Progress Customer and Industry Leader Wins International Award for Innovative Use of OpenEdge Platform and Sonic ESB.

BEDFORD, Mass. -- Kalman Tiboldi, IT Director of Thermote & Vanhalst, World's Largest Forklift Supplier, named 'IT Manager of the Year' by Leading European Trade Publication, Data News

Progress Software, a business unit of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS) and a leading supplier of technology for building the world's best business applications, today announced that Kalman Tiboldi of Belgium-based Thermote & Vanhalst (TVH), the world's largest supplier of forklifts and forklift parts, has been awarded IT Manager of the Year by Data News, a respected Belgian IT trade publication. Data News noted TVH's innovative use of Progress(R) technology to build and integrate new applications quickly and efficiently. Tiboldi has used the Progress OpenEdge(TM) platform, the foundation for Progress' component-based approach to building distributed applications for Service Oriented Architectures (SOA), to turn TVH into a real-time, extended enterprise.

Tiboldi took advantage of the OpenEdge user interface (UI) independence, which allows him to easily choose from among the most popular user interface technologies, including native support for Microsoft .NET or Java(TM) UIs, without modifying TVH's proven Progress-based business logic. OpenEdge also affords TVH two levels of support for Web services through the OpenEdge Application Server, which combines business processing and services, to offer native abilities to provide and consume Web services. For a higher level of services orchestration and business process management, Tiboldi also employed Sonic Software's industry-leading enterprise service bus (ESB), Sonic ESB(R), an integral component of the OpenEdge platform.

By utilizing Sonic ESB, OpenEdge allowed Tiboldi to create a standards-based method to share information with any other applications or services that are "plugged in" to the ESB. This also allows TVH to easily extend its existing applications and market reach.

"We made the right choice in choosing Progress OpenEdge as our development environment and our database," Tiboldi says. "We've developed a range of completely integrated applications, all built in-house and based on Progress technology. But undoubtedly the most important benefit is the fact that we can react immediately to any change in demand, be it from our employees, suppliers or customers. And that means having a flawless IT infrastructure with flexible applications that can instantly adjust to new demands if and when needed."

About TVH

For more than 30 years now TVH group Thermote & Vanhalst has been a firm with a passion for forklifts. TVH seeks and offers the best solution for more than 17,000 active customers in more than 150 countries. Thanks to the know-how and the specialized employees in all the divisions, TVH has become number one all over the world concerning forklifts.

In this West Flemish company everything is concentrated on forklifts. It does not matter what it deals with: new or second-hand forklifts, in order to buy or rent, repair or deliver components. Irrespective of the demand, at TVH we have the pat answer. TVH is characterized by its biggest one-stop shop in the world for forklifts and makes sure everything reaches the customer as quickly as possible. The company is divided into 5 different divisions, each with its own specializations and professionals. On top of that, TVH has built a world-wide distribution network of subsidiary companies in France, the UK, USA, Morocco, China, Australia, Italy, Spain, Malaysia, South Africa, etc.

About Progress Software

Progress Software is an operating company of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS), a $300+ million global software industry leader. Progress Software 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.

The Progress(R) OpenEdge(TM) platform enables its partners to rapidly build and deliver lowest cost-of-ownership applications. Progress Software Corporation also conducts business through its other operating companies: Sonic Software, DataDirect Technologies, ObjectStore and PeerDirect. Headquartered in Bedford, Mass., Progress Software can be reached on the Web at http://www.progress.com or by phone at [phone].

Progress, OpenEdge, and Progress OpenEdge are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Sonic ESB is a trademark of Sonic Software Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Java and all Java-based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Any other trademarks or registered trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.