PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Back to Press Releases

Toronto Stock Exchange Symbol: SXC

Systems Xcellence Completes Acquisition of ComCoTec, Inc. and Appoints New Director to the Board

Conference call to be held Thursday, March 22 at 11.00 am ET

MILTON, Ontario (March 21, 2001) -- Systems Xcellence Inc. (TSE: SXC) announced today that it has completed the previously-announced acquisition of ComCoTec, Inc. of Lombard, IL, from The Potomac Group, Inc.

ComCoTec is a leading developer of software solutions and a growing application service provider (ASP) for the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain industry. In calendar 2000 ComCoTec processed and fully adjudicated over 22,000,000 real-time pharmacy claims for 3.5 million Americans. In addition, the Company switched approximately the same number of pharmacy transactions between pharmacies and other payers.

The merger will create the largest Company in the North American pharmacy information processing solutions business. The acquisition is anticipated to be immediately accretive to the Company's net earnings and cash flow.

The purchase price was financed through a combination of existing cash resources, debt, and the proceeds of a successful CDN $13 million special warrant offering completed on March 8th, 2001. The acquisition is deemed to be effective as of March 1, 2001.

In connection with the special warrant financing, Systems Xcellence is also pleased to announce the appointment of Shaun Kobrin, Investment Manager of Covington Capital Corporation, to its Board of Directors. Mr. Kobrin is a Chartered Accountant and is responsible for new investment analysis at Covington Capital and providing strategic council to Covington's investee companies in the areas of business development, financing and human resources. He also is a member of the Board of Directors at iMPath Networks and several advisory committees for a diverse group of companies.

Conference Call:

Gordon Glenn, President & CEO of Systems Xcellence and Jeff Jensen, President of ComCoTec will host a conference call on Thursday, March 22, 2001 at 11:00 a.m. EST to discuss the benefits of the merger and the outlook going forward.

Interested parties are invited to participate by calling the conference operator at 1-800-213-2525. The call will be recorded and a re-broadcast may be heard until midnight on Thursday, March 29, 2001 by dialing 1-800-558-5253 and entering access number 18246095# when prompted.

About ComCoTec, Inc.:

Established in 1981, ComCoTec systems process more prescription transactions annually than any other vendor in the world. Its enterprise solutions encompass every pharmacy practice setting within today's healthcare delivery systems including community pharmacies, mail service pharmacies, managed care organizations, hospitals and pharmacy benefit managers. Today, ComCoTec markets an integrated suite of pharmacy software applications that includes the RxEXPRESST Pharmacy Management System, the RxCLAIMT Claims Processing System, the RxTRACKT Data Warehousing/Ad Hoc Reporting System, RxMAXT Performance Based Contract System and the RxSERVERT Client/Server Engine and Transaction Router.

About Systems Xcellence and HxBenefit, Inc.:

Systems Xcellence is headquartered in Milton, Ontario, and provides advanced online transaction processing solutions for the healthcare benefits management industry. The Company combines robust software products, business expertise, and services to deliver superior solutions to the ever-changing managed care sector. The Company's shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol SXC. Systems Xcellence can be found on the Internet at http://www.sxc.com

As a wholly owned subsidiary of Systems Xcellence, HxBenefit, Inc. is an application service provider (ASP) focussed on the delivery of comprehensive pharmacy benefit processing and analysis services directly to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), managed care organizations (MCO's), retail pharmacies and other healthcare intermediaries involved in managing drug benefit programs. HxBenefit hosts the Systems Xcellence Inc. suite of Healthcare Xcellence (Hx)ä software as an application service provider (ASP), utilizing on-line transaction processing systems and the Internet. Customers have Internet portal-based access to the Company's rich and full function suite of products on a transaction or subscription fee basis. HxBenefit Inc. is located in its new data and operations center in Scottsdale, Arizona. HxBenefit Inc. can be found on the Internet at http://www.hxbenefit.com

This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations. These forward-looking statements entail various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in these forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the Management Discussion and Analysis published in the Company's annual report.