Bluestone Software and Progress Software Announce Licensing Agreement.

Business/Technology Editors

PHILADELPHIA and BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 25, 2000

Progress(R) SonicMQ(TM), the Leading E-Business Messaging Server,

to be Integrated with Bluestone's Total-e-Business(TM) Platform

Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS), a leading supplier of technology for building E-Business solutions, and Bluestone(R) Software Inc. (Nasdaq: BLSW), a leader in business-to-Web and wireless technologies, today announced an agreement to integrate Progress(R) SonicMQ(TM) as the premiere Java(TM)-based E-Business Messaging Service solution within Bluestone Software's Total-e-Business(TM) platform.

SonicMQ natively supports Internet standards and is based on the Java(TM) Message Service (JMS) specification, which provides a common set of interfaces, messaging concepts and programming strategies. As part of Bluestone's J2EE(TM) (Java(TM) 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition) strategy, the company will feature SonicMQ as the JMS integrated within Total-e-Server(TM), Bluestone's mission critical E-Business Application Server, to provide for the reliable, scalable and secure transport of business-critical data over the Internet. Total-e-Server leverages and implements SonicMQ in the Bluestone Universal Listener Framework (ULF) -- an essential component of Total-e-Server, which further automates application-to-application interaction -- as well as the new EJB 2.0 Message Driven Bean implementation. In combination, ULF, SonicMQ and EJB 2.0 provide a leading implementation for J2EE messaging.

"We have seen customers increase the use of JMS to deliver XML for processing to our robust J2EE Application Server," said Bob Bickel, executive vice president of products and executive technology officer for Bluestone Software. "Bluestone also decided to take a leadership position in implementing EJB 2.0 and the Message Driven Bean standard by leveraging our ULF and JMS. While we allow any JMS implementation to be plugged into Total-e-Server, we decided to provide our customer base easy access to today's JMS market leader, Progress SonicMQ. We have also agreed to work with Progress to optimize the integration between SonicMQ and the EJB 2.0 Message Driven Bean implementation."

"Both Progress SonicMQ and Bluestone share commitment and proven track records for scalability and performance," said Sally Cusack, Research Manager at IDC. "The selection of SonicMQ by Bluestone for their next generation application server validates and underscores the need for a scalable, best-of-breed, E-Business messaging product as a necessary element of success in creating robust E-Business solutions."

"The Bluestone alliance is an important step in helping us to complete our E-Business Messaging marketplace strategy. Bluestone has leading technology with its Universal Listener Framework and the EJB 2.0 Message Driven Bean implementation, and this is an important endorsement of our JMS product line," said Dan Potter, vice president of product marketing at Progress Software. "As an established market leader, our goal is to integrate with all of the J2EE platform providers, even those who produce their own JMS solutions."

SonicMQ represents a major evolution over previous generations of messaging products and is widely recognized as the leader in E-Business Messaging, providing a reliable mechanism for transporting application data between loosely coupled systems. SonicMQ has been chosen by many leading e-commerce companies and has won numerous awards, including Java Pro Magazine's Readers Choice Award for Best Java Messaging Tool, Best Java Middleware from attendees at the SIGS Conference for Java Development, and a World Class Award from Java Developer's Journal.

Total-e-Server is the J2EE Application Server Engine that powers the standards-based and feature-rich Internet Operating Environment(TM) (IOE) for building, integrating, deploying and managing E-Business applications. Total-e-Server supports the latest open technology standards, such as J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition) and XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and addresses the complex and mission-critical infrastructure requirements of E-Business projects, such as scalability, security, fault-tolerance and transaction integrity.

About Bluestone Software

Bluestone(R) Software, Inc. is a leader in business-to-Web and wireless technologies. Companies deploying e-business applications, like Avnet, Food.com, Reliance National, SGI, and Time Inc., rely on Bluestone's Total-e-Business platform to provide comprehensive e-business platforms, Internet-class infrastructures, and robust integration services that e-business success demands. Bluestone is headquartered at 300 Stevens Drive, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19113-1597. For more information, please call 888-Bluestone or 610-915-5000, email [e-mail], or visit http://www.bluestone.com.

About Progress Software

Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS) is a global supplier of software products and services for developing, deploying and managing business solutions across all computing and network environments. Progress Software products which are installed in over 60% of Fortune 100 companies, include application servers, databases, development tools and application management products for Internet/Web, extranet and intranet applications.

Progress Software's customers operate in 100 countries, are supported by more than 1,300 employees worldwide, and deploy annually over $2 billion in Progress-based applications built by more than 2,000 independent software vendors (ISVs). For more information visit www.progress.com or call 781-280-4000.

Progress and SonicMQ are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation in the United States and other countries. Bluestone is a registered trademark, and Total-e-Business, Total-e-Server, and Internet Operating Environment are trademarks of Bluestone Software. Java and all Java-based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

"Statements contained in this release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, as discussed in Progress Software's and Bluestone Software's respective filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission."