Product Launch

Embargoed Release: 07:00hrs Tuesday 19 May 2009 SOPHEON PLC ("Sopheon" or the "Company") Sopheon Launches Idea Lab™ Software Solution: Linking Idea Development to Strategic Product Planning and Execution Sopheon, the international provider of software and services for product lifecycle management, today announces the introduction of an addition to its flagship software system, Accolade®, designed specifically for use in generating, nurturing and developing new product ideas. Called Idea Lab™, the new solution is the result of a partnership between Sopheon and Hype Software, a German-based supplier of idea management software. The new offering expands Accolade's capacity to strengthen the front-end of the product innovation process, creating the first solution in the industry to provide all-in-one support for strategic product planning, idea development and innovation process execution. In most companies, ideation efforts suffer from a lack of focus: too many ideas and not enough resources. Idea Lab can be used to launch and manage campaigns, publicise and motivate participation, and to establish communities of innovators who can solicit, share and evaluate ideas. Idea Lab supports scoring and filtering of ideas, as well as voting-based assessment. The software contains process elements that allow submitted ideas to be challenged and expanded. High-value ideas are forwarded into a gated process for concept development. The rest can be stored in an idea bank for future consideration. Idea Lab allows users to arrange ideas by categories such as innovation type, product line, enabling technology or target market, making it easy to find those that are relevant to specific business issues. Ideas can be ranked, merged or rejected, and similar ideas can be grouped inside portfolios. Staff are incentivised by built-in reward and recognition mechanisms. Idea Lab also features a navigation engine, Idea Browser™, that enables easy discovery within the solution's repository of concepts, campaigns and idea challenges, inspiring further ideation. One of the greatest shortcomings of traditional idea and innovation management software is that it focuses entirely on the generation, organisation and, in the best cases, evaluation of ideas. There is no systematic alignment of ideation with strategic planning, and no support to help users traverse the potential "dead zones" that separate the generation of ideas from getting those ideas into the developmental pipeline and through to the market. Idea Lab, however, can be linked out of the box to Accolade's broader capabilities including product planning, product portfolio management, and innovation process automation and governance. This integration surmounts the challenges of transitioning from one process stage to another. At the front end of the innovation cycle, Accolade's Vision Strategist™ component delivers automated support for the development of strategic product plans. The plans feed into Idea Lab, where they contribute to the evaluation of the strategic fit and viability of submitted ideas. The most promising concepts seamlessly migrate from Idea Lab into the user's Accolade-supported gate- or phase-based innovation processes, reducing the time it takes to turn ideas into products. Accolade also supplies the product portfolio management, commercialisation and post-launch support required to manage newly created products until they are retired from the marketplace. "Many organisations struggle to effectively integrate ideation with other phases of the innovation process," said Andy Michuda, chief executive officer of Sopheon. "In the absence of such integration, potentially valuable ideas are easily mired in repositories or fumbled in the hand-off to development. With the introduction of Idea Lab, we can help companies bridge the process gaps at the front-end of the innovation cycle and establish direct connections between product planning, ideation and execution. We expect that Idea Lab will have strong appeal both to current Accolade customers and to the broad population of companies that are looking for ways to ensure that they get maximum business benefit from the ideas they generate." Accolade® is a registered trademark of Sopheon plc. Idea Lab™, Idea Browser™ and Vision Strategist™ are trademarks of Sopheon plc. All other trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners For further information contact: Barry Mence, Chairman Sopheon plc + 44 (0) 1483 685 735 Arif Karimjee, CFO Vikki Krause Hansard Communications + 44 (0) 207 245 1100 + 44 (0) 7515 922906 Claire Verhagen Citigate First Financial + 31 (0) 205 754 010 Paul Davies Seymour Pierce + 44 (0) 207 107 8000 About Sopheon Sopheon (LSE: SPE) is an international provider of software and services that help organisations improve the business impact of product innovation. Sopheon's solutions automate and govern the innovation process, enabling companies to increase revenue and profits from new products. Sopheon's solutions are used by industry leaders throughout the world, including BASF, Cadbury Schweppes, Corning, Electrolux, General Motors, Honeywell, Motorola and SAB Miller. 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.

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