Targacept Chooses Empliant to Digitize HR Administration and Employee Communication

RALEIGH, N.C.-October 29, 2001- Empliant, Inc., providers of ASP-delivered, employee self-reliant technology solutions, announced today that the company has signed Targacept, Inc., a privately held research and development pharmaceutical company, to its growing list of customers. Targacept will deploy Empliant to reduce HR administration costs, improve employee communication, and accelerate their corporate vision to discover, develop, and market products to treat diseases of the nervous system.

Empliant's suite of web-engineered tools will significantly reduce Targacept's administrative expense, provide further insight into benefits value, and improve overall productivity, driving self-reliance for human resources administrative functions and internal communications. Furthermore, the removal of paper-based, staff-intensive HR processes will allow Targacept to re-deploy its HR resources to more strategic work within the organization.

"As businesses continue to find ways to gain a competitive advantage and prosper in today's economy, efficient business processes are increasingly becoming a requirement and even a source of differentiation," said J. Donald deBethizy, Ph.D., President and CEO of Targacept. "Empliant improves our internal performance by increasing the velocity of HR administration, improving communication with employees, and creating opportunities to add value by allowing human resources personnel to focus on more strategic pursuits for our organization, such as strengths-based management."

Empliant will create and manage an internal website customized with Targacept's own corporate identity and content, including their employee handbook, policies, benefits information, and forms. In addition to basic content management, Empliant's fully-integrated suite of tools promotes employee self-reliance by enabling interactive transactions, such as benefits enrollment and personal data updates and changes.

"Empliant offers us a way to manage all of our human resources information in one central location," said Karen Hicks, Human Resources Manager of Targacept. "By using a standard web browser, our employees have instant access to company benefit plans and provisions, handbooks, policies, news, and links to our medical, dental, and 401(k) plans."

"The effective management of interactive content is a critical component to creating an environment that fosters employee self-reliance," said David F. Russo, President and CEO of Empliant. "We not only offer companies the ability to organize and distribute HR information when and where it is needed, but also provide the tools needed to help employees make interactive decisions based on the latest information."

About Targacept, Inc.
Targacept, a world leader in neuronal nicotinic receptor-based pharmaceutical research and development, was established in 1997 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. It was spun out in August 2000, in one of the largest ($30.4 million) first-round venture capital financings in U.S. biotech history and the largest in North Carolina biotech history.

Targacept is developing a new class of drugs that targets neuronal nicotinic receptors. The company has products in research and development for treating Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, ulcerative colitis, depression, pain, and schizophrenia, among others. Targacept has strategic alliances with Aventis Pharmaceuticals of Strasbourg, France and Dr. Falk Pharma of Freiburg, Germany to develop and commercialize some of Targacept's compounds.

Other information about Targacept can be obtained at the company's website, www.targacept.com.

About Empliant, Inc.
Empliant, Inc., located in Raleigh, N.C., provides ASP-delivered, employee self-reliant solutions that reduce administration costs, increase employee satisfaction, and enhance operational efficiency. The company's solutions include tools for automated, on-line content management; interactive transactions; and administration, which are accessed through a standard web browser. This reduces capitalization costs and enables employers to provide employees with self-service capabilities to manage their own data in a secure, private environment. Empliant offers small to medium-sized enterprises (SME) the rich functionality found in expensive applications without the costs, long implementation period, and reliance on customer support and product maintenance. For more information about Empliant's employee self-reliant solutions visit www.empliant.com.