ABK Systeme Teams with Micro Focus to Migrate Legacy COBOL To Linux.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

DALLAS & ISMANING, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 25, 2003

-- General Availability of Server Express for Linux Expedites

Customers' Ability to Use IBM eServer zSeries Linux-only

Mainframe in Production Environment --

Micro Focus International Ltd. (Micro Focus(R)), today announced at SHARE Technology Exchange in Dallas that ABK Systeme GmbH, a market leader in solution development for banking payment transactions and clearing for the EURO area, has realized significant performance gains by moving its legacy COBOL to the IBM eServer zSeries Linux-only mainframe. Working with IBM and Micro Focus, ABK offers a business payment system capable of processing 50 million domestic German payment transactions or more than 500,000 SWIFT-messages within 6 hours, underlining the productivity of COBOL as well as Linux as a platform for enterprise critical applications.

Now generally available, the Micro Focus Server Express(TM) solution for Linux allows customers using Linux on zSeries to consolidate applications running on multiple platforms onto a single server, thereby reducing maintenance and administrative efforts.

ABK selected Micro Focus Server Express to help deploy its Euro Finance Information System (E.F.I.S.(R)) business payment platform onto IBM's zSeries on Linux mainframe. ABK used Server Express for zSeries as the development environment and application server to produce a COBOL application that has significantly enhanced ABK's ability to serve the complex global client- and workflow-oriented payments system issues on one physical platform.

"With two of our main customers wanting to migrate to Linux within the year, we needed to bring our software in line with their requirements," said Armin Gerhardt, managing director of ABK Systeme GmbH in Dreieich, Germany. "Working with Micro Focus and IBM put us in the position to resolve this task in a very short period - helping our customers to complete their business-critical Linux projects on time."

With industries such as banking and telecom looking to decrease IT costs and free up precious resources, organizations like ABK are using Linux as a powerful alternative to supporting multiple platforms and applications. ABK joins a number of financial service-oriented companies that are using Server Express' ability to migrate their customer data to IBM's new Linux-only mainframe.

"Every day, more and more enterprises discover the advantages of moving their most critical business applications to Linux running on a zSeries mainframe," said Joan Meltzer, Director of Solutions Marketing, IBM Systems Group. "The addition of solutions like Micro Focus Server Express helps continue that momentum, and provides customers with a valuable tool to assist them in making the transition to Linux on the mainframe."

IBM's zSeries Linux mainframe technology continues to gain traction among IT shops as they work to regain control of applications housed across massive server farms. Recent research by industry analyst firm, Giga Information Group, concludes that, "given the flexibility with which Linux on the mainframe can be deployed, we expect that mainframe Linux will continue to be a cost-effective solution for existing and new mainframe customers alike." (Giga Planning Assumption, "Market Overview: IBM Mainframe Technology Still Viable in the Modern-Day Data Center," Oct. 7, 2002.)

"We are very excited about the growing momentum for Linux technology on eServer zSeries mainframe from IBM," said Irving Abraham, product manager for Micro Focus. "The need for COBOL solutions to migrate customers from disparate platforms to leading-edge Linux technology underscores our commitment to the future of COBOL as a viable and lasting technology that will exist side-by-side with the newer technologies of Java, Web-services, XML, .NET and others."

About Micro Focus

Micro Focus is the fastest, most effective way to migrate, extend, develop and deploy enterprise applications. As the industry standard for COBOL, Micro Focus enables organizations to maximize ROI while reducing development costs for accelerated business success. Founded in 1976, Micro Focus is a global company with principal offices in the United Kingdom, United States and Japan. For more information, visit www.microfocus.com.

Micro Focus is a registered trademark and Server Express is a trademark of Micro Focus International Ltd. All other trademarks contained herein are properties of their respective owners.