Press Room

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., September 20, 2000—Spherion®, formerly Interim Technology Consulting, has grown its Software Quality Management (SQM) Practice to reflect the booming industry demand for e-business quality assurance plans to minimize risks associated with e-business applications. Boasting a 30-year history in providing software quality management services, Spherion now provides these services geared to e-businesses, including end-to-end quality assurance systems that start at the planning and strategy phases of an e-business solution.

Labeled eSQM(sm) (e-Software Quality Management), the services save companies time, money and help protect their market share.

Taking its proven 20-year-old testing methodology, Vali/TestPro(tm) (VTP), and re-tooling it for the e-space, now called eVTP(sm), Spherion works to educate clients about the risks their companies face in rushing to occupy e-business space if it is not done in a quality manner. Numerous corporations every day lose market share, endure customer complaints and investigations, and spend millions of dollars on correcting system problems that could have been avoided with front-end strategy, including an application risk assessment.

“With the busiest shopping season rapidly approaching, e-tailers that rushed to market last year without first testing the usability and viability of their systems, as well as new e-tailers attempting to enter this hyper-competitive space, need to be ready for this year’s more educated, less patient e-clientele,” stated Stuart Emanuel, president, worldwide operations, Spherion’s Business Solutions Technology Group. “Companies that have incurred the unnecessary costs of going to market quickly at the expense of quality were forced to reassess their entire e-strategy in order to compete more effectively in their industries.”

eSQM is a proprietary service that provides eSQM(sm) Testing Strategy, Planning and Execution for all types of testing which cover Environment Configuration, Usability, Scalability, Performance, Security, Regression, Independent Integration and User Acceptance. eSQM ensures timeliness and quality assurance to the client.

Client testimonial

When Atlanta-based AtWork Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of HR application software solutions delivered over the Internet as a service, wanted to enhance its quality assurance process, Spherion executed an eSQM assessment to help them evaluate their needs. “Spherion helped us understand where we needed to go and how to get there,” said Barrett Thompson, VP of Operations, AtWork Technologies. “We found value in four key areas of Spherion’s recommendations: their identification of potential problem areas we hadn’t previously considered; the recommended order in which we should pursue these initiatives; refining our requirements for the distinct roles in our QA organization; and analysis and suggestions for quality assurance tools that would fit our unique product needs.”

Spherion’s technology consultants have for the past 30 years provided clients with Software Quality Management (SQM) solutions such as Software Validation and Testing, Test Automation, Quality Assurance, User Services and Training, for both IT and user departments.

About Spherion

Spherion’s technology business solutions leverage proven methodologies and a full-time complement of more than 6,000 IT professionals to assess and meet the needs of clients in e-business management, technology consulting and education. The Gartner Group has recognized Spherion’s technology business solutions team as a Professional Development Partner and the group was recently named to the 2000 VAR Business 500.

Spherion Corporation (NYSE: SFN) is a $3.8 billion human capital management company with 1,000 offices in 12 countries. The Company, which was founded in 1946, and is based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. , builds talent, technology and outsourcing solutions to help clients efficiently deploy human capital and improve their bottom line. Visit the Company’s web site at www.spherion.com/technology.

About AtWork Technologies Inc.

AtWork Technologies Inc. is a leading provider of HR application software solutions delivered to mid-sized enterprises over the Internet. The Atlanta-based company’s flagship Internet Business Service, AtWork Onlinetm is a highly flexible and scaleable suite of human resource applications including benefits administration, payroll services, organizational management, recruiting and education. By delivering an integrated suite of HR applications as a service, mid-sized organizations benefit from a rapid implementation measured in days, the flexibility of growing an HIS solution without impact on current IT infrastructure, and the ability to free HR professionals from the administrative burdens of paper-based or in-house systems.