ScanSoft Teams with Microsoft to Automate the Conversion of Microsoft Word, Paper and PDF Forms into Microsoft InfoPath Forms

ScanSoft OmniForm Provides Unique Logical Form Recognition Technology That Speeds the Migration of Existing Forms to the New Microsoft XML-based Forms Standard

GENT, Belgium, October 14, 2003 - ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), the leading supplier of speech and imaging solutions, today announced a development and co-marketing agreement with Microsoft that is designed to provide organizations with a simplified way to migrate existing Microsoft Word, paper and PDF forms to Microsoft InfoPath. A new member of the Microsoft Office 2003 family, InfoPath is an XML-based solution for implementing electronic forms and automatic data collection.

Under the agreement, ScanSoft has integrated support for Microsoft InfoPath with OmniForm® Developer Edition 5.1. OmniForm is the market-leading solution for converting paper forms into electronic forms, and is used by thousands of organizations, including the Internal Revenue Service, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, and the School District of Palm Beach County. The two companies will also cooperate in joint marketing and sales activities to communicate the new solution to corporate, academic and government organizations.

"ScanSoft's proven expertise in paper and PDF conversion technologies represents an important accelerator that will help to drive the success of Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003," said Jacob Jaffe, Group Product Manager for Microsoft. "By embracing InfoPath as a native publishing format for OmniForm, ScanSoft is also providing the OmniForm community with an easy way to gather information more flexibly and efficiently using customer-defined XML data standards."

ScanSoft OmniForm uses unique Logical Form Recognition (LFR) technology to convert existing forms in various formats into fill-able electronic forms. LFR allows OmniForm to distinguish between labels, form fields, text and graphics, and uses advanced heuristics to reproduce the form with XML form fields and alpha/numeric attributes. By converting the visual appearance of existing forms, as well as setting XML form attributes, OmniForm is able to reduce the time needed to migrate forms by up to 70% when compared to manual approaches.

"We are pleased to expand on our long-time partnership with Microsoft, and are especially excited in helping organizations to adopt the new XML-based InfoPath forms standard," said Robert Weideman, chief marketing officer for ScanSoft. "This partnership overcomes perhaps the most significant barrier organizations face in adopting electronic forms, which is 'How to I get my existing forms into the new format?"

Pricing and Availability

OmniForm Developer Edition 5.1 will be available in late October 2003 from ScanSoft and its corporate reseller partners, for $1,495. ScanSoft will also be offering special upgrade pricing to OmniForm and OmniForm Premium customers.

About ScanSoft, Inc.

ScanSoft is the leading supplier of imaging, speech and language solutions that are used to automate a wide range of manual processes - saving time, increasing worker productivity and improving customer service.

Trademark reference: ScanSoft, Dragon NaturallySpeaking and RealSpeak are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other company names or product names referenced herein may be to the trademarks of their respective owners.

The statements in this press release that relate to future plans, objectives, events or performances are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with market trends, competitive factors, and other risks identified in the Company's SEC filings. Actual results, event and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof.

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