Trading Update and Placing

Sopheon PLC
22 October 2003


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                            22 October 2003



                                  SOPHEON PLC
                           ('Sopheon' or the 'Group')

                    THIRD QUARTER TRADING UPDATE AND PLACING

In accordance with the requirements of the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange,
Sopheon plc issues its trading update for the third quarter of 2003 together
with further information on corporate developments.

The end of September marked the completion of the restructuring programme
initiated at the start of the year. The group's Information Management divisions
in North America and Germany were divested for gross proceeds of around £3m.
Overhead adjustments and reduction of staff to approximately 60 across the group
from a high of 350 in 2001, has brought the cost base below £0.5m per month
before depreciation and amortisation charges.

The market for Accolade has shown a steady increase in acceptance by businesses
and industry analysts alike, of the need for software solutions that address the
automation and decision-support requirements of product lifecycle management
('PLM'). This validation was reinforced in the first quarter when Gartner Group
published its first PLM 'Magic Quadrant'. The building momentum in this market
was also apparent at the recent annual international conference of the Product
Development and Management Association in Boston. Conference participation,
which was three times higher than the preceding year, included 28 suppliers and
690 attendees. Sopheon used the event to showcase the launch of version 5.0 of
its Accolade product development system, to gather feedback on our offering from
clients and prospects, and to develop new business opportunities. We were
prominent throughout the conference, owing in part to presentations by seven of
our clients. Discussions at the event advanced a number of important Sopheon
sales opportunities to the next stage of decision-making.

In the third quarter, in addition to generating revenue from existing contracts
and four new pilot and assessment customers, we secured orders for additional
licence seats from two existing customers, further substantiating the applied
benefits and scalability of our solutions within major corporations. We ended
the quarter with a base of 50 customers, half of which are licensed users of our
software. These numbers exclude the user base for our small-scale laboratory
solution in the Netherlands. Our challenge for the final quarter of the year is
to bring the sales cycles we are involved with to closure, and to be generating
revenues in excess of our monthly cost base. Whilst that effort will require
conversion rates surpassing historic levels, we are encouraged by the quality of
our current sales opportunities, and as noted below, by a growing perception
that the investment climate in our market is at last improving. All of our
resources are focused on successful execution to capitalise on these
developments.

Notwithstanding the progress being made, the commercial environment remains
unpredictable and the board continues to investigate innovative ways of securing
funding for the group's operations such that it may continue to execute its
plans with confidence. Accordingly, as noted in the group's interim statement,
Sopheon has secured agreement in principle for a €10 million equity line of
credit facility with GEM Global Yield Fund Limited. The detailed terms of the
facility are being finalized, and the board expects execution of a definitive
agreement in the near-term. In addition, Sopheon has today placed a total of
8,333,334 ordinary shares to raise £1,000,000, before expenses, of working
capital. Application has been made for the new ordinary shares to be admitted to
trading on AIM and dealings are expected to commence on 28 October 2003.


Sopheon's Chairman, Barry Mence said:

'We have been working with determination to position Sopheon for growth and
profitability. In parallel with the refocusing of the group into a true
software-based business, we released version 5.0 of Accolade, which we believe
represents a new standard in process and decision support for innovation and
product development. We are encouraged by the quality of our sales
opportunities, and the changing tone of the market for our solutions and have
also taken further positive steps with the restructuring of our balance sheet.'



For further information contact:

Barry Mence, Chairman   Sopheon plc               Tel :    + 44 (0) 1483 685 735
Arif Karimjee, CFO

Adam Reynolds           Hansard Communications    Tel :    + 44 (0) 207 245 1100
Andrew Tan                                                 + 44 (0) 7957 203 685

Barbara Jansen         Citigate First Financial   Tel :    + 31 (0) 205 754 010
                       


About Sopheon

Sopheon (LSE:SPE) is an international provider of software and services.
Sopheon's Accolade(R) product development system automates, gate- or phase-based
product development (PD) processes and provides strategic decision support that
allows companies to improve innovation, cut product development spending waste
and shorten time to market. Sopheon's Monitor software operates as a 'reading
robot' that monitors, filters, analyses and pushes relevant content to
healthcare and engineering professionals to enable effective compliance with
protocols, standards and regulations. 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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