Progress Software Named One of the Most Influential Technology Leaders by Intelligent Enterprise Magazine.

BEDFORD, Mass. -- Editors' Choice Award Recognizes How Progress Software Enables Organizations to Rise Above the 'Spaghetti Code' Chaos and Respond to Changing Business Conditions

Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS), a supplier of leading technology to develop, deploy, integrate and manage business applications, today announced the company has been named one of the top 12 most influential technology companies by Intelligent Enterprise magazine. Progress received the publication's prestigious Editors' Choice Award because, according to Intelligent Enterprise, "its enterprise service bus (ESB), process management, service-oriented architecture (SOA) and other new technology for event stream processing (ESP) enables organizations to rise above the chaos and respond to changing business conditions as never before."

"With a diverse, yet complementary portfolio of best-of-breed products and technologies, Progress Software helps organizations create powerful business applications that respond to changing business and IT conditions," said David Stodder, editor-in-chief of Intelligent Enterprise. "We are pleased to recognize Progress Software as one of the year's most influential technology companies. We expect the company to continue to make great strides in the empowerment of SOAs through its ESB, run-time governance and visibility, process management and ESP technologies."

Progress Software has pioneered many major emerging innovations and improvements in business and IT collaboration. Some of these Progress innovations include:

--The invention of the enterprise service bus with its Sonic ESB(R);

--Making Algorithmic Trading feasible and practical with Apama(R) event stream processing;

--The introduction of the first commercial implementation of natural language search and query to market with Progress(R) EasyAsk(R);

--The first web service stack for the mainframe with Shadow RTE(TM);

--The co-invention of XQuery to form DataDirect XQuery(TM), a native XML query and transformation language offering a powerful, scalable and standards-based approach for integrating relational and XML data;

--And, the co-invention of JDBC (Java(TM) Database Connectivity) with DataDirect Connect(R) for JDBC and the co-development of ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) with DataDirect Connect for ODBC, both of which offer the fastest and most comprehensive suite of drivers for all major databases.

This continuous innovation has enabled Progress to post an enviable financial record, superior to every other enterprise software company, of 19 consecutive quarters of year-on-year revenue growth and 21 consecutive years of operating income.

With a comprehensive portfolio of innovative products, including Actional(R) SOA and web service management, Apama ESP, DataDirect data connectivity and mainframe integration, Progress EasyAsk natural language query, the Progress OpenEdge(R) business application platform, and the Sonic ESB, Progress improves an organization's ability to increase the value of its business, reduce IT complexity and decrease TCO (total cost of ownership) by simplifying and accelerating the development, deployment, integration and management of business applications.

"Progress has a clear vision of how the latest generation of applications needs to be built and deployed to gain the most business value and this prestigious award is a testament to our hard work to execute against this vision," said Jeffrey Stamen, senior vice president, corporate development and strategy, Progress Software Corporation. "Bringing together all of the major components of services, events and data infrastructure for a real-time enterprise based on a SOA approach, Progress makes the real-time, connected enterprise a reality. Progress enables organizations to bolster their top line through better responsiveness and their bottom line through improved operational efficiency."

Products and technologies from Progress Software product lines are embedded in the world's most mission-critical applications and infrastructure, many provided by the world's most influential IT companies. For example, nine of the remaining 11 elite companies honored by Intelligent Enterprise are significant customers of Progress' DataDirect product line.

In addition, Progress has more than 2,000 Application Partners (independent software vendors), who have combined the power of Progress' technology with their specialization in building mission-critical applications. These Progress Application Partners have developed and deployed over 5,000 distinct applications, which are used in over 60,000 organizations around the world and have been deployed at more than 110,000 locations. Progress and its Application Partners deploy applications at 10,000 new sites and add 600,000 new users every year.

An example of the value Progress brings to companies is illustrated with the significant breakthrough in retail store automation and the deployment of item-level RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in a SOA suite of applications. Progress customer and the Netherlands' largest book retailer, Boekhandels Groep Nederland-Selexyz (BGN-Selexyz), is using technology from four Progress product lines to deliver a unique retail application:

--Progress OpenEdge is the platform for all transactions processed by the stores nationwide;

--Apama ESP is used for processing the RFID data;

--Sonic ESB provides the integration backbone for the store automation applications; and

--Progress EasyAsk delivers natural language access to the application by end users.

BGN-Selexyz is well on its way to generating dramatic labor savings, reduced inventory reconciliation costs, improved stock control, enhanced visibility into its supply chain operations, increased shopper "basket size" and enriched shopper experience. Since opening the first of many fully-automated "SmartStores" that combine item-level RFID tagging and Progress-based SOA to deliver a tightly integrated warehouse-to-consumer supply chain, BGN-Selexyz has already seen immediate efficiency gains and customer service improvements.

"The key to our success is our ability to deliver an outstanding customer experience when a customer enters one of our book stores," said Jan Vink, IT Director for Boekhandels Groep Nederland-Selexyz. "Equally important for us is providing the tools to our marketing teams that allow them to better merchandise books. With infrastructure software, ESP, SOA and intelligent search applications from Progress, we have accomplished all of our business goals for this deployment. On top of that, we have built the world's first, fully-automated item-level RFID tagged store with this pioneering set of applications."

Intelligent Enterprise's annual Editors' Choice Awards highlight companies that are driving the intelligent enterprise. For more information on the Editors' Choice Awards, please read the full feature article in the May 1 issue of Intelligent Enterprise or online at www.intelligententerprise.com/editorschoice.

About Progress Software Corporation

Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS) is a global industry leader providing application infrastructure software for all aspects of the development, deployment, integration and management of business applications through its operating units: Progress OpenEdge Division, Sonic Software, DataDirect Technologies and Progress Real Time Division. Headquartered in Bedford, Mass., Progress can be reached at www.progress.com or [phone].

About Intelligent Enterprise

Published in print and online, CMP Media's LLC's Intelligent Enterprise is the only magazine dedicated to helping organizations plan and deploy strategic business applications that turn information into intelligence. Intelligent Enterprise empowers 80,000 business application analysts, architects and managers charged with unlocking and delivering the strategic value of information so their organizations can model, develop and improve enterprise business processes and drive excellence through operational decision-making. Intelligent Enterprise content offers a unique focus on how to apply leading-edge technologies to sharpen such business objectives as improving the customer experience, developing smarter marketing campaigns, streamlining supply chains, detecting high-risk or fraudulent activity and creating effective, performance-driven enterprises. Along with print and online content, Intelligent Enterprise delivers expert coverage and strategic IT leadership through Webinars, conferences, e-newsletters and more. See our Web site at www.IntelligentEnterprise.com.

Progress, Actional, DataDirect, OpenEdge, Sonic ESB, Apama, EasyAsk, DataDirect Connect, Shadow RTE, DataDirect XQuery, and Progress OpenEdge are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation or one of its subsidiaries or affiliates 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 service marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.