Redwood City, CA - March 3, 2000. Connect Direct, a full-service agency that specializes in direct marketing for high-technology companies, has added three new high-profile firms to its client roster.

For Bidcom in San Francisco, California, Connect Direct is developing direct mail and online programs to drive registration and user activity at the Bidcom e-Marketplace (http://www.bidcom.com), a Web site where building industry professionals can collaborate, exchange information, and manage construction projects from design through completion.

SmartForce (formerly CBT Systems), in Redwood City, California, has asked Connect Direct to produce both print and online campaigns in support of SmartForce e-Learning, an unique, integrated and personalized learning solution delivered through MySmartforce.com. The campaigns will be targeted at both corporate training managers and also small business owners.

Versata, in Oakland, California, has selected Connect Direct to produce an ongoing series of direct mail, broadcast e-mail, e-mail newsletter sponsorships and other campaigns designed to promote the Versata EBusiness Automation System, used to rapidly create, maintain and deploy complex, business-to-business, transaction-based Web applications.

Separately, Connect Direct said it expects to double its staff (from ten to twenty employees) by mid-year to cope with a flood of new business, largely from dot coms.

"In our experience, most Internet companies aren't looking for one large agency to handle all their marketing needs," Howard J. Sewell, the company's president, comments. "They want a firm with a particular expertise and a proven track record working with similar clients."

Connect Direct was founded in 1990 by Sewell, formerly a marketing manager at Oracle Corporation. In 1999, company revenues increased over forty percent and the firm was named one of the "Top 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies in Silicon Valley" by the San Jose Business Journal for the second year running. The company says it expects 2000 revenues to double over the previous year.