TEC’s commodity alternation soliciting vendors’ ascribe on a amount of annoying bazaar trend questions and observations showed Infor and IFS as the aboriginal two to acknowledge (see Two Stalwart Vendors Discuss Bazaar Trends). The alternation has back accustomed abundant absorption and reactions from readers and vendors alike. The next in band to articulation its admired opinions was Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), a Bedford, Massachusetts, (US)-based provider of appliance basement software for the development, deployment, integration, and administering of business applications.
Before delving into this vendor’s responses, some accomplishments on Progress Software is in order. From initially alms alone a database and accompanying fourth-generation accent (4GL) applications development environment, the bell-ringer has back (particularly during the endure several years, via a cord of advisable acquisitions) garnered a abundant broader set of basement software. This portfolio spans the realms of what the bell-ringer refers to as casework basement (for connecting, mediating, controlling, and ecology services—or software components, if you will), abstracts basement (for managing, integrating, replicating, caching, and accessing data) and business appliance platforms (for developing, deploying, and managing business applications). Therefore, today, the Progress Software portfolio includes the following:
1) Casework Basement Products
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The ProgressВ® Sonicв„ў artefact band uses the Sonic ESBВ® messaging-based action account bus (ESB) to accommodate affiliation of new and absolute business applications beyond authoritative boundaries and to bound sites.
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The ProgressВ® ActionalВ® artefact band offers Web casework and service-oriented architectonics (SOA) management, including monitoring, analysis, security, and action control.
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The DataDirectВ® ShadowВ® RTE (which stands for Real-time Enterprise) enables aboriginal mainframe and bequest applications to participate in abreast SOA and Web casework assembly and consumption.
2) Business Appliance Platforms
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The ProgressВ® OpenEdgeВ® belvedere provides development and deployment of business applications that are standards-based, service-oriented, and about accept a lower absolute amount of buying (TCO).
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The ProgressВ® ApamaВ® accident processing belvedere can adviser accident streams, ascertain patterns, and respond. The artefact supports event-driven applications, including business action ecology (BAM), algebraic trading, transaction monitoring, bazaar corruption detection, and radio abundance identification (RFID) applications.
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The ProgressВ® EasyAskВ® artefact band provides business users and consumers the adeptness to acquisition the advice they charge appliance accustomed accent seek and navigation, acknowledging a array of applications alignment from customer-facing e-commerce web sites to ad hoc query.
3) Abstracts Basement Products
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The ProgressВ® DataXtendв„ў artefact band provides abstracts affiliation for broadcast applications and delivers real-time angle of aggregate abstracts in the anatomy applications need. The DataXtendв„ў Semantic Integrator artefact uses a accepted semantic abstracts archetypal to actualize abstracts transformations, enabling organizations to allotment and accommodate amalgamate abstracts after disruption to absolute applications.
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DataDirect Technologies is the provider of software for abutting business applications to abstracts and services, active on abounding platforms appliance accurate and arising industry standards. Developers common use on these articles to affix their applications to a ambit of abstracts sources appliance standards-based interfaces such as accessible database connectivity (ODBC), Java Database Connectivity (JDBC), Microsoft ADO.NET (evolution of ActiveX Abstracts Objects), XQuery, and simple article admission agreement (SOAP).
OpenEdge or Cutting-edge Business Appliance Platform?
The capital agent for the bell-ringer is the actual aboriginal Progress product, currently acclimated by over 5 actor business users. The Progress OpenEdge business appliance belvedere nowadays provides a unified ambiance absolute development tools, appliance servers, appliance administering tools, a relational database, and the adequacy to about calmly affix and accommodate with added applications and abstracts sources. By getting adequately accessible to a array of standards, Progress has created the OpenEdge development environment, in adjustment to abstract developers from the complexities of today's accretion environments. This appropriately allows developers to apply on what absolutely matters: the business argumentation of their application. Applications congenital on the OpenEdge belvedere are reportedly portable, reliable, and scalable, yet crave beneath authoritative assets than added deployment platforms. In layman’s terms, users call it as a runtime engine that just runs and can be scaled as necessary. Also, a contempo Forrester Analysis address has rated OpenEdge aloft to another platforms attributable to allegation in three areas:
* a 42 percent lower amount of development on the Progress platform
* a 37 percent lower amount of deployment on the Progress platform
* a 48 percent lower amount of advancing administering on the Progress platform
The aloft benchmarks are acceptable the aftereffect of the OpenEdge development environment’s adeptness to advance productivity, attributable to a advised business appliance accent alleged Advanced Business Accent (ABL), which somewhat resembles Microsoft Visual Basic or Powersoft PowerBuilder, for faster development. In addition, the industry accepted Eclipse.org-based development environment, alleged OpenEdge Architect, was alien about two years ago. What possibly affairs most, though, is a alone ambiance and accent for server, client, abstracts storage, and affiliation logic. On the added hand, the OpenEdge deployment and administering ambiance promotes efficiency, back the chip ambiance provides simplicity, performance, and lower amount of administration, while it can readily calibration from 1 to 20,000 users.
Last but not least, the belvedere has continued apparent abutment of the a lot of frequently adopted standards (rather than annex on a assertive integration, runtime, or appliance belvedere technology) on all architectural layers. To that end, on the applicant side, users can apprehend abutment for Microsoft.NET, Java, HyperText Markup Accent (HTML), Java Message Account (JMS), Extensible Markup Accent (XML), SOAP, Web Casework Description Accent (WSDL), Java 2 Action Edition (J2EE) Connector Architectonics (JCA), etc. Further, on the server side, there is abutment for Web services, ESB, JMS, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), Secure HyperText Transfer Agreement (HTTP/S) and so on.
On the database side, beside the vendor’s own OpenEdge RDBMS (with “RDBMS” continuing for relational database administering system) that is JDBC-, ODBC-, and structured concern accent (SQL)-compliant, there is abutment for added databases, such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and IBM DB2. Finally, the deployment belvedere supports abounding operating systems (for example, Linux, UNIX, and Microsoft Windows), while the OpenEdge Administering artefact is simple arrangement administering agreement (SNMP)–compliant.
However, from accidental to a whopping 98 percent of absolute revenues in 2001, OpenEdge today contributes to “only” about 70 percent of Progress Software’s absolute revenue, which is advancing the $500 actor (USD) mark. Still, the OpenEdge belvedere charcoal Progress Software’s Appliance Partners’ (APs’) primary aisle to market, through which the admission generates 65 percent of OpenEdge’s authorization revenue. This business archetypal is allegedly awful assisting for both sides, breeding over 5,000 new barter every year. Currently, the belvedere has about 60,000 customers, which represent the aggregate of absolute Progress barter (larger accounts) and users of APs. OpenEdge’s all-around bazaar attendance can be discerned from the actuality that its accumulated users are
* nine of the top 10 chump aliment companies
* nine of the top 10 automotive and locations companies
* eight of the top 10 bartering banks
* eight of the top 10 automated and acreage accessories companies
* eight of the top 10 biologic companies
* eight of the top 10 semiconductor companies
* the top six hotels, casinos, and resorts
* the top 5 accoutrement companies
Progress Software’s primary backbone and bazaar attendance today is in the accomplishment and administration sector, which accounts for about 40 percent of the business, followed by retail, banking services, government, and bloom care.
A Partner-centric Go-to-market Approach
The company’s primary ambition bazaar is mid-market enterprises and capacity of ample corporations. These are about absolute barter and partners, while cast new barter can be targeted opportunistically. Nurturing ally is the capital mantra at Progress Software, whose declared mission is “to bear aloft software articles and casework that empower its ally and barter to badly advance their development, deployment, integration, and administering of superior applications worldwide.” In added words, the vendor’s declared ambition is “to aerate the allowances of advice technology while aspersing its complication and absolute amount of ownership.”
Progress Software’s go-to-market admission revolves about analogous the affairs adjustment to buyers’ preferences, back baby to average enterprises (SMEs) adopt a bounded supplier that knows their curve of business (in added words, an industry specialist).
On the added hand, a accomplice admission provides adeptness for Progress, whereby the bell-ringer has ally in regions area it does not accept offices (as examples, Turkey, China, or Malaysia). Further, the accomplice admission provides scalability, abnormally in agreement of added accessible account professionals to accomplish Progress Software’s technology bear on its accustomed abeyant benefits. Endure but not least, a accomplice admission provides greater bazaar penetration. For example, Infor has implemented Sonic ESB at over 1,000 sites, admitting Progress Sonic’s absolute auction has alone 400 sites in absolute (of course, the acquirement accustomed is aswell different, attributable to the beyond admeasurement of these 400 accumulated audience that pay aggregate anon to Progress Software).
Thus, these alone ample action accounts (with revenues over $1.5 billion [USD]) Progress Software targets with its best-of-breed articles for amalgamate SOA, and in a accumbent manner, whereby these enterprises accept ample IT and development staffs and centralized IT objectives. On the added hand, baby bounded accounts (with revenues from $20 actor to $100 actor [USD]) and mid-market accounts (with revenues from $100 actor to $1.5 billion [USD]) in some vertical sectors are targeted alongside via APs or absolute software vendors (ISVs). Such barter about buy packaged applications that custom fit their business or industry needs, and accept abate IT and bound development staff, but crave added accelerated business allotment on investment (ROIs).
This archetypal is absolutely assisting for Progress Software, as it grows the top-line acquirement for a abundant lower amount of sale, abnormally in the case of software-as-a-service (SaaS—see What is Software as a Service?) deployments.
IDC’s report, Common Top 10 ISV Accomplice Programs 2006 Bell-ringer Analysis: Enabling ISV Ally for Success, describes Progress Software’s accomplice affairs as follows:
The Progress Software Accomplice Affairs is a all-around affairs … [that] has predominantly ISV membership, but is evolving to cover aboriginal accessories manufacturers (OEMs) and value-added resellers (VARs). ISVs in the affairs design, develop, sell, and abutment branded bartering business applications congenital on ... Progress Software basement technologies. The affairs has been aesthetic over the years to analyze ISVs with advance abeyant and to abutment those ally with programs, resources, and staff…. Progress uses its Advance Date Assessment action to appraise the banking position, business, and abstruse accuracy and capabilities of ISVs.
In accession to over 7,000 developers aural the Progress Software Developers Arrangement (PSDN), the aforementioned address addendum that there are added than 2,000 ally in the Progress Software Accomplice Affairs of all accomplice types. A Progress Software columnist absolution from 2006 credibility out that these ally accept accumulated Progress Software technology with their specialization in architecture mission-critical applications. These ISVs participate in the Progress affairs at one of four levels: Elite, Premier, Preferred, and Member. Assets accessible to an ISV are bent by the ISV’s advance date or level. For example, the Elite accomplice date targets beyond barter and warrants Progress’s demography a one-to-one admission against enrolling, engaging, empowering, and accretion the partner. Conversely, the Premier and Member accomplice stages that ambition SMEs will accept a beneath complex Progress approach—in added words, one-to-many and accomplice self-service, respectively.
The aforementioned Progress columnist absolution (see hotlink above) Progress Software Ally (or APs mentioned above) accept developed and deployed over 5,000 audible applications, which are acclimated in over 60,000 organizations about the apple and accept been deployed at added than 110,000 locations. Progress cites that it or its APs arrange applications at 10,000 new sites and add 600,000 new users every year. This advance is attributed to Progress’ accomplice admission getting far altered than added appliance basement vendors, and is accordant to two of its above constituencies, ally and users.
First, Progress Software ally adore a accomplice affairs that is arguably aberrant in the industry. Similarly to added basement companies, Progress provides admission to its products, abstruse support, apprenticeship and training support, as able-bodied as sales and business support. But clashing a lot of of its competition, the bell-ringer provides to these ally an added portfolio of abetment in agreement of business and abstruse empowerment offerings to absolutely advice them bootstrap their adeptness to accomplish as a business (for example, allowance them with such things as business planning).
This holistic partnering admission to abutment APs through their business activity cycles to ensure collective success includes collective business, technical, sales, and business activities. Second, clashing abounding adversary basement vendors that aswell advertise appliance software, such as Oracle and Microsoft (and added of late, IBM), that are accordingly aggressive with their partners, Progress Software pledges to never advertise appliance software, so that it will never attempt with its ally and cannibalize their businesses.
Product Development “Secret Sauce”
Progress Software cites that OpenEdge’s artefact engineering focus is on acclimation the needs of ample end-user barter (who charge connected improvements in scalability, availability, and management), appliance ally (who charge added or added abundance accoutrement and languages, and new and added assorted user-interface capabilities), and of the all-embracing bazaar (in agreement of bigger interoperability and affiliation capabilities, and bigger abutment for new platforms).
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