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Press Release


Top Ten Predictions for the Telecommunications Industry in 2011

Dec 15, 2010

BEDFORD, MA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 12/15/10 -- Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), a leading software provider that enables companies to be operationally responsive, predicts that telecommunications service providers will increasingly be able to predict technology problems that might affect customers, solving them before the customers even know they exist.

Sanjay Kumar, Industry Vice President for Communications and Media at Progress Software, said, "The telecommunications field is very competitive, and service providers have to do what they can to differentiate their offerings. Solving problems before they happen goes a long way toward managing the customer experience."

The firm also predicts that mobile service providers will have to build stronger relationships with customers, mainly by providing unique offerings to grab and hold their attention.

Progress Software's Telecommunications predictions for 2011:

1. For B/OSS, managing the manager is key. Traditional business and operational support systems (B/OSS) will require systems to manage the systems. Most service providers have invested so much in their B/OSS infrastructure assets that they cannot be easily replaced and need an adapted layer to respond to real-time business demands and reenergize the existing B/OSS infrastructure's value.

2. You will predict problems before they come to light. Telco service providers will be able to predict when there is a potential issue that will affect customers -- and correct it before it happens. The pre-emptive correction of problems before the customer knows they exist will become a key factor in differentiating service providers and improving the customer's level of service.

3. Loyalty program. Mobile service providers facing mounting competitive forces will have to build stronger relationships with their customers. They will need to provide customers with unique, interactive experiences to build stronger loyalty by tapping into customer call patterns and locations, correlating with customer preferences and providing value added services to customize each customer's experience in a unique way.

4. Partly cloudy. As communication service providers head for the cloud, they will struggle with data interoperability between cloud and non-cloud environments. Operators will need advanced data transformation and adaptive technologies to take full advantage of cloud-based applications.

5. Mind the gap. Operators will be increasingly trapped in the gap between customer expectations for flexibility and speed, and the limitations in existing B/OSS infrastructure. This will drive demand for new business user toolsets to overlay B/OSS, enabling service providers to respond and deploy new solutions faster.

6. Bundle of joy. Service providers will break through the traditional siloed approach to their product offerings to provide customers with a bundled, one-stop experience. To align with the customers' experiences, a responsive tool is needed to provide a single point of response to customer issues across all silos and domains.

7. As the world turns. As global service providers increasingly cooperate to share infrastructure, new levels B2B standards will be necessary. Standards including interface specifications will be rapidly built out and adopted by service providers in 2011, by region or mutually beneficial partnerships.

8. On the move. Mobile access to payments, banking, insurance and entertainment will increasingly dominate traditional mobile phone offerings and increase the need for mobile broadband. Bundled offerings will involve partnering with other business ecosystems and will require enablement for rapidly changing customer offerings, solution components, and customer profiles across a complex partner ecosystem.

9. Soup to nuts. The inexorable increase in outsourcing of core business and IT operations will force service providers to re-examine every aspect of B/OSS software management. From vendor proposals to software deployment to retiring multiple systems, operators will need clear visibility into the processes taking place at third party offshore sites to better measure the effectiveness of their outsourcing partners' roles in their customers' overall experience.

10. Services offering services. To further differentiate themselves competitively, communication service providers will enhance their managed service offerings for business customers. Operators will offer business customers services including IT data center operations and other enhanced managed services, as well as the traditional telecom service offerings. Communication service providers will use their in-house experience in managing network and IT operations to further their service offerings and relationships with their business customers.

Kumar concluded, "The explosive growth of the telecommunications market globally is creating a fiercely competitive business landscape. Providers will have to embrace new technologies such as the cloud and B/OSS-enabling toolkits in order to grow market share while keeping costs down."

About Progress Software Corporation
Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS) is an independent enterprise software company that enables businesses to be operationally responsive to changing conditions and customer interactions as they occur -- to capitalize on new opportunities, drive greater efficiencies and reduce risk. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of best-in-class enterprise software spanning event-driven visibility and real-time response, open integration, data access and integration, and application development and deployment -- all supporting on-premises and SaaS/Cloud deployments. Progress maximizes the benefits of operational responsiveness while minimizing IT complexity and total cost of ownership. Progress can be reached at www.progress.com or +1-781-280-4000.

Progress is a trademark or registered trademark of Progress Software Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Any other names contained herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Press Contacts:

Lisa CoulourisProgress Software

+1 781-280-4995

lcoulour@progress.com



Erica OrthmannLEWIS PR

+1 617-226-8840

progress@lewispr.com



Source: Progress Software Corporation

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