French Joint Venture

Embargoed Release: 07:00hrs Tuesday 21st March 2006

                                  Sopheon Plc                                  

                                  (`Sopheon')                                  

                       Sopheon Expands into French Market                       

   New VenturePositions Company to Capitalize on Escalating Interest in Its    

    Product Innovation Process SolutionAmong Manufacturers inFrench Region     

Sopheon, the international software and services provider, announced today the
formation of a new venture, Sopheon France SARL, to promote and sell its
Accolade solution throughout France and the French-speaking regions of
Switzerland. This development is part of a larger Sopheon strategy aimed at
building worldwide sales and support presence for its Accolade offering, a
software system that has been recognized as best-of-class among product
innovation process and portfolio management solutions in the product life cycle
management (PLM) market. Sopheon has taken a 20% minority stake in the company,
and will equity-account for the participation in accordance with IAS 28.

A recent global PLM market study determined that French manufacturers spent in
excess of €1.1 billion on PLM solutions in 2005, up by 8% compared to 2004.
According to the research, France ranks as the second largest region in Europe
for PLM solutions. Sopheon had been seeking to develop a local presence that
would allow it to take better advantage of escalating business opportunity in
this area. The company reports that more than thirty prospects in France,
including a number of significant multi-nationals, have contacted it about its
software.

Founding management of Sopheon France are Patrice Duponchel and Jean-Claude
Bourguigneau. Both are successful software entrepreneurs, each with more than
20 years of experience in building and operating companies that specialize in
reselling enterprise software solutions and providing related services to the
French market.

"Manufactured goods account for 75% of France's proliferating export trade,"
said Patrice Duponchel, chief executive officer of the newly formed company.
"French manufacturers understand that continuous innovation is essential to
competing successfully in global markets. Demand is growing for technology
solutions that will enable them to automate, control and rationally execute
their innovation processes, and help them make good decisions in the earliest
stages of product development. The Sopheon system has proven over and over that
it can connect with a company's innovation strategies and provide process
automation and decision support that will lead to higher levels of growth and
profits from new products. We believe that Sopheon's Accolade is the right
solution at the right time for the French market. "

"We see significant potential for Accolade in the French region," said Andy
Michuda, chief executive officer of Sopheon. "We are very pleased to be able to
enter this critical market through a partnership with professionals who have
the experience, industry knowledge and contact networks to make things happen
for us."

Sopheon Accolade® is a registered trademark of Sopheon plc.

All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the sole

property of their respective owners.

About Sopheon

Sopheon (LSE: SPE) is an international provider of software and services that
help organizations improve the business impact of product development. The
Sopheon Accolade® product development system automates gate- or phase-based
product development processes and provides strategic decision support that
allows companies to improve innovation, cut product development spending waste
and shorten time to market. Sopheon is listed on the AIM Market of the London
Stock Exchange and on the Euronext in the Netherlands. For more information,
please visit www.sopheon.com.

Arif Karimjee, CFO      Sopheon plc                  Tel : + 44 (0) 1483 685 735                       
                                                                               
Andrew Tan              Hansard Communications       Tel : + 44 (0) 207 245 1100                      
                                                                               
                                                     + 44 (0) 7957 203 685     
                                                                               
Floor van Maaren        Citigate First Financial     Tel : + 31 (0) 205 754 010