Press Release

Progress DigitalFactory addresses critical customer-centric digital transformation concerns by breaking down silos between IT, development, marketing and deployment

BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Most enterprise decision makers see digital transformation as a critical imperative, yet few have reached full production and roll out. Those same decision makers feel they have to make significant inroads with digital transformation in the next 12 months before they begin to suffer financially or from competitive threats.ⁱ That's why Progress (NASDAQ: PRGS) today announced its strategic vision and Progress® DigitalFactory™ solutions, to enable enterprises to harness the full potential of digital business.

"When we set forth on our own digital transformation journey, we identified four fundamentals for success—optimize customer engagement, collaborate with partners, unburden IT and simplify operations," said Phil Pead, CEO, Progress. "Our vision and DigitalFactory solutions are a direct result of living these tenets each day. We know technology is not the entire answer. Rather, it's part of a larger perspective that includes a shift in thinking and stronger levels of collaboration between the CIO and CMO. Progress has the experience, capabilities and technology to partner with our community of digital decision makers to ensure we're arming them with the right tools to put them on the path they need to succeed."

"Going digital is not a nice to have—it's a requirement if you still want to be around in five years," said Jacqui Safis, eBusiness Solutions, NorthWestern Energy. "While we face the same day-to-day challenges as anyone else, we recognized early on the need to have a strategy in place and to begin taking steps in that strategy. When Progress showed us DigitalFactory solutions, we were blown away. Their vision is exactly in line with our own digital efforts. There's no doubt that DigitalFactory solutions will help us keep pace and stay competitive in this ever-evolving market."

Introducing Progress DigitalFactory
Progress DigitalFactory is a new cloud-based platform that provides a holistic, extensible solution for businesses to create omni-channel digital experiences. DigitalFactory solutions enable collaboration, flexibility and ease for IT, marketers, developers and business users looking to implement digital transformation within their organizations. It provides ease-of-use like no other because DigitalFactory solutions empower users that need to manage digital assets or define the customer journey to manage their workflow, instead of having to solely rely on others to initiate changes.

Today's announcement highlights the three core solutions which will be released in the coming months, with additional solutions planned for 2017.

DigitalFactory for Sites— Large globally dispersed organizations are faced with a number of web-related challenges: difficulty managing a large number of properties and assets, inability to share content consistently across web and mobile and dependencies on local resources and budgets. There are also a plethora of governance and regulatory requirements to navigate.

DigitalFactory for Sites solution enables the management and scale of websites and digital assets to elevate a businesses' global presence, while maintaining necessary security and governance requirements. It enables easy content creation, management and reuse across web assets, so digital marketers can focus on creating new content, not refactoring existing assets.

DigitalFactory for Sites solution also provides the ability to develop and push web assets in a timely manner while supporting scale with effective automation. It ensures operational management by helping business users provide the right content, in the right context and at the right time. It also fosters collaboration on a multitude of levels by not only breaking IT dependencies that hinder execution, but by fostering an easy-to-use approach that supports the business user.

DigitalFactory for Engagement— Multi-national organizations large and small are struggling with omni-channel development. Application backlogs stymie transformation efforts. New customer channels and personalized experiences are a struggle to deliver because incorporating existing systems and the data needed to create those experiences is difficult, at best.

Further, there continues to be a debate over who owns digital transformation—is it the CIO, the CMO or is it a collaborative effort? According to our research, 72% of survey respondents feel IT is more likely to be the final decision maker/budget holder for digital initiatives; and 78% say better alignment of IT and marketing is needed to deliver on digital transformation efforts.ⁱ

DigitalFactory for Engagement is the only solution that brings together the CIO and CMO for seamless decision making. It takes a content-first approach, providing the delivery of an appealing multi-channel experience consistently across business lines, assets and properties, regardless of device choice. It offers full control of digital assets and provides an "author once" capability, focused on creation and reuse of content versus traditional siloed channel approaches.

DigitalFactory for Engagement solution provides new levels of customer journey optimization by offering marketers a single view of the customer experience via a unified content command center. In addition, IT and development can build and deploy websites and mobile apps, within hours, leveraging a single platform and codebase. It is the only multi-function solution that combines mobile and web seamlessly as it tracks, personalizes and optimizes the customer journey while helping to enforce security, governance, workflow and compliance without sacrificing agility.

DigitalFactory for Mobile— While a seamless omni-channel customer experience is the end-goal, for many, mobility continues to be a prime growth driver. For those choosing a mobile-first approach, DigitalFactory for Mobile solution enables fast, tailored mobile experiences for any device and data source. Taking advantage of the full lifecycle approach to mobile app development, developers can create apps for iOS, Android and Windows devices, on a single platform without downloads, installs or configurations. DigitalFactory for Mobile solution is the quintessential one-stop shop for cloud-based mobile development needs. And, when an organization is ready to integrate mobile into the omni-channel experience, expansion into DigitalFactory for Engagement solution is quick and easy, with no complicated migrations involved.

"Transforming into a digital business doesn't happen overnight. Many of the tools and technologies within the current Progress portfolio aid customers in not only addressing today's business challenges, but are foundational for enabling the digital goals of tomorrow," continued Pead. "With Progress DigitalFactory solutions and the full range of Progress products and services, we're delivering new levels of ease-of-use and cross-team collaboration that customers can use to drive immediate success."

Progress DigitalFactory solutions are targeted to be available in Q3 2016. For more details or to view the recent study, "Are Businesses Really Digitally Transforming or Living in Digital Denial?" go to www.progress.com/state-of-digital-business.

ABOUT PROGRESS
Progress (NASDAQ: PRGS) is a global leader in application development, empowering the digital transformation organizations need to create and sustain engaging user experiences in today's evolving marketplace. With offerings spanning web, mobile and data for on-premise and cloud environments, Progress powers startups and industry titans worldwide, promoting success one customer at a time. Learn about Progress at www.progress.com or 1-781-280-4000.

ⁱ Progress survey, "Are Businesses Really Digitally Transforming or Living in Digital Denial?" May 2016

Progress and DigitalFactory are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation or one of its subsidiaries or affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Any other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains statements that are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Progress has identified some of these forward-looking statements with words like "believe," "may," "could," "would," "might," "should," "expect," "intend," "plan," "target," "anticipate" and "continue," the negative of these words, other terms of similar meaning or the use of future dates.

Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Progress' business and the timing of certain product releases. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results or future events to differ materially from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: (1) Progress' ability to release its product development initiatives in a timely manner; (2) market acceptance of Progress's product development initiatives; (3) pricing pressures and the competitive environment in the software industry; (4) business and consumer use of the Internet and the continuing adoption of Cloud technologies; (5) the receipt and shipment of new orders; (6) the timely release of enhancements to Progress's products and customer acceptance of new products; and (7) the positioning of Progress's products in its existing and new markets; (11) variations in the demand for professional services and technical support. For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Progress' business, please refer to Progress' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended November 30, 2015. Progress undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160516005157/en/

Progress
Kim Baker, +1 888-365-2779
pr@progress.com

Source: Progress Software

News Provided by Acquire Media