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Twelve Progress Customers Named Laureates By Computerworld Honors Program

Progress® OpenEdge™-Based Solutions at Church World Service, DaimlerChrysler, First4Farming, Integrated Warehousing Solutions, Kaiser Permanente, ZOZ Kielce, Parnassia, Pioneer Investments, Sprint, Transitions Optical, Tropicana and Wilke-Thornton Receive Honors

Boston, Mass.April 14, 2003Progress Exchange 2003 — The Progress Company, a business unit of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS) and a leading supplier of technology for building business applications, today announced that 12 of its customers have been named Laureates for the 2003 Computerworld Honors 21st Century Achievement Awards, which recognize the world's most creative and innovative uses of information technology in society.

Representatives from Progress Software Corporation and several of the nominated companies attended a medal ceremony and black tie dinner event in their honor held this past Sunday at San Francisco's City Hall. During the formal ceremony, Progress' nominated partners officially became part of the Computerworld Honors Global Archive on Information Technology.

"The Computerworld Honors Medal of Achievement is presented annually to men and women around the world who have made outstanding progress to society through the visionary use of information technology," said Patrick J. McGovern, Chairman of the Computerworld Honors Chairmen's Committee and the founder of International Data Group.

All 12 of the selected Progress-based applications were built using the award-winning Progress® OpenEdge™ platform, which has itself received accolades for its high functionality and low total cost of ownership.

"We are pleased to see our industry-leading customers receive recognition for their success in using our technology to achieve their visions," said Joseph Alsop, chief executive officer and co-founder of Progress Software Corporation. "Together, Progress and its global network of application partners are in a great position to meet the increasing demand for 'exact-fit' applications. The combination of our partners' broad vertical domain expertise and our low total cost of ownership offer companies the world's best business applications. By simplifying the development, deployment and management of these world-class business applications, companies like the ones honored by Computerworld can successfully compete and win on a local and global scale."

More than 2,000 ISVs and ASPs have built business-critical applications with Progress products. The companies nominated for the Computerworld Honors Awards each provide a unique value to their end customers:

Church World Services was nominated in the Government & Non-Profit Organizations Category and recognized for its technology that manages worldwide transactions associated with donations, accounting, and donor tracking. A state-of-the-art donation and financial management system assures smooth processing of the peak donation flows at holidays and after disasters, helping to assure that a $70 million relief budget quickly gets into the hands of those who need it.

DaimlerChrysler was nominated in the Transportation Category and recognized for its higher level of systems integration and real-time information access to its IT infrastructure. Adoption of a messaging backbone and creation of an extranet enables its major fleet services management division to give all employees access to the same critical business data, enhancing customer service.

First4Farming was nominated in the Environment, Energy & Agriculture Category and recognized for its business-to-business e-commerce trading facility. The world's first integrated supply-chain management system for agriculture allows farmers, processors, distributors and manufacturers to interact electronically, dramatically increasing productivity while ensuring compliance with the new regulatory requirements.

Integrated Warehousing Solutions was nominated in the Manufacturing Category and recognized for its IRMS software. Through collaboration, technology integration, reverse logistics and the Internet, automated supply-chain management systems enable the benefits of distance learning to rapidly spread from modest limits within a single state to cover the entire country in just a few months.

Kaiser Permanente was nominated in the Medicine Category and recognized for its WISE application. A decentralized purchasing automation system supports buyers and end users with their own specialized needs for managing critical medical equipment inventories in offices throughout California, while providing the central accounting staff with the data they need to retain tight financial control.

Parnassia was nominated in the Medicine Category and recognized for improving cooperation and services between its widely distributed care centers. Massive integration of the IT infrastructures of seven formerly independent mental health institutions reduces the number of actively-used applications from 600 to 50, paving the way for improved patient care and reduced costs.

Pioneer Investments was nominated in the Finance, Insurance & Real Estate Category and recognized for its real-time international global transfer agency system. The investment industry's first multi-currency, multi-lingual global transfer agency system is capable of handling U.S. and European funds. It also provides dramatic and continuing improvements in transactional accuracy, increasing both productivity and customer satisfaction.

Sprint was nominated in the Business & Related Services Category and recognized for its customer relationship management (CRM) solution. Consolidation of six different local telephone divisions, each supported by completely different systems, into a single business process and customer relationship management system enables a single point of contact for business customers.

Transitions Optical was nominated in the Manufacturing Category and recognized for creating a comprehensive business solution that dramatically increases market visibility, allowing the business to reduce inventory cost and capital investment by 70 percent.

Tropicana was nominated in the Manufacturing Category and recognized for its CRS solution. The world's leading producer and marketer of branded fruit juices processes 10,000 customer calls a month with the CRS solution, enabling the company to get and respond to customer feedback rapidly, maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.

Wilke-Thornton was nominated in the Business & Related Services Category and recognized for its CRS Anywhere, Cyber CRS & Cyber ILS programs. Active management of customers converts contact centers into proactive resources for customer-based knowledge and marketplace data that can be leveraged and analyzed to improve product research, performance, development, and enhance customer relationships.

ZOZ Kielce was nominated in the Medicine Category for their Web-based administration system Waldemar Kopys. A network of 22 clinic-based systems supports the transfer of healthcare management from the Polish national government to the locality. These systems smooth insurance claim processing and reduce data errors by 90 percent.

About the Computerworld Honors Program

Each year, the Computerworld Honors Chairmen's Committee nominates organizations that are using information technology to improve society for inclusion in the Computerworld Honors online Archive and the Collections of the Academic Council. The Academic Council represents the forty plus countries with case studies in the Collection. Founded in 1988/89, the Computerworld Honors Program searches for and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated vision and leadership as they strive to use information technology in innovative ways across ten categories: Business and Related Services; Education and Academia; Environment, Energy and Agriculture; Finance, Insurance and Real Estate; Government and Non-Profit Organizations; Manufacturing; Media, Arts and Entertainment; Medicine; Science; and Transportation. For further information please contact Frank Potter, associate director, Computerworld Honors Program (703) 481-1804.

About the Progress Company

The Progress Company simplifies the development, deployment, integration, and management of the world's best business applications. Progress and its 2,000 Application Partners offer more than 5,000 Progress-based business applications that precisely fit customer needs and deliver competitive advantage. Customers purchase more than $5 billion annually in cost-effective software and services from Progress and its partners.

Progress® OpenEdge™ platform enables its partners to deliver lowest cost-of-ownership applications that are rapidly implemented and easily integrated within and across the extended enterprise. The Progress Company is an operating unit of Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS) headquartered in Bedford, Mass., and may be reached at http://www.progress.com/index.ssp or +1-781-280-4000.



Progress, OpenEdge, and Progress OpenEdge are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Any trademarks or service marks contained herein may be the property of their respective owners.

For More Information:

Candace Clemens
Progress Software
Telephone: +1 (781) 280-4101
Email: cclemens@progress.com

 

Avi Dines
Schwartz Communications, Inc.
Telephone: 1-781-684-0770
Email: progress@schwartz-pr.com



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