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BEDFORD, Mass.- February 19, 2002 - The Progress Company,
a business unit of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq:PRGS) and
a leading supplier of technology for building e-business solutions,
today announced that Carrier Logistics Inc. (CLI), a leading provider
of global freight management applications, has selected the Progress®
OpenEdge™ e-business platform to web-enable the next generation
of its FACTS2000 freight management and tracking system.
CLI, a Progress independent software vendor (ISV) since 1986, is
one of the world’s premier providers of logistics software
to the “less-than-truckload” (LTL) segment of what AMR
estimates to be anthe annual of the 800 billion dollar freight industry.
The application enables leading delivery companies to efficiently
coordinate delivery schedules, loading dock operations, and trailer
space, to ensure on time delivery of shipments and essentially manage
all elements of their business. CLI wanted to provide the transportation
market with a web-enabled product, giving its customers greater
application functionality with an efficient, user-friendly interface.
After researching multiple options, CLI decided on the Progress™
OpenEdge platform from the Progress Company for its low cost-of-ownership,
high scalability and integrated Progress Dynamics™ application
framework.
Announced last month (see press
release ), Dynamics accelerates the development, assembly and
deployment of business applications by providing a repository-based
framework for building OpenEdge-powered applications. “Dynamics
was one of the key motivating factors behind our choice of the OpenEdge
platform,” said Kevin Linardic, senior transportation consultant
for CLI. “After spending some time in the Progress Empowerment
Center(SM) to learn about Dynamics, and visiting some Progress customers
who have used the framework, it became clear that Dynamics would
provide the fastest time-to-market of all our application development
options.”
The FACTS2000 application manages hundreds of thousands of shipments
daily for LTL carriers around the world. FACTS2000 includes everything
LTL carriers need to automate both their freight operations and
back-office financial functions. Because the system is based on
the OpenEdge platform, it provides a far lower total cost of ownership
than other widely deployed software platforms in the LTL space.
“There are plenty of platforms in the industry that can be
work horses,” said Dave Ireland, president of the Progress
Company. “But today’s application providers need more
than just a work horse to compete, they need a racehorse that is
going to get them to market faster, with all of the features their
customers require -- all this, but with a lower overhead. The OpenEdge
e-business platform enables users to protect their existing investment
while providing the speed and flexibility they need to stay ahead
of the pack.”
“Today’s application providers need to work with a
set of products and services that allow them to get to market faster,
with all of the features their customers require, including Web-enablement,”
said Dave Ireland, president of the Progress Company. “The
OpenEdge e-business platform enables users to protect their existing
investment while providing the speed and flexibility they need to
stay ahead of the pack -- all this, but with a lower overhead both
for development and deployment.”
“It takes far fewer people to run an application based on
OpenEdge than it takes to run one built with other leading platforms,”
said Kenneth Weinberg, vice president of Carrier Logistics. “We
recently had a deployment where the customer needed five people
to run the outgoing application, and only one person to run our
Progress-based FACTS2000 application. Reductions like this are common
in cases where we replace a conventional freight system. And because
OpenEdge is based on open standards, FACTS2000 will run on virtually
any hardware, which is another feature that our customers love.”
The new user-friendly version of FACTS2000 provides enhanced functionality
particularly in the area of reporting and rating/pricing. It centralizes
pricing information, greatly reducing required manpower and the
opportunity for billing errors. The system also includes a wireless
component, in which both radio and satellite communications are
used to transmit dispatch information to drivers en-route. It even
provides instructions on how to load trucks to ensure maximum productivity.
The new web-enabled OpenEdge release of FACTS2000 will provide all
of the platform components, in addition to the scalability and reliability
required to support this demanding, mission-critical application.
“We’ve have continually taken advantage of Progress’
latest releases to enhance our product,” Weinberg added. “Our
customers range from small companies to the world’s largest
LTL carriers, and OpenEdge scales to accommodate them all. Reliability
is critical to our customers; if the FACTS2000 system shuts down,
their business shuts down. We’ve found Progress to be virtually
bulletproof, our FACTS2000 systems just never go down.”
Carrier Logistics Inc., Tarrytown, New York, has been a transportation
systems and engineering consultant and developer of systems technology
for the trucking industry for more than 25 years. Their customers
include several major U.S. and Canadian carriers. CLI may be reached
at: 914-332-0300 (tel.); email at: kweinberg@carrierlogistics.com,
or on the Web at: www.carrierlogistics.com.
The Progress Company is a global supplier of software technology
and services for developing, deploying, integrating and managing
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 50,000 organizations across more than
120 countries - including 70 percent 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 and OpenEdge are registered trademarks of Progress Software
Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Any other trademarks
and/or service marks contained herein are the properties of their
respective owners.
Progress, OpenEdge, Progress Dynamics, and Empowerment Center are
trademarks, service marks, 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.
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