2005

17 October 2005

iSOFT leads healthcare IT companies in Europe

iSOFT Group plc, leader in the provision of advanced application solutions in modern healthcare economies around the world, has outranked all other healthcare IT companies listed in the 2005 Europe's 500, an annual listing of the fastest growing European companies.

Europe’s 500, endorsed this year by Microsoft and KPMG, was launched in 1996 and is Europe’s only independent pan-European listing of high-growth, job-creating companies. Companies are evaluated according to growth in turnover and employment, organic growth and profitability from fiscal year end 2001 to fiscal year end 2004. Using these criteria, Europe’s 500 researched, targeted and pre-selected high-growth companies from across 28 countries covered as potential winners. Companies who successfully meet the criteria and verification process are ranked according to their growth performance via the David Birch Employee Growth Index, which combines absolute and relative job creation, details of which can be found at www.europes500.com.

iSOFT was short-listed from the 10,000 pre-selected companies and ultimately emerged as the eighth highest ranked in the overall listing, up 37 places from last year in an increasingly competitive business environment. In spite of being in the most represented sector, IT services, iSOFT was placed in the top five in the sector. iSOFT was also ranked first among UK entrants, the UK being the index’s second best represented country. Through the successful execution of its business strategy iSOFT has harnessed its domain expertise to produce sound commercial success, enabling 431% employment growth and adding 1,086 employees.

"We are delighted to have out-performed all other healthcare IT companies in the Europe’s 500 list," said Chief Executive Officer Tim Whiston. “This gives clear evidence that we are realising our goal of becoming the number one healthcare software company in the world. Our success is due largely to our clear and consistent business strategy, focused on the development of world class software applications that address fully the clinical and administrative information management requirements of healthcare provider organisations. The momentum now building in the international iSOFT proposition, and the growing demand from the market, provides the basis for further exciting growth over the coming years.”

Martin Schoeller, President of the association Europe's 500 Entrepreneurs for Growth, said: “Given the economic environment of the last few years, iSOFT’s continued growth is a real achievement. Europe should stimulate employment through more fast growing companies like iSOFT; we believe that these champions of growth should be recognised as role models.”

iSOFT will be officially recognised for its business achievements and growth in employment at the Europe’s 500 Awards Dinner on 19 November in Barcelona – part of the Europe’s 500 Entrepreneurs Growth Summit.

For more information, please contact:

Alex Gray

iSOFT Group plc

Tel: +44 (0) 161 490 2777

Fax: +44 (0) 161 499 2933

Email: alex.gray@isoftplc.com