Carrier Logistics Selects Progress OpenEdge Platform for Enhanced Freight Management Application.

Business/Technology Editors

BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 2002

Progress ISV Opts for OpenEdge's(TM) Ease of Deployment, Low

Cost-of-Ownership, and High Reliability to Keep On Truckin'

The Progress Company, a business unit of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq:PRGS) and a leading supplier of technology for building e-business solutions, today announced that Carrier Logistics, Inc. (CLI), a leading provider of global freight management applications, has selected the Progress(R) OpenEdge(TM) e-business platform to Web-enable the next generation of its FACTS2000 freight management and tracking system.

CLI, a Progress independent software vendor (ISV) since 1986, is one of the world's premier providers of logistics software to the "less-than-truckload" (LTL) segment of the $800 billion freight industry. The application enables leading delivery companies to efficiently coordinate delivery schedules, loading dock operations and trailer space, to ensure on-time delivery of shipments and manage all elements of their business. CLI wanted to provide the transportation market with a Web-enabled product, giving its customers greater application functionality with an efficient, user-friendly interface. After researching multiple options, CLI decided on the Progress OpenEdge platform from the Progress Company for its low cost-of-ownership, high scalability and integrated Progress Dynamics(TM) application framework.

Announced last month (see press release at http://www.progress.com/releases/2001/121101a.htm), Dynamics accelerates the development, assembly and deployment of business applications by providing a repository-based framework for building OpenEdge-powered applications. "Dynamics was one of the key motivating factors behind our choice of the OpenEdge platform," said Kevin Linardic, senior transportation consultant for CLI. "After spending some time in the Progress Empowerment Center(SM) to learn about Dynamics, and visiting some Progress customers who have used the framework, it became clear that Dynamics would provide the fastest time-to-market of all our application development options."

The FACTS2000 application manages hundreds of thousands of shipments daily for LTL carriers around the world. FACTS2000 includes everything LTL carriers need to automate both their freight operations and back-office financial functions. Because the system is based on the OpenEdge platform, it provides a far lower total cost-of-ownership than other widely deployed software platforms in the LTL space.

"Today's application providers need to work with a set of products and services that allows them to get to market faster, with all of the features their customers require, including Web-enablement," said David Ireland, president of the Progress Company. "The OpenEdge e-business platform enables users to protect their existing investment while providing the speed and flexibility they need to stay ahead of the pack -- all this, but with a lower overhead both for development and deployment."

Progress(R) OpenEdge(TM) Offers Lower Cost-of-Ownership

"It takes far fewer people to run an application based on OpenEdge than it takes to run one built with other platforms," said Kenneth Weinberg, vice president of Carrier Logistics. "We recently had a deployment where the customer needed five people to run the outgoing application, and only one person to run our Progress-based FACTS2000 application. Reductions like this are common in cases where we replace a conventional freight system. And because OpenEdge is based on open standards, FACTS2000 will run on virtually any hardware, which is another feature that our customers love."

The new user-friendly version of FACTS2000 provides enhanced functionality particularly in the area of reporting and rating/pricing. It centralizes pricing information, greatly reducing required manpower and the opportunity for billing errors. The system also includes a wireless component, in which both radio and satellite communications are used to transmit dispatch information to drivers en-route. It even provides instructions on how to load trucks to ensure maximum productivity. The new Web-enabled OpenEdge release of FACTS2000 will provide all of the platform components, in addition to the scalability and reliability required to support this demanding, mission-critical application.

"We have continually taken advantage of Progress' latest releases to enhance our product," Weinberg added. "Our customers range from small companies to the world's largest LTL carriers, and OpenEdge scales to accommodate them all. Reliability is critical to our customers; if the FACTS2000 system shuts down, their business shuts down. We've found Progress to be virtually bulletproof; our FACTS2000 systems just never go down."

About CLI

Carrier Logistics, Inc., Tarrytown, N.Y., has been a transportation systems and engineering consultant and developer of systems technology for the trucking industry for more than 25 years. Their customers include several major U.S. and Canadian carriers. CLI may be reached at: 914-332-0300 (tel.); email at: [e-mail], or on the Web at: www.carrierlogistics.com.

About the Progress Company

The Progress Company is a global supplier of software technology and services for developing, deploying, integrating and managing business solutions. The company provides a comprehensive suite of products that includes application development tools, application servers, messaging servers, and the industry's most widely used, lowest-cost-of-ownership embedded database.

The Progress Company's partners include more than 2,000 independent software vendors (ISVs) and application service providers (ASPs) who supply annually over $5 billion in Progress(R)-based applications and related services. Over 50,000 organizations across more than 120 countries - including 70 percent of the Fortune 100 - rely on Progress-based applications. The Progress Company, an operating unit of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS), is headquartered in Bedford, Mass., and can be reached at 1-781-280-4000 or on the Web at www.progress.com .

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