SOMERS, N.Y. and SAN JOSE, Calif., March 14, 2000 - IBM and Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced an agreement under which IBM Learning Services will become an authorized Cisco Learning Partner. Networking professionals will benefit from this agreement through easy access to training designed to keep their skills competitive in the marketplace.

This new agreement builds on the overall alliance between IBM Global Services and Cisco completed last summer, which was designed to complement each company's core strengths and deliver solutions that provide enhanced network and systems performance.

"Businesses today increasingly rely on networking, e-commerce, and e-learning as essential elements of their success," said Tom Kelly, Senior Director of Worldwide Training at Cisco. "E-learning gives companies the speed and agility they need in the fast-paced technological and business environments today. To support and enable that agility, IT professionals must keep up with the latest knowledge and skills. The Cisco/IBM alliance is one excellent path to achieve that."

Both Cisco and IBM have expanded their space in the e-learning arena. IBM will deliver Cisco Career Certifications training in e-learning and classroom format to internal IBM employees, IBM's global customers, and to professionals in the networking industry. Cisco will provide world-class, up-to-the-minute, highly evolved training content for delivery by their training partners on an e-learning and classroom basis. Cisco's e-learning platform is a standards-based, scalable, and networked system delivered by partners who can offer training solutions quickly and economically. These solutions draw from the extensive expertise and experience of Cisco, its partners, and its customers.

"The goal of the global alliance is to deliver a full spectrum of services and jointly developed solutions for customers' e-business and networking needs," said Rick Horton, general manager of Learning Services for IBM. "This most recent agreement represents the next level in solidifying the benefits of that alliance, and will enable IBM to manage the internal education components of its Cisco Channel Partner contract, while meeting the rapidly growing need for Cisco Career Certifications training in the marketplace."

IBM

IBM's Learning Services unit, part of IBM Global Services, is the largest e-business and information technology training organization in the world. Learning Services has 3,400 professionals in 55 countries helping companies integrate training into their businesses to better leverage information technology and sharpen the skills of their most important asset-their people. For more information please visit www.ibm.com/services/learning on the World Wide Web.