Two Healthcare Contracts Won

Sopheon PLC
29 July 2003



Embargoed Release: 07:00hrs 29th July 2003



                                  Sopheon Plc
                                  ('Sopheon')


 Sopheon Awarded Contracts From Two Healthcare Organizations in the Netherlands


Transactions Include Agreements with azM University Hospital for Implementation
of Evidence Monitor Solution and AMTEC for Use of Accolade



MINNEAPOLIS and LONDON-July 29, 2003-Sopheon, the international software and
services company, announced today that it has received a five-year contract from
azM, a leading university hospital based in Maastricht, the Netherlands, for an
extended implementation of Sopheon's Evidence Monitor solution. In addition,
Sopheon stated that it has signed an agreement with Maastricht-based AMTEC, a
company that manages azM's clinical-trial research, for the deployment of
Sopheon's Accolade product development system. Both organizations indicate that
their adoption of the Sopheon solutions is an integral aspect of strategic plans
for generating substantially more revenue from their knowledge-based
capabilities.


azM is one of Europe's foremost referral hospitals and a leader in the field of
evidence-based medicine, a practice standard that requires the conscientious use
of the latest best-evidence in making decisions about patient care. azM is
deploying Sopheon's Evidence Monitor to the hospital's 700 doctors and
researchers who are challenged to find the time required to regularly review
professional publications in order to stay current on developments in their
fields of practice. The Sopheon solution, which features an advanced linguistic
text-comparison engine, operates as a 'reading robot' that monitors a
user-defined set of medical journals, filters and analyzes their content, and
provides alerts on information and developments related to the user's areas of
specialization. azM expects that, in addition to ensuring superior patient care,
implementation of Evidence Monitor will improve research processes, lessen
liability exposure, and help it continue to attract and retain a world-class
medical staff.


AMTEC is an independent company founded by azM to manage the approximately 250
industry-funded clinical trials the hospital is conducting at any one time based
on contracts with major pharmaceutical companies or other suppliers of
healthcare products. Historically, this trial activity has been administered
using a mostly paper-based process that made it difficult to control multiple
project schedules as required to meet completion deadlines, stay within budget
and generate forecasted revenues.


Sopheon's Accolade, a software and services system that is typically used to
enhance the process of developing new products, is being deployed by AMTEC to
automate its clinical trial management process and provide trial managers and
researchers with a single, reliable, easy-to-use framework for everything from
tracking schedules and budgets to assessing and allocating resources, examining
relevant financial and legal issues and analyzing trial results. It also allows
administrators to execute advanced portfolio management and to make better
strategic decisions based on an ability to detect themes and areas of
specialization emerging from the trial activity. The system is expected to help
generate more than $2 million annually in increased revenues through such
advantages as faster trial preparation and execution, higher quality trial
results and improved service to clients. The Accolade solution is initially
being deployed to a community of 150 users across AMTEC and azM, with plans for
later expansion to the hospital's industrial pharmaceutical and biotech clients.


'Sopheon's technology is a vital ingredient in the implementation of our
strategies for becoming a highly-profitable commercial leader in medical,
biotechnology and pharmaceutical markets,' said Jan Carpay, former chairman and
CEO of azM, who spearheaded both the Evidence Monitor and Accolade deployments.
'Sopheon's technology helps us harness not only internal information, but
critical information from outside our walls. We are benefiting through
efficiency gains, heightened process adherence, and increased overall
organizational excellence. This type of progress is imperative as we embark on a
long-term corporate initiative to resell the protocols and other knowledge
generated in our evidence-based medical operations and clinical trials. We
anticipate that within 10 years, 30 percent of our revenues will come from this
knowledge business, and Sopheon, as our strategic partner, is integral to our
achieving that objective.'


'Sound information and portfolio management is critical to almost all
organizations in the knowledge-intensive healthcare industry,' said Huub Rutten,
president of Sopheon's healthcare division. 'Our new agreements with azM and
AMTEC reflect the capacity of our solutions to deliver precise process and
decision support where the consequences of information use extend not only to
the success or failure of key business endeavors but to determining the quantity
and quality of human life. These applications of our technology are a vivid
illustration of the tremendous opportunity that healthcare and related life
sciences represent for Sopheon.'


About Sopheon


Sopheon (LSE: SPE) is an international provider of software tools, content and
human-based decision support that enable organizations to achieve higher, faster
returns on innovation and product development investments. The company's
products and services include the Sopheon Accolade(R) product development system
and Knowledge Network (formerly Organik(R)). Sopheon is listed on the Alternative
Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange and on the Euronext in the
Netherlands. For more information, please visit www.sopheon.com.



Contacts

Barry Mence                            Tel: [phone]
Sopheon Plc
                                                                          
Andrew Tan                             Tel.: [phone]
Hansard Communications
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