Albion Leverages Success as Forte Partner and Launches National Forte Program; Program Designed to Provide Products and Services For Rapidly Developing and Deploying High-End Client/Server Applications.

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 26, 1996--Forte Software (NASDAQ: FRTE) today announced that Albion International, a consulting firm and Forte Partner that specializes in advanced technology consulting and software integration, has formed the Rapid Forte Success Program (RFSP).

RFSP is a dedicated practice consisting of Forte-related products and services to assist organizations with the rapid adoption of the Forte Application Environment. Forte is an integrated set of object-oriented tools for building, deploying and managing high-end client/server applications.

Based out of Albion's headquarters in Atlanta, RFSP reflects the firm's strategic focus on object-oriented technologies and distributed computing. Albion, a Forte Partner since 1994, has over a dozen Forte customers, including Corning, LCI International, LDDS/Worldcom, and Sprint International.

"A key reason that we were able to successfully develop and deploy our application was Albion's commitment to working closely with us to actively transfer their knowledge and expertise," said Jeremy Brown, team leader in Sprint's premise-based development group. Sprint has developed and deployed a Forte-based application that manages Sprint's private data networks, allowing technicians and field engineers to access, modify and update data across the enterprise. "As we move forward and use Forte on other projects, we plan to take advantage of Albion's RSFP components and standards to get a head start on our development, while saving time and money."

"We're pleased to be increasing our commitment to Forte, for which we continue to see growing demand," said Rob Marchant, vice president at Albion. "We selected Forte for its key differentiators like built-in Transaction Processing monitor support, asynchronous messaging, failover, load balancing, and object-oriented development. Albion's experience in high-end systems integration complements these strengths."

"Providing customers with the first class tools and expertise they need to get their applications up and running is our number one objective," said Marty Sprinzen, president and CEO of Forte Software. "Albion's expertise will help customers greatly through the development, deployment and management of their high-end, client/server applications."

Fixed-Price System Integration

RFSP provides a framework for Albion's fixed-price system integration work, which provides customers with the building blocks for successful applications without the risk of uncontrolled costs.

Mentoring and Training

RFSP will soon grow to an organization of 15 people and will be led by Marchant, who has over 10 years of experience with large systems development. RSFP is governed by RFS Plan, an Albion management tool encompassing the tasks and considerations for setup of the development environment(s), integration with version control system(s) and other functions. The RFS Plan allows organizations to gauge their progress, while managing and directing the organization's development efforts.

The Plan provides:

-- a five-day formal Object-Oriented Training Class based on SELECT Software's OOA/OOD training class. Albion teaches the class using SELECT Enterprise for Forte, which is a dedicated modeling toolset that supports the building of scaleable client-server applications in Forte.

--a 10-day formal Forte Developers Training Class that focuses on building a Forte application based on Albion's approach to knowledge transfer consulting.

Components and Standards

The RFSP also provides customers with a comprehensive set of Forte standards, a component library consisting of class hierarchies and component subsystems, as well as a set of Paradigm-Shift White Papers that formally address both management and developer issues.

RFSP includes the following pre-built components:

-- a sophisticated security logon subsystem

-- exception handling capabilities (these compliment the Albion Forte Architecture Standards)

-- generic windows for the display of wrappered comment information, help about dialogs, splash screens, etc.

-- utility classes such as telephone number, classes for reading INI files, etc.

-- extensible subsystems that can provide lock management and concurrency management

-- an extensible component that can provide intelligent message routing for sophisticated multi or single threaded load balancing of services

There are three core sets of standards within the Albion International Forte Standards Document Series. These standards are proven architecture principles designed to give customers a jump start in developing Forte-based applications.

Forte Development Standards provides the standards for the development of applications using Forte. The document covers naming and documentation conventions, as well as Forte Project definition, among other topics.

Forte Application Architecture Standards describes:

-- policies regarding database access (cursors, stored procedures, dynamic SQL, passwords, etc.)

-- the use of particular subsystems (Logon, Security, etc.)

-- the standard Forte application architecture to be used by the enterprise

-- exception handling policies

Forte Repository Management Standards describes:

-- Forte project staging and repository architectures

-- Forte integration with version control systems

-- Forte development repository management

Forte Application Environment

The Forte Application Environment is an integrated set of object-oriented tools for building, deploying and managing high-end client/server applications that give companies a competitive edge in today's business world. Forte enables organizations to create and effectively manage powerful, multi-tier client/server applications, designed to support up to thousands of concurrent users with high levels of reliability and performance. Forte reduces complexity for developers by providing automatic application partitioning, object-oriented development and independence from specific hardware platforms, operating systems and databases.

Forte Software, Inc.

Headquartered in Oakland, and publicly traded on NASDAQ, Forte Software, Inc. designs, develops, markets, and supports the Forte Application Environment for the development, deployment and management of high-end client/server applications. Forte has direct operations in North America and subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Australia. Forte is also marketed and sold worldwide through distributors and value-added resellers. Forte has been adopted by customers in a wide variety of industries, including banking, finance, healthcare/pharmaceuticals, insurance, and telecommunications.

For additional information contact Forte Software in the United States at 510/869-3400, in the United Kingdom at [phone], in France at [phone], in Germany at [phone], in Australia at [phone], via the Internet at [e-mail], or on the World Wide Web at http://www.forte.com. -0-

Note to Editors: Forte, Forte Application Environment, and the Forte logo are trademarks of Forte Software, Inc. Other brand or product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Forte Software

Rich Scheffer, 510/869-3422

or

Phase Two Strategies

Jenni Chang, 415/772-8424

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