BEDFORD, Mass.(BUSINESS WIRE)

Companies Around the World Validate Superiority of the Progress(R) Database in Addressing Market Needs

---

The Progress Company, a business unit of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq:PRGS) and a leading supplier of technology for building e-business solutions, announced today that a new study conducted by IDC corroborates Progress Software's position as the leader in the embedded database market. The IDC report echoes Progress' leadership position in this market cited in a Gartner/Dataquest report published in June.

The IDC study, "Embedded Database Management Systems Forecast and Analysis, 2001-2005," identifies Progress Software as the embedded database segment leader with 18.6 percent market share--a market that derives most of its revenue from the use of the database embedded in vertical applications and tools where low cost, ease of maintenance, and reliability are essential.

"Progress continues to be a leading vendor of embedded database technology," said Susan Funke, IDC's Research Manager for Information and Data Management. "At IDC, we are noticing a growth in demand for self-contained applications that address vertical markets such as healthcare and manufacturing where IT is now a key driver. In addition, the DBA (database administrator) shortage and a growing need for complex data management in packaged software will drive demand for RDBMS products that feature self-management and zero administration."

Global Customers Cite Qualities Of The Leading Embedded Database
Progress' more than 2,000 partners collectively offer more than 5,000 packaged applications to customers around the world. Progress end users and independent software vendors (ISVs) cite the qualities of a database that is ideally suited to be embedded in a packaged application, and praise the Progress database for excelling in these areas.

"At peak load (first day of school and last day of school), we can have upwards of 10,000 concurrent sessions running our software across the 44 systems," said Jeff Conklin, chief executive officer of Washington State's School Information Processing Cooperative (WSIPC). "During normal operation, we have users from 278 customer districts, accessing about 4 databases per district. We have only one DBA supporting our entire infrastructure. I cannot imagine another product that would allow us to run 1,000 databases and service our large customer base so successfully and with such efficiency."

"The Progress database has proven very robust and the cost of ownership is low," said Group IT Director, Alan Herbage of Holiday Autos, the world's largest leisure car rental broker with operations in 60 countries. "For example, we need two full time database administrators to look after the Oracle applications, but Progress needs so little maintenance that there is no need for a designated DBA. The development team just keeps an eye on it." Holiday Autos recently announced its intent to replace its primary Oracle-based, e-commerce application with Progress.

"Royal 4's long-standing use of Progress comes from the fact that the Progress database consistently proves itself to be a superior product when compared to other better-known databases; one that we are proud to base our business applications on," said Raphael A. Ramirez-Torres, director of business development for Royal 4, a global provider of supply chain, warehouse management and collaborative software solutions that specializes in ERP and e-commerce applications in the United States, Asia and Latin America. "Progress is portable, does not require elaborate tuning or constant administrative care, and does not have a ridiculous learning curve, making it easy for our customers to understand both from a technical and business perspective."

The Progress(R) RDBMS, a primary component of the OpenEdge(TM) E-Business Platform (for more information see http://www.progress.com/releases/2001/060401a.htm), leads the database market with low cost of ownership and the ability to scale to meet the demands of enterprise applications, e-commerce and application service providers (ASPs). The reliability, flexibility, scalability and low cost of ownership make the Progress database ideal for e-commerce and the ASP market. Progress Software has expanded its ASPen(SM) Program to enable its independent software vendors (ISVs) to quickly add software as a Web service to their core product offerings. This extends the leadership of the ASPen Program as one of the most comprehensive ASP-enablement programs in the industry.

"Acknowledging our users' expectations of growth, we aim to provide database technology powerful enough to match high-priced alternatives such as Oracle, but with total-cost-of-ownership and scalability superior to that of Microsoft," said David Ireland, president of the Progress Company. "Additionally, we intend to uphold our reputation for reliability, ease of use, and low maintenance that is unequaled in the industry. These studies validate that we are achieving our goals. Because of the broad industry coverage of the many applications from our 2,000 ISVs, the user community of Progress-based applications is the second largest in the world after that of SAP." For More Information and to View the whole article.

About WSIPC
In 1967, ten Washington school districts began a cooperative to share software development and hardware costs and provide centralized technological support. An early adopter of what has come to be called the ASP model, the cooperative began providing comprehensive services in the delivery of school administration applications in the 1970's. Today the result of this collaboration is the Washington School Information Processing Cooperative (WSIPC), a unique public agency that provides quality information services at a reasonable cost to the state's school districts. Today WSIPC has grown to serve 94% of Washington's school districts with complete information management systems for fiscal, human resources, and student data. WSIPC supplies members with high-quality technological solutions and customer service at a fraction of the cost of commercial vendors. Perhaps most important, WSIPC is the only information service provider that automatically modifies its software to match Washington's unique, mandatory reporting requirements, which change from year to year. Taxpayers are thereby assured that their district's reporting obligations are being met. For more information, go to www.wsipc.org.

About Royal 4 Systems
Royal 4 Systems, Inc. is a global leader in providing supply chain execution and collaborative commerce solutions. Royal 4 implements these solutions using cutting edge technologies and innovative services, while utilizing industry expertise to optimize performance, increase profitability and maximize competitive advantage.

Noted for technologically advanced WMS solutions, instant service and comprehensive support, Royal 4 Systems are reducing costs and increasing operating efficiencies. As a software industry leader since 1984, Royal 4 is one of the first to bring Internet power to the warehouse with a Web browser-based application that is faster to deploy and easier to navigate. For more information about Royal 4 Systems, visit us at www.royal4.com.

About the Progress Company
The Progress Company is a global supplier of software technology and services for developing, deploying, integrating and managing e-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 40,000 organizations across more than 100 countries--including 70% 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 is a registered trademark of Progress Software Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. OpenEdge and ASPen are trademarks or service marks of Progress Software Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Any other trademarks and/or service marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.