Acadient and Tata Interactive Systems Announce Strategic Partnership

Marketing and Development Alliance Will Expand Companies' Leadership in the Global Financial Services Marketplace

BOSTON & MUMBAI, India - Feb. 25, 2004- Acadient, a leading developer and distributor of online education, today announced a strategic partnership with India-based Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), one of the world's largest custom e-learning companies. TIS is a subsidiary of the Tata Group, one of India's largest conglomerates, employing more than 275,000 people and accounting for about two per cent of India's gross domestic product.

"Partnering with Tata Interactive Systems is a significant step forward for our company," said Ronald C. Pruett, Jr., chief executive officer, Acadient. "Tata brings expertise in a variety of areas, including instructional design, expert graphics and programming. Their internal quality processes are unsurpassed and, together with our leading brand name content, will provide companies and consumers around the world with the best and most affordable online financial services training available."

"Over the past decade, TIS has worked with two hundred corporate clients and has developed more than 100,000 hours of training and learning content," said Manoj Kutty, senior vice president and head of TIS in North America. "Our clients enjoy the advantage of our experience and the investments we have made in setting up CMM Level 5 and PCMM Level 5 development centers. This translates into innovative and defect-free products delivered on time and within budget, especially important in today's market."

Manoj added, "By partnering with Acadient, we can further increase our presence in the U.S. market. With our knowledge and experience in creating Web-based training materials and Acadient's expertise in the financial industry, we can jointly create product, call centers, regulatory and continuing education, and simulation-based training."

About Acadient

Based in Boston, Acadient is the nation's leading developer and distributor of online education and training for corporations, associations and thousands of consumers in the financial services industry. With the largest repository of financial education content in the sector, Acadient develops, hosts and manages e-learning courseware and private-label online universities for industry organizations worldwide. Approved by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a continuing education provider, Acadient partners with premier industry and academic organizations, including the National Investment Company Service Association (NICSA), Society of Professional Administrators and Record Keepers (SPARK), Pearson Education, Keir Educational Resources, The National Underwriter Company, SABA and Boston University.

Acadient is a corporate member of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), The Sloan Consortium and the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council (MIMC). Please visit www.acadient.com for more information.

About Tata Interactive Systems (TIS)

Founded in 1990, Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) is one of the world's largest custom e-learning companies. TIS is part of the Tata Group ( www.tata.com), one of India's largest and most trusted business houses (2003 revenues: $11 billion+). TIS brings professional project management, subject matter expertise in a variety of areas, strong instructional design, expert graphics and programming knowledge to offer a range of e-learning services. TIS builds corporate e-learning solutions, creates learning portals, offers courseware conversion and develops education products. TIS works with many of the world's largest companies, including AIG, Barclays Bank, Citibank, Colgate, Deutsche Bank, Exxon, General Electric, McGraw-Hill, Siemens, UNICEF and the University of Phoenix. TIS internal processes are assessed at ISO 9001, SEI-CMM Level 5 and SEI-PCMM Level 5, ensuring the highest operational efficiencies possible. More than 200 universities, publishing houses and blue-chip companies have used TIS to provide training content. TIS has offices in Edison, N.J.; Boston; Chicago; and San Jose, Calif. For more about TIS, please visit www.tatainteractive.com.

About The Tata Group

The Tata Group was established nearly 100 years ago by Jamshedji Tata to help build India's industrial infrastructure. Tata established India's steel, chemical and automobile engineering industries. It was instrumental in establishing the information technology (IT) industry in India.

Within the IT sector, the Tata Group is Asia's largest software consulting business, employing more than 24,000 consultants around the world.