Progress Software Joins Enterprise Integration Council as Co-Founder

Business Wire, April 1, 1999

BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 1, 1999--

Leading Provider of Solutions for Application Development,

Deployment and Management Embraces Standards Along with

More Than 20 New Members

Including IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle

Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS) today announced that it is a charter member in the Enterprise Integration Council (EIC). The company joins other technology leaders in embracing standards that allow organizations to integrate business practices within--and beyond--their enterprise, enhancing communication with suppliers, partners and customers.

Progress Software's suite of products include two families of application servers, the Progress(R) Open AppServer(TM) and the Progress(R) Apptivity(TM) Application Server. Both products allow companies to rapidly deploy multi-tier applications while easing application integration challenges--in short, maximizing their investment in legacy technologies and minimizing total cost of ownership.

The EIC was founded to establish a standard architecture for enterprise application integration (EAI). The EISC defines (EAI) as the process of enabling and maintaining the integrity of the extended enterprise through the integration of business applications. Analysts predict that within a year, the market for enterprise application integration products and services is expected to approach $1 billion.

A recent META Group study shows that the typical G2000 company has close to 50 independent enterprise applications, most of which are deployed on incompatible platforms and communicate via incompatible protocols. In recent years, forces such as globalization, electronic commerce, supply chain integration and deregulation have increased the business imperative to integrate these applications and improve information flow between partners, suppliers and customers.

"Progress Software brings tremendous value to the council's charter because of our deep experience with distributing applications and our large, indirect business channel," said Greg O'Connor, vice president of engineering for Progress Software's Apptivity product unit.

Progress Software's participation in the EIC will also benefit end-users by:

--Enhancing current applications to extend business processes across application and system boundaries;

--Significantly reducing the time, cost and effort required to deploy business applications; and

--Minimizing overall total cost of ownership.

For more information about the Enterprise Integration Council, please refer to the Website at www.iswatch.com or call David McGoveran, EIC founder and chairman at 831-338-4621 or JP Morgenthal, EIC vice chairman and chief architect at 516-792-0997.

About Progress Software

Professional developers use Progress Software products to build, deploy and manage applications across Internet, client/server and host/terminal computing environments. Progress Software is a worldwide supplier with 1,200 employees and sells in over 100 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America. Progress Software's products are used primarily by Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), who in turn generate more than $1.5 billion in Progress-based application sales annually. For more information visit our Web site at www.progress.com, or in the U.S. call 1-800-477-6473.

Progress is a registered trademark of Progress Software Corporation. Apptivity is a trademark of Progress Software Corporation. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.