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PROGRESS SOFTWARE AND WILKE/THORNTON EXTEND APPLICATIONS TO 11 HIGH-PROFILE END-USER CUSTOMERS VIA ASP MODEL

 Early Entrant Into Progress Software’s ASPEN 2000 Program Provides Internet Subscription Applications to Leading Organizations such as General Mills, Club Med and ...

 BEDFORD, Mass.—July 10, 2000—Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), a leading supplier of application development, deployment and management products and services, today announced several early Application Service Provider (ASP) customer successes with Wilke/Thornton Inc., a leading worldwide provider of consumer affairs management technology and an early partner in Progress Software’s ASPEN™ 2000 Program. Wilke/Thornton now boasts ASP application deployment to more than 11 leading end-user organizations, including General Mills, Club Med and Starkist. These end-users represent a new customer base Wilke/Thornton now serves as an ASP.

“Wilke/Thornton’s early success in the ASP marketplace validates the strength of Progress Software’s ASPEN 2000 program, which provides independent software vendors (ISVs), such as Wilke/Thornton, with the technology and business resources they need to quickly and cost-effectively ASP-enable their applications,” said Robert Palumbo, vice president of ASP Business Development for Progress Software. “By offering its applications via subscription, Wilke/Thornton is able to reach an entirely new customer base and generate incremental revenue for its leading-edge CRM solutions.”

“Progress Software and the ASPEN 2000 Program offered us the solid technology and services we needed to quickly ASP-enable our existing applications,” said Mike Wilke, president of Wilke/Thornton. “Working closely with Progress Software, we’ve been able to tap into the growing ASP market and create an incremental stream of new end-users, which we could not have reached with our conventional products and sales model.”

Wilke/Thornton hosts two separate Progress-based applications via the ASP model. The first application, Cyber CRS™, is an ASP adaptation of its original product, CRS Anywhere™. CRS Anywhere is a consumer affairs management software package which manages all types of consumer contacts (email, Internet, fax, mail and phone) quickly and easily through one hassle-free interface. The second application is Wilke/Thornton’s award-winning Item Locator Service™ (ILS), which enables customers to get the exact location—including name, address and phone number—of a store in their neighborhood that carries a specific product.  

General Mills: The ASP Model at Work

With the help of Wilke/Thornton, General Mills has deployed the Progress Software-based ILS application, which enables General Mills representatives to use a Web browser to give customers and prospects the nearest location of a store that carries a specific product. This application also allows General Mills representatives to access scanner data from more than 30,000 grocery, drug and mass merchandise stores to provide consumers with detailed product location information anywhere in the United States.

“The ASP model makes perfect sense for us,” said Jeff Hagen, director of consumer services for General Mills. “As a major corporation, we could have installed and run the ILS application in-house, but subscribing to it with Wilke/Thornton’s ASP service cut the deployment time, expense and hassle immensely, all of which dramatically impact our bottom line and customer service goals.” 

A channel pioneer, Progress Software has long been recognized for its ability to give ISVs the technology and services they need to meet the rigorous requirements of middle market, resource-constrained environments and to deliver industry-specific solutions more quickly, more tightly integrated and at a low total cost of ownership. With its strategy, the company is now at the forefront of the ASP market, providing an established infrastructure for bringing 2,000+ ISVs and their more than 5,000 Progress-based applications to this new distribution channel.

Progress Software’s ASPEN 2000 Program offers business planning assistance, technology, services, partnerships and industry recognition to help ISVs quickly and easily transform Progress-based applications into ASP-enabled applications. These new applications, available on a subscription basis and accessed over the Internet rather than purchased, allow organizations to more quickly and economically gain access to application functionality previously unavailable to them. ASP-enabled applications reduce traditional IT infrastructure costs because they are developed and maintained by service providers rather than an internal IT staff.

Progress Software’s ASPEN 2000 Program now boasts a worldwide membership of over 230 partners, from 20 different countries around the world, clearly representing the leading edge of the ASP wave and the world’s largest network of ASPs and related strategic partners. The program consists of more than 20,000 end-user seats including organizations such as: General Mills, Club Med, Starkist, Abbott Labs, and The Equitable who rely on Progress-based ASP applications for improved profitability and competitive advantage.

For more information about the ASPEN 2000 Program please visit www.ASPconnections.com.  

About Wilke/Thornton

America’s top corporations turn to Wilke/Thornton (www.wilke-thornton.com) in order to efficiently reach their customers and respond to their concerns in a quality, consistent and timely manner. With Wilke/Thornton’s expertise, these corporations can leverage customer contacts to collect information about their customer base and feedback on their products and services. Wilke/Thornton assists in providing a superior inbound call center environment. Through its proven years of experience with call center response technology and processes, Wilke/Thornton delivers new ways of building lasting customer relationships and a better base of knowledge about the customer base.

 About Progress Software

Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS) is a global supplier of software products and services for developing, deploying and managing business applications moving to the Internet. We offer messaging servers, application servers, databases, and application development and management products. Our partners include more than 2,000 application service providers and independent software vendors who supply annually over $5 billion in Progress®-based applications and related services. Our products are used by over 10,000 organizations across 100 countries worldwide, including 60% of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, visit www.progress.com or call +1-781-280-4000  

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Progress is a registered trademark and ASPEN is a trademark of Progress Software Corporation. Cyber CRS, CRS Anywhere, and Item Locator Service are trademarks of Wilke/Thornton, Inc. Any other trademarks and/or servicemarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.