Thirteen Progress Customers Named Laureates by Computerworld Honors Program.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 12, 2004

The Progress Company, an operating unit of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS), and a leading supplier of technology for building the world's best business applications, today announced that 13 of its customers have been named Laureates for the 2004 Computerworld Honors 21st Century Achievement Awards, which recognize the world's most creative and innovative uses of information technology in society. Solutions at ADP, Cunard, FARA, Holiday Autos, the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, Kirchner, MIP Holdings, Perkins School for the Blind, Public Works Commission - City of Fayetteville, N.C., Quicken Loans, Salud S.A., Sedgwick CMS and the Sheriff's Office of St. Tammany Parish were recognized. All 13 of the selected Progress-based applications were built using the award-winning Progress(R) OpenEdge(TM) platform, which has itself received accolades for its high functionality and low total cost of ownership.

Representatives from Progress Software Corporation and 10 of the nominated companies attended a medal ceremony and black tie dinner event held in their honor at San Francisco's City Hall this weekend. During the formal ceremony, Progress' nominated partners officially became part of the Computerworld Honors Global Archive on Information Technology.

"The Computerworld Honors Medal of Achievement is presented annually to men and women around the world who have made outstanding progress for society through the visionary use of information technology," said Patrick J. McGovern, Chairman of the Computerworld Honors Chairmen's Committee and founder of International Data Group.

"We are pleased to see our industry-leading customers receive recognition for their success in using our technology to achieve their visions," said Joseph Alsop, chief executive officer and co-founder of Progress Software Corporation. "Together, Progress and its global network of Application Partners are in a great position to meet the increasing demand for 'exact-fit' applications. The combination of our partners' deep vertical domain expertise and our low total cost of ownership offer companies the world's best business applications. By simplifying the development, deployment and management of these world-class business applications, companies like the ones honored by Computerworld can successfully compete and win on a local and global scale."

The Laureates:

The companies nominated for the Computerworld Honors Awards each provide a unique value to their customers. Below is brief overview of each of the laureates. Full case studies are available on the Computerworld honors site located at http://www.cwheroes.org/home.asp.

ADP was nominated in the category of Business & Related Services. Using the OpenEdge platform, ADP has developed a complete range of expert payroll systems available through the Software as a Service (SaaS) or rental model, which allows small firms, especially those with multiple sites, to efficiently handle payroll without onsite hardware or software.

Cunard was nominated in the category of Media, Arts & Entertainment. The Queen Mary 2 (QM2), the largest, longest, tallest, widest and grandest ocean liner ever built, has integrated all of its property management systems (PMS) through Ship Partner, an application from Progress partner Discovery Travel Systems. The application supports all phases of cruise ship operation, including accommodations, crew, security access to the ship and off-ship communications, enhancing the guest experience.

FARA Business Services was nominated in the category of Finance, Insurance & Real Estate. The company recently switched to the OpenEdge platform, further enhancing its revolutionary application for the property and casualty insurance industry and enabling FARA to offer the application through the SaaS model. iAuditExpert uses patent-pending methods designed to help underwriters uncover undisclosed risks through a systematically scored risk survey. The system not only helps insurance companies to discover potential problems, but it also has a sophisticated document generation and delivery component.

Holiday Autos was nominated in the category of Business & Related Services. The company created Voyager, an application built on the OpenEdge platform that enables real time management of a large international auto rental fleet, and dramatically increases the efficiency of supplying more than two million rental days per year, while lowering costs and improving customer satisfaction.

The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast was nominated in the category of Medicine. The Hospice created Suncoast Solutions, blending OpenEdge technology with more than 25 years of hospice care experience to revolutionize how vital patient information is documented and shared with interdisciplinary patient care teams. The application allows care providers to create complete patient medical records from intake to bereavement with remote tracking that allows visiting staff to update sensitive information for thousands of patients.

Kirchner Corporation was nominated in the category of Manufacturing. The mid-market manufacturer of concept and diamond jewelry uses OpenEdge technology from Progress partner Jargon Software for their new wireless order processing application. Kirchner Corp.'s sales reps can now synchronize their personal data organizers (PDAs) with the company's corporate office helping the field sales team to automatically process orders, reduce errors and increase customer satisfaction.

MIP Holdings was nominated in the category of Business and Related Services. MIP is a pioneer with the SaaS model, where customers are charged a monthly fee for software, rather than an up-front purchase. This ensures shared risk and alignment of software with strategy.

Perkins School for the Blind was nominated in the category of Education and Academia. Through their use of the Keystone Library Automation System (KLAS) from Progress partner Keystone Systems, Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library manages a vast collection of Braille and unabridged recorded books and magazines, together with large-print versions and described videos. The library serves users who cannot read traditional print because of a disability.

Public Works Commission (PWC) of the City of Fayetteville, N.C. was nominated in the category of Government & Non-Profit Organizations. The PWC created its own Intra Government Network (IGN) using OpenEdge technology and 200 miles of fiber optics giving 24x7x365 access to the employees of the city, county, hospitals, libraries and the PWC. Residents now benefit from the county and city agencies paying less for services, thereby reducing their costs and helping to keep taxes at a minimum.

Quicken Loans was nominated in the category of Finance, Insurance & Real Estate. The company has created a custom sales/lead management platform based on OpenEdge technology. The platform is a mission-critical application with dozens of tools including a web services platform supporting credit report integration, automated underwriting, marketing tools with a library of pre-built 'action plans' for automated follow-up, completely integrate in-bound and out-bound call tracking, and database trigger logic to interface with their data warehousing solution.

Salud S.A. was nominated in the category of Medicine. Salud recently completed a project to distribute their applications and data between their remote offices using PeerDirect's two-way read-write replication. Now Ecuador's first pre-paid medicine enterprise can keep its business critical data closer to the people and offices that need it resulting in better performance and customer care.

Sedgwick CMS was nominated in the category of Business & Related Services. Their JURIS/viaOne applications are a comprehensive suite of Web-based tools built on the OpenEdge platform that give clients online access to medical claims information and user-controlled data management and reporting capabilities. This expedites injury claims by significantly reducing administrative burdens, getting employees to the care they need quickly, while pinpointing patterns of injuries that can be avoided in the future.

Sheriff's Office of St. Tammany Parish was nominated in the category of Government & Non-Profit Organizations. The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office has developed an inter-agency communication system using Progress OpenEdge technology that seamlessly connects the eight law-enforcement agencies, fire department and emergency medical services. This reduces paperwork, frees more officers to be on the streets and prepares the parish to respond to major emergencies. The system also provides all parties wireless access to critical information in real-time.

About the Computerworld Honors Program

Each year, the Computerworld Honors Chairmen's Committee nominates organizations that are using information technology to improve society for inclusion in the Computerworld Honors online Archive and the Collections of the Academic Council. The Academic Council represents the forty plus countries with case studies in the Collection. Founded in 1988/89, the Computerworld Honors Program searches for and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated vision and leadership as they strive to use information technology in innovative ways across ten categories: Business and Related Services; Education and Academia; Environment, Energy and Agriculture; Finance, Insurance and Real Estate; Government and Non-Profit Organizations; Manufacturing; Media, Arts and Entertainment; Medicine; Science; and Transportation. For further information please contact Frank Potter, associate director, Computerworld Honors Program [phone].

About the Progress Company

The Progress Company 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.

Progress(R) OpenEdge(TM) platform enables its partners to deliver lowest cost-of-ownership applications that are rapidly implemented and easily integrated within and across the extended enterprise. The Progress Company is an operating unit of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS) headquartered in Bedford, MA, and may be reached at www.progress.com or [phone].

Progress, OpenEdge, and Progress OpenEdge are trademarks 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.