SPE.L Regulatory News (SPE)

SOPHEON PLC

("Sopheon" or the "Company")

Orion Engineered Carbons works with Sopheon to modernize Innovation Management

Sopheon's Accolade® software will be deployed to users worldwide

Sopheon, a global leader in enterprise innovation management solutions, has been selected by Luxembourg-headquartered, specialty and rubber carbon blacks leader Orion Engineered Carbons (OEC) to help bolster revenue growth and sustainability. Sopheon's SaaS-based Accolade platform will replace outdated legacy systems and drive efficiencies and strategic alignment across OEC's innovation processes and portfolio growth plans.

With a long history over some 125 years, OEC has existed as an independent group since it was spun off from Evonik in 2011. Like many others in the chemical space, OEC's business strategy is focused around the sustainability of its products and manufacturing processes, and it has always operated with a passion for delivering innovative, high-quality customer solutions. The company recognized the challenges in maintaining a leadership position and meeting today's dynamic market needs without the agility, alignment to strategy, and visibility to critical information provided by modern software systems.

"Sopheon's Accolade software is the best fit for our requirements. It offers critical support to execute in line with our chosen strategic direction, as well as seamlessly supporting knowledge sharing and collaboration across teams dispersed around the world," said David Deters, CTO at OEC. "No less important, as a specialty chemicals company we look for "chemistry" with our partners. We experienced a good cultural fit with the Sopheon team and were impressed with their knowledge of the chemical industry and their solid customer base representing companies of different sizes, including the mid-market."

Pieter Leijten, VP EMEA, added: "It has been proven that companies that continue to invest wisely during a recession outperform those that don't. OEC is one of the companies we are seeing embrace this view, and we are honored that they have selected us to support the execution of their strategy during this uncertain time."

Accolade is Sopheon's award-winning innovation management software that connects people, systems and information across departments and functions. This cross-functional collaboration and synchronization results in trusted, timely data for faster, better, and more dynamic decision making for the world's largest and most complex enterprises. Accolade has proven its value to thousands of global users by reducing costs, increasing portfolio value, reducing time-to-market, and boosting initiative and product success.

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Sopheon and Accolade are trademarks of Sopheon plc.

About Sopheon. Sopheon (LSE: SPE) partners with customers to provide complete enterprise innovation management solutions including software, expertise, and best practices, that enable them to achieve exceptional long-term revenue growth and profitability. Sopheon's Accolade solution provides unique, fully-integrated coverage for the entire innovation management and new product development lifecycle, including strategic innovation planning, roadmapping, idea and concept development, process and project management, portfolio management and resource planning. Sopheon's solutions have been implemented by over 200 customers with over 60,000 users in over 50 countries. Sopheon is listed on AIM, operated by the London Stock Exchange. For more information, please visit www.sopheon.com.

About Orion Engineered Carbons. Orion is a worldwide supplier of carbon black. We produce a broad range of carbon blacks that include high-performance specialty gas blacks, acetylene blacks, furnace blacks, lamp blacks, thermal blacks and other carbon blacks that tint, colorize and enhance the performance of polymers, plastics, paints and coatings, inks and toners, textile fibers, adhesives and sealants, tires, and mechanical rubber goods such as automotive belts and hoses. Orion operates 14 global production sites and has approximately 1,425 employees worldwide. For more information please visit our website at www.orioncarbons.com.