PEABODY, Mass., - January 8, 2001 - ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), a leading provider of paper-to-digital solutions for desktop, network and corporate workgroups, today announced a strategic three-year licensing agreement with Microsystems Technology, the leader in information capture software. Microsystems Technology has licensed ScanSoft's latest Developer's Kit 2000 version 10 to integrate ScanSoft's cutting-edge recognition technology into its OCR for Forms™ product. This relationship further supports ScanSoft's continued success in making inroads with system integrators as key technology leaders are consistently recognizing our technology as "best-of-breed".

"With well over ten thousand licenses worldwide, our customers depend upon OCR for Forms™ to accurately automate their data entry. It's extremely important to incorporate the most accurate OCR technology available," said Charles W. Jackson, president of Microsystems Technology. "We chose ScanSoft OCR because of its outstanding accuracy."

Developer's Kit 2000 Brings Increased Accuracy to OCR for Forms Users

Providing "one stop" access to 10 powerful recognition engines in a single product, ScanSoft's Developer's Kit 2000 version 10 offers heightened accuracy for forms processing with new and improved OCR engines. OCR for Forms users will benefit from the increased accuracy which will result in less operator verification required when scanning in paper forms, ultimately saving time and resources.

"Microsystems and ScanSoft compliment each other in bringing the business community best-of-breed products," said Wayne Crandall, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for ScanSoft. "Our latest partnership demonstrates Microsystems' ongoing commitment to offering leading solutions: by utilizing the recognition technology in the latest developer's kit, Microsystems can leverage the over 99% accuracy of our most powerful OCR engine."

About ScanSoft, Inc.

Headquartered in Peabody, MA, ScanSoft, Inc. (NASDAQ: SSFT) is the leading developer of paper-to-digital software that enables users to leverage the power of their scanners, digital cameras and other electronic devices. ScanSoft's award-winning product line - PaperPort Deluxe, Pagis Pro, TextBridge Pro, OmniPage Pro, OmniPage Pro Scan Suite Plus, OmniForm, eOmniForm, Paper Converter, PageKeeper, Kai's PhotoSoap2, Kai's SuperGoo, Kai's PowerShow, and PhotoFactory - enables users to capture, recognize, edit, manage and share documents and photos electronically by taking advantage of ScanSoft's cutting-edge technology.

ScanSoft has established numerous strategic partnerships with the industry's leading scanner and multifunction vendors to deliver the most comprehensive and cost-effective solutions for its customers. Vendors who have chosen ScanSoft's cutting-edge OCR technologies to incorporate into their own product offerings include Brother, Canon, Epson, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Lotus Development Corporation, Microtek, Mustek, Primax, Sharp, Symantec Corporation, Visioneer, Xerox and others. ScanSoft's leading technologies have been licensed by Microsoft for use in future products. ScanSoft continues to cultivate and develop strategic partnerships to deliver the most comprehensive and cost-effective solutions for its customers.

ScanSoft software is sold and marketed worldwide through retail, dealer and OEM channels and the Internet, capturing the consumer, small office/home office (SOHO) and corporate markets. There are more than 6.5 million registered users of ScanSoft products. ScanSoft can be found on the Web at www.scansoft.com.

About Microsystems Technology

Microsystems Technology is a pioneer in automating the process to extract data from forms, whether machine print, handprint, one- or two-dimensional bar codes or check boxes. Microsystems offers a full suite of information-capture solutions from form design to document storage and retrieval with its products OCR for Forms, Uni-Form and Information Broker. Microsystems' most recent capability, AnyForm Technology, processes and extracts data from literally any unstructured form, such as invoices, without any need for pre-defined templates. Microsystems Technology has thousand of customers and tens of thousands of licenses on six of the seven continents. Microsystems' OCR for Forms has been named Product of the Year three times by Imaging and Document Solutions magazine. For more information on Microsystems Technology's complete line of software, visit the company's web site at www.microsystemsonline.com.

Trademark reference: ScanSoft, PaperPort, PaperPort Deluxe, Pagis, TextBridge, OmniPage, OmniPage Pro Scan Suite Plus, OmniForm, eOmniForm, Paper Converter, PageKeeper, Scanner Suite, PageKeeper, Developer's Kit 2000, PhotoFactory, Kai's PhotoSoap2, Kai's SuperGoo, and Kai's PowerShow are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks and trade names are hereby recognized and may be registered to their respective holders.

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