providing e-learning applications tailored to our customers` specific business requirements," says Goldschmidt.
In related moves, SmartForce and ProsoftTraining.com have formed an alliance to collaborate on the creation of an e-learning environment focused on the Certified Internet Webmaster vendor-neutral certification for Internet professionals.
In terms of the agreement between SmartForce and ProsoftTraining.com, the two companies will jointly create a wide-ranging e-learning offering around the ProsoftTraining.com CIW certification for Internet professionals.
SmartForce has also teamed with Intraware, a leading IT e-marketplace for Web-based software and services, to offer e-learning as a part of every IT software system purchase from the Intraware organisation.
The partnership allows Intraware to provide SmartForce`s offerings, including more than one thousand SmartCourses on information technology and business skills, as well as 24x7 SmartMentoring and online SmartSeminars.
"By joining together to offer IT professionals an easy, efficient and comprehensive way to purchase e-learning at the same time and the same place as they purchase their IT software systems, Intraware and SmartForce are providing customers with an efficient and cost-effective way to meet their IT software requirements," says Goldschmidt.
Finally, SmartForce has entered into a partnership with Kforce Consulting, the e-business service provider division of Kforce.com, to provide Kforce.com customers with access to SmartForce`s e-Learning solutions.
Kforce Consulting has also selected the SmartForce platform as the infrastructure for its e-business training solutions. The multi-year, $1-million agreement grants Kforce the right to offer SmartForce e-learning, including the full library of SmartForce SmartCourses, to its customer base.
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