ScanSoft Announces Executive Appointments

Appoints Steve Chambers and John Shagoury as Division Presidents to Further Streamline Organization; Announces Stuart Patterson, president and director, Leaving Organization

PEABODY, Mass., March 19, 2004 - ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), the leading provider of speech and imaging solutions, today announced several changes to the management team and organization to further streamline the organization, increasing focus on high-growth opportunities.

The company has aligned its products, technologies and services in two divisions - SpeechWorks® Solutions and ScanSoft® Productivity Applications - to aggressively pursue market opportunities while maintaining a high level of service to customers and partners. To support ScanSoft's growth initiatives in these areas, ScanSoft has named Steve Chambers and John Shagoury as division presidents. Both executives will report to Paul Ricci, chairman and CEO of ScanSoft. Along with other accompanying management changes, the company expects to realize annual cost savings of more than $1 million from this alignment.

Steve Chambers, currently senior vice president and general manager, Network Speech, at ScanSoft, will assume responsibility for the company's SpeechWorks® Solutions division. "Steve has long been recognized as one of the top executives in the speech industry, successfully applying his marketing and strategic leadership to a vision for mainstream speech applications," said Paul Ricci. "His extraordinary energy and commitment to the company, enterprise customers and industry at large have helped position ScanSoft as the premier provider of speech technologies, applications and solutions."

John Shagoury, who joined ScanSoft today, will oversee the company's ScanSoft Productivity Applications division. "John brings to ScanSoft extensive skills and experience with software channels," said Ricci. "John's proven leadership, operational expertise and extensive knowledge of the dictation and healthcare markets are tremendous assets for ScanSoft as we execute strategies for achieving ambitious growth plans in our productivity applications."

In addition, ScanSoft today announced that Stuart Patterson will be leaving his position as president of the company and as a member of the ScanSoft board of directors. "Stuart has played an important role in managing the integration of ScanSoft and SpeechWorks and helping us reach this point of natural transition," said Ricci. "On behalf of the company, I would like to thank Stuart for his innumerable contributions to the impressive past and bright future of SpeechWorks and ScanSoft. He has helped build a worldwide team with extraordinary experience, talent and depth to execute on our vision for speech-activated devices and services."

SpeechWorks Solutions from ScanSoft

Steve Chambers will lead the company's global efforts for SpeechWorks® Solutions from ScanSoft, a portfolio of speech technologies and applications for enterprise, telecommunications and embedded customers. Mr. Chambers joined ScanSoft in August 2003 as part of the SpeechWorks acquisition, where he served as senior vice president, worldwide sales and chief marketing officer, after joining the company in 1999. Previously, he held chief marketing officer roles at Arbortext, Inc., VDOnet and PictureTel Corporation. Prior to PictureTel, he was a consultant for a division of McKinsey Corporation. Chambers holds a BA from Wesleyan University, and an MBA and Masters in Communications and Science degree from Boston University.

SpeechWorks® Solutions from ScanSoft comprise network and embedded speech solutions, including natural language speech recognition, text-to-speech (TTS) and speaker verification solutions, as well as auto-attendant, directory assistance, turnkey vertical industry applications and other speech components. SpeechWorks solutions from ScanSoft help organizations redefine the way they exchange vital information with customers and employees over the telephone, and are used within automotive and embedded applications, including navigation systems, computer games, mobile devices, talking dictionaries, ATMs, applications for the visually impaired, and consumer electronic devices. For information, please visit http://www.scansoft.com/speech.

ScanSoft Productivity Applications

John Shagoury, who joined the company today, brings more than 20 years of management, sales and marketing experience to the position where he will oversee ScanSoft's Productivity Applications division. He previously held president roles at Corporate Software, Dragon Systems and Kubi Software. In his career, Shagoury has also held management positions at Lotus Development, ON Technology and Software Wholesalers. He holds a BA and an MBA, Management, from Babson College.

ScanSoft's Productivity Applications comprise an extensive portfolio of capture and dictation products and technologies, including OmniPage®, PaperPort®, PDF Converter, OmniForm®, the Capture Development System™ and Dragon NaturallySpeaking®. With more than 10 million registered customers worldwide - and numerous industry awards - ScanSoft Productivity Applications include a range of personal and professional applications, such as networked scanning, document conversion, personal document management, PDF creation, dictation and eForms. For information, please visit http://www.scansoft.com/productivity/.

About ScanSoft, Inc.

ScanSoft, Inc. is the leading supplier of speech and imaging solutions that are used to automate a wide range of manual processes - saving time, increasing worker productivity and improving customer service. For more information regarding ScanSoft products and technologies, please visit www.ScanSoft.com.

ScanSoft, the ScanSoft logo, OmniPage, PaperPort, OmniForm, Capture Development System, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking are trademarks or registered trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. in the United States and other countries. SpeechWorks is a trademark or registered trademark of SpeechWorks International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other company or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

The statements in this press release that relate to future plans, events or performance are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with market trends, competitive factors, and other risks identified in ScanSoft's SEC filings. Actual results, events 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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