Questionmark and Applied Skills & Knowledge (AS&K) Announce Full Service Outsourcing

For Immediate Release

Questionmark and Applied Skills & Knowledge (AS&K) Announce Full Service Outsourcing

STAMFORD, CT - April 8, 2002 -- Questionmark, the leading provider of Web-based testing and assessment software, and Applied Skills & Knowledge (AS&K), specialists in creating and administering assessments and surveys, today announced a partnership to offer Full Service Outsourcing (FSO) to their clients.

FSO allows clients to focus on their core competencies, increase efficiency and obtain professional support for their outsourced services. The Questionmark-AS&K partnership will enable an organization to transfer all of the services that are required to create and run an assessment or survey process to AS&K instead of using internal staff and resources. Some of AS&K's services include developing assessment and survey content, validating the content, administration, tracking results, analyzing and interpreting results, and providing custom reports. AS&K utilizes the power of Questionmark™ Perception™ testing and assessment software to provide these services. "Our relationship with AS&K has been so fruitful that moving to Full Service Outsourcing was a logical next step," said Questionmark President Eric Shepherd. "For customers who want experts to handle their assessment programs, outsourcing is a very attractive option and a logical result of our increasingly specialized economy."

"This partnership enables each of us to serve our clients better," added Dr. Paul Squires, president of AS&K. "Increasingly, our outsourcing clients want online solutions for their testing and survey needs. This agreement enables us to offer that solution using Perception, a product that we determined, after reviewing many products, to be the best in its class. And Questionmark can now offer their clients the assistance of measurement experts who can either help them implement Perception and their measurement program or take care of the entire process."

AS&K is presently providing these services for clients to implement measurement initiatives such as leadership assessments (360 Surveys), certification programs, mastery testing, skill-gap surveys, pre- and post-training assessments, customer satisfaction surveys, employee attitude surveys, employment tests, organizational climate surveys, and customized surveys and assessments.

About AS&K
AS&K is a management consulting and outsourcing firm that provides strategic thinking, design, and development and implementation services to meet organizational needs. As specialists in measurement, they offer a variety of selection, leadership, organizational development, and training services that provide rapid and measurable ROI. Their clients include Avon, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chubb Computer Services, Johnson & Johnson, Lucent Technologies, Merrill Lynch, Motorola, Norvartis, Prudential Securities, Inland Paperboard and Packaging, H&R Block, AAA, Siemens, among others. The company's website is www.appliedskills.com.

About Questionmark
Questionmark has been producing testing and assessment software since 1988. Questionmark Perception allows people to create question files without programming experience. Users can categorize their question banks into topics and sub-topics from which to assemble tests and surveys. They can shuffle questions and answers for each participant and preview assessments to see how they will appear post-deployment. They can present questions with videos, graphics and a wide variety of styles. Participants receive feedback as specified by the author. Answers are saved to an encrypted file for scoring and analysis in a variety of report formats.

Businesses, governments, schools, colleges, and universities in more than 50 countries use Questionmark software. Questionmark has more than 1,200 customers using Perception, with approximately 9,000 authoring systems installed, and systems shipped have been configured with approximately 3,000,000 participants. Typical applications include exams, quizzes, study aids, diagnostic tests, pre-course skills assessments, and course evaluations. Questionmark is actively involved with the IMS Global Learning Consortium and supports open standards. Visit www.questionmark.com for more information.

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