SciQuest Launches Diversity Supplier Manager; University of Pennsylvania Utilizes Latest Solution to Manage Its Diversity Spend

Business Wire, July 19, 2004

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- SciQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ: SQST) today announced the launch of Diversity Supplier Manager, the latest offering in the company's suite of on-demand supplier relationship management (SRM) solutions. By using SciQuest's Diversity Supplier Manager, organizations can accurately classify and report on diversity suppliers, as well as promote diversity suppliers to buyers throughout the organization.

Today more organizations are directing spend to diversity suppliers, such as minority or woman-owned businesses. The University of Pennsylvania is the first university to choose SciQuest's diversity solution to help meet their diversity business objectives by providing targeted diversity and local community suppliers with content management tools and services to enable content into the Penn Marketplace, the University's successful eProcurement supplier exchange.

According to Ralph Maier, associate director of purchasing services for the University, "SciQuest's Diversity Supplier Manager enables us to bridge the gap between our electronic purchasing business requirements and supplier capabilities. The solution allows diversity and local community-based suppliers to develop the skills they need to electronically participate and maintain their content, which helps the local community to grow. That in turn benefits our institution. It is just good business."

As part of the offering, SciQuest will verify and categorize an organization's hosted supplier network into 13 standard diversity classifications, such as minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, etc. These classifications will be updated on a quarterly basis to ensure that all suppliers are properly categorized with current certification information. Other key features and benefits include:

--Promote spending with designated diversity suppliers - once diverse suppliers have been designated, organizations can promote those suppliers and their products.

--Track spending through diversity supplier spending reports - once diversity suppliers are classified, organizations can generate custom reports on diversity spending patterns. This information can be used to report to state and federal agencies requiring diversity spend information, as well as for benchmarking against organizational diversity spending goals.

"As organizations continue to drive more of their dollars to minority businesses they are turning to SciQuest to help them manage that spend," said Stephen J. Wiehe, president and CEO of SciQuest. "We are pleased to offer a solution that will help our customers maximize minority spend and offer visibility into their diversity investments."

About SciQuest

SciQuest's on-demand solutions integrate organizations with their suppliers to enable comprehensive spend management for the life sciences and higher education markets.

SciQuest's complete suite of modular applications helps to automate the source-to-settle process. When used with the SciQuest Supplier Network, these solutions reduce redundant tasks and maintain data integrity throughout the cycle of finding, acquiring and managing goods to increase efficiency, reduce cost and provide total spend visibility.

Many of the world's leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical and academic organizations rely on SciQuest solutions such as Biogen Idec, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Roche, Schering-Plough, Arizona State University, Indiana University, University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania. SciQuest is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, NC. For more information about SciQuest, please visit www.sciquest.com or call 1-919-659-2100.

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including all statements regarding the Company's customer momentum and sales execution, future revenues, opportunities for future growth, position for future success and future rewards for stockholders. For such statements, the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The potential risks and uncertainties associated with these forward-looking statements could cause actual results to differ materially from those presented herein, and the reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements are discussed in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2004, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, under the caption "Factors That May Affect Future Results", and include the risk that forecasting future performance may be difficult, that the Company may not experience revenue growth or control expenses, that the Company is investing in new products and services with no guarantee of success, that the Company relies on a limited number of larger customers for a significant portion of its revenues, that the Company's business will suffer if it does not successfully market the SciQuest brand, that the Company's revenue growth may be adversely affected by spending reductions in the life sciences and higher education markets, and that the Company may not achieve profitability.