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                                                                    EXHIBIT 4.09

                                SERVICESOFT, INC.
                        2000 EMPLOYEE STOCK PURCHASE PLAN

The purpose of the Servicesoft, Inc. 2000 Employee Stock Purchase Plan ("the
Plan") is to provide eligible employees of ServiceSoft, Inc. (the "Company") and
certain of its subsidiaries with opportunities to purchase shares of the
Company's common stock, $.01 par value (the "Common Stock"). Five Hundred
Thousand (500,000) shares of Common Stock in the aggregate have been approved
for this purpose. The Plan is intended to constitute an "employee stock purchase
plan" within the meaning of Section 423(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986,
as amended (the "Code"), and shall be interpreted in accordance with that
intent.

1.      ADMINISTRATION. The Plan will be administered by the Company's Board of
        Directors (the "Board") or by a committee appointed by the Board for
        such purpose (the "Committee"). The Board or the Committee has authority
        to make rules and regulations for the administration of the Plan, and
        its interpretations and decisions with regard thereto shall be final and
        conclusive. No member of the Board or the Committee shall be liable for
        any action or determination made in good faith with respect to the Plan
        or any option granted hereunder.

2.      OFFERINGS. The Company will make one or more offerings to eligible
        employees to purchase Common Stock under the Plan ("Offerings"). The
        initial Offering will begin April 1, 2000 and will end on September 30,
        2000 (the "Initial Offering"). Thereafter, an Offering will begin on the
        first business day occurring on or immediately after each October 1 and
        April 1 and will end on the last business day occurring on or before the
        following March 31 and September 30, respectively.

3.      ELIGIBILITY. All employees of the Company (including employees who are
        also directors of the Company) and all employees of each Designated
        Subsidiary (as defined in Section 11) are eligible to participate in any
        one or more of the Offerings under the Plan, provided that as of the
        first day of the applicable Offering (the "Offering Date") they are
        customarily employed by the Company or a Designated Subsidiary for more
        than twenty (20) hours a week.

4.      PARTICIPATION. An employee eligible on any Offering Date may participate
        in such Offering by submitting an enrollment form to his appropriate
        payroll location at least ten (10) business days before the Offering
        Date (or by such other deadline as shall be established for the
        Offering). The form will (a) state the percentage to be deducted from
        his Compensation (as defined in Section 11) per pay period, (b)
        authorize the purchase of Common Stock for him in each Offering in
        accordance with the terms of the Plan and (c) specify the exact name or
        names in which shares of Common Stock purchased for him are to be issued
        pursuant to Section 10. An employee who does not enroll in accordance
        with these procedures will be deemed to have waived his right to
        participate. Unless an employee files a new enrollment form or withdraws
        from the Plan, his deductions and purchases will continue at the same
        percentage of Compensation for future Offerings, provided he remains
        eligible. Notwithstanding the foregoing, participation in the Plan will
        neither be permitted nor be denied contrary to the requirements of the
        Code.

5.      EMPLOYEE CONTRIBUTIONS. Each eligible employee may authorize payroll
        deductions at a minimum of one percent (1%) up to a maximum of ten
        percent (10%) of his Compensation for each pay period. The Company will
        maintain book accounts showing the amount of payroll deductions made by
        each participating employee for each Offering. No interest will accrue
        or be paid on payroll deductions.

6.      DEDUCTION CHANGES. An employee may not increase or decrease his payroll
        deduction during any Offering, but may increase or decrease his payroll
        deduction with respect to the next Offering (subject to the limitations
        of Section 5) by filing a new enrollment form at least ten (10) business
        days before the next Offering Date (or by such other deadline as shall
        be established by the Board or Committee for the Offering).




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7.      WITHDRAWAL. An employee may withdraw from participation in the Plan by
        delivering a written notice of withdrawal to his appropriate payroll
        location. The employee's withdrawal will be effective as of the next
        business day. Following an employee's withdrawal, the Company will
        promptly refund to him his entire account balance under the Plan (after
        payment for any Common Stock purchased before the effective date of
        withdrawal). Partial withdrawals are not permitted. The employee may not
        begin participation again during the remainder of the Offering, but may
        enroll in a subsequent Offering in accordance with Section 4.

8.      GRANT OF OPTIONS. On each Offering Date, the Company will grant to each
        eligible employee who is then a participant in the Plan an option
        ("Option") to purchase on the last day of such Offering (the "Exercise
        Date"), at the Option Price hereinafter provided for, up to 500 whole
        shares of Common Stock reserved for the purposes of the Plan. The
        purchase price for each share purchased under such Option (the "Option
        Price") will be 85% of the Fair Market Value of the Common Stock on the
        Offering Date or the Exercise Date, whichever is less.

        Notwithstanding the foregoing, no employee may be granted an Option
        hereunder if such employee, immediately after the option was granted,
        would be treated as owning stock possessing five percent (5%) or more of
        the total combined voting power or value of all classes of stock of the
        Company or any Parent or Subsidiary (as defined in Section 11). For
        purposes of the preceding sentence, the attribution rules of Section
        424(d) of the Code shall apply in determining the stock ownership of an
        employee, and all stock which the employee has a contractual right to
        purchase shall be treated as stock owned by the employee. In addition,
        no employee may be granted an Option which permits his rights to
        purchase stock under the Plan, and any other employee stock purchase
        plan of the Company and its Parents and Subsidiaries, to accrue at a
        rate which exceeds $25,000 of the fair market value of such stock
        (determined on the option grant date or dates) for each calendar year in
        which the Option is outstanding at any time. The purpose of the
        limitation in the preceding sentence is to comply with Section 423(b)(8)
        of the Code.

9.      EXERCISE OF OPTION AND PURCHASE OF SHARES. Each employee who continues
        to be a participant in the Plan on the Exercise Date shall be deemed to
        have exercised his Option on such date and shall acquire from the
        Company such number of whole shares of Common Stock reserved for the
        purpose of the Plan as his accumulated payroll deductions on such date
        will purchase at the Option Price, subject to any other limitations
        contained in the Plan. Any balance remaining in an employee's account at
        the end of an Offering will be refunded to the employee promptly;
        provided that any balance remaining in an employee's account at the end
        of an Offering solely by reason of the inability to purchase a
        fractional share will be carried forward to the next Offering.

10.     ISSUANCE OF CERTIFICATES. Certificates representing shares of Common
        Stock purchased under the Plan may be issued only in the name of the
        employee, in the name of the employee and another person of legal age as
        joint tenants with rights of survivorship, or in the name of a broker
        authorized by the employee to be his, or their, nominee for such
        purpose.

11.     DEFINITIONS. The term "Compensation" means the amount of total cash
        compensation, prior to salary reduction pursuant to either Section 125
        or 401(k) of the Code, including base pay, commissions, overtime, and
        incentive and bonus awards, but excluding allowances and reimbursements
        for expenses such as relocation allowances or travel expenses, income or
        gains on the exercise of Company stock options, and similar items.

        The term "Designated Subsidiary" means any present or future Subsidiary
        (as defined below) that is designated from time to time by the Board or
        the Committee to participate in the Plan. Subsidiaries may be so
        designated either before or after the Plan is approved by the
        stockholders.

        The term "Fair Market Value of Common Stock" on any given date shall
        mean (i) if the Common Stock is admitted to on a national securities
        exchange or the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated
        Quotation System ("NASDAQ") National Market System, the closing price
        reported for Common Stock on NASDAQ on such date, or if no sales were
        reported for such date, the last date preceding such date for which a
        sale was reported, or (ii) if the Stock is not publicly traded on a
        securities exchange or traded in the over-the-counter market or, if
        traded or quoted, there are no transactions or quotations within the
        last ten


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        trading days or trading has been halted for extraordinary reasons, the
        Fair Market Value on any given date shall be determined in good faith by
        the Committee.

        The term "Parent" means a "parent corporation" with respect to the
        Company, as defined in Section 424(e) of the Code.

        The term "Subsidiary" means a "subsidiary corporation" with respect to
        the Company, as defined in Section 424(f) of the Code.

12.     RIGHTS ON RETIREMENT, DEATH, OR OTHER TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT. If a
        participating employee's employment terminates for any reason before the
        Exercise Date for any Offering, no payroll deduction will be taken from
        any pay due and owing to the employee and the balance in his account
        will be paid to him or, in the case of his death, to his designated
        beneficiary as if he had withdrawn from the Plan under Section 7. An
        employee will be deemed to have terminated employment, for this purpose,
        if the corporation that employs him, having been a Designated
        Subsidiary, ceases to be a Subsidiary, or if the employee is transferred
        to any corporation other than the Company or a Designated Subsidiary.

13.     OPTIONEES NOT STOCKHOLDERS. Neither the granting of an Option to an
        employee nor the deductions from his pay shall constitute such employee
        a stockholder of the shares of Common Stock covered by an Option under
        the Plan until such shares have been purchased by and issued to him.

14.     RIGHTS NOT TRANSFERABLE. Rights under the Plan are not transferable by a
        participating employee other than by will or the laws of descent and
        distribution, and are exercisable during the employee's lifetime only by
        the employee.

15.     APPLICATION OF FUNDS. All funds received or held by the Company under
        the Plan may be combined with other corporate funds and may be used for
        any corporate purpose.

16.     ADJUSTMENT IN CASE OF CHANGES AFFECTING COMMON STOCK. If, through or as
        a result of any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all
        of the assets of the Company, reorganization, recapitalization,
        reclassification, stock dividend, stock split, reverse stock split or
        other similar transaction in the capital structure of the Company
        without consideration, the outstanding shares of Common Stock are
        increased or decreased or are exchanged for a different number or kind
        of shares or other securities of the Company or any successor company,
        or additional shares or new or different shares or other securities of
        the Company or other non-cash assets are distributed with respect to
        such shares of Stock or other securities, the Board (or, if appointed,
        the Committee) shall make an appropriate or proportionate adjustment in
        (i) the maximum number of shares reserved for issuance under the Plan,
        (ii) the share limitation in Section 8, and (iii) such other provision
        as may be deemed equitable by the Board or, if applicable, the
        Committee. Any adjustment or determination pursuant to this Section
        shall be final, binding and conclusive.

17.     AMENDMENT OF THE PLAN. The Board or the Committee may at any time, and
        from time to time, amend the Plan in any respect, except that without
        the approval, within twelve (12) months of such Board or Committee
        action, by the holders of a majority of the shares of stock of the
        Company present or represented and entitled to vote at a meeting of
        stockholders, no amendment shall be made (a) increasing the number of
        shares approved for the Plan, (b) changing the corporations or class of
        corporations whose employees will be allowed to participate in the Plan,
        or (c) in any other manner that the Board or Committee may, in its
        discretion, determine should become effective only if approved by
        Stockholders even though Stockholder approval is not expressly required
        by this Plan.

18.     INSUFFICIENT SHARES. If the total number of shares of Common Stock that
        would otherwise be purchased on any Exercise Date plus the number of
        shares purchased under previous Offerings under the Plan exceeds the
        maximum number of shares issuable under the Plan, the shares then
        available shall be apportioned among participants in proportion to the
        amount of payroll deductions accumulated on behalf of each participant
        that would otherwise be used to purchase Common Stock on such Exercise
        Date.


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19.     TERMINATION OF THE PLAN. The Plan may be terminated at any time by the
        Board or the Committee. Upon termination of the Plan, all amounts in the
        accounts of participating employees shall be promptly refunded.

20.     GOVERNMENTAL REGULATIONS. The Company's obligation to sell and deliver
        Common Stock under the Plan is subject to listing on NASDAQ and
        obtaining all governmental approvals required in connection with the
        authorization, issuance, or sale of such stock.

        The Plan shall be governed by Delaware law except to the extent that
such law is preempted by federal law.

21.     ISSUANCE OF SHARES. Shares may be issued upon exercise of an Option from
        authorized but unissued Common Stock, from shares held in the treasury
        of the Company, or from any other proper source.

22.     TAX WITHHOLDING. Participation in the Plan is subject to any required
        tax withholding on income of the participant in connection with the
        Plan. Each employee agrees, by entering the Plan, that the Company and
        its Subsidiaries shall have the right to deduct any such taxes from any
        payment of any kind otherwise due to the employee, including shares
        issuable under the Plan.

23.     NOTIFICATION UPON SALE OF SHARES. Each employee agrees, by entering the
        Plan, to give the Company prompt notice of any disposition of shares
        purchased under the Plan where such disposition occurs within two years
        after the date of grant of the Option pursuant to which such shares are
        purchased or one year after the Exercise Date.

24.     EFFECTIVE DATE AND APPROVAL OF SHAREHOLDERS. The Plan shall take effect
        on April 1, 2000, subject to approval by the holders of a majority of
        the shares of stock of the Company present or represented and entitled
        to vote at a meeting of stockholders, which approval must occur within
        twelve (12) months of the adoption of the Plan by the Board.



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                        ADDENDUM: DESIGNATED SUBSIDIARIES


        The following subsidiary is a "Designated Subsidiary" (as defined in
Section 11 of the Plan), eligible to participate in the Plan:

1.      Servicesoft Technologies (Canada), Inc.

2.      Servicesoft Technologies (UK) Ltd.

3.      ServiceSoft Europe N.V. (Belgium)