It appears to be business as usual at CBT Systems - despite its recent disastrous performance on the US Nasdaq market - following this week's conclusion of two significant deals. CBT has agreed to produce Internet-based educational courseware and online mentoring services for users of Microsoft Windows 2000 (formerly known as Windows NT 5.0) and Microsoft SQL Server 7.0. The courses were developed in collaboration with Microsoft, and the mentoring will be supported by Scholars.com, a CBT subsidiary, and Microsoft Certified Technical Education Centre. CBT said the announcement reinforced the close working relationship it had established with Microsoft.

In a separate deal, CBT Systems signed a two-year contract with Irish-owned software localisation company, VistaTEC, to deliver computer-based training to over half of VistaTEC's 70 employees. This is the first contract CBT has signed with an Irish software localisation company.