Progress Software Chosen by Scottish Widows to Integrate its Business Systems

Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), a global provider of application infrastructure software used to develop, deploy, integrate and manage business applications, today announced an Enterprise Service Integration deal with pensions and investment provider Scottish Widows. Scottish Widows has chosen an integration suite from Progress Software comprising the Progress^® Sonic™ ESB (enterprise service bus) to combine and manage its information assets, the DataDirect^® Shadow^® Mainframe Integration product to provide comprehensive integration with its mainframe server, and the Progress Actional^® Web Services and SOA Management product family to provide management and governance of its business transformation infrastructure.

Scottish Widows currently employs around 4,000 people: in customer service; business transformation, marketing and distribution; risk, legal and compliance; finance and support. By working with Progress Software, Scottish Widows will transform its application integration infrastructure, enabling the company to improve its efficiency and service to customers and stakeholders. The project will also allow Scottish Widows to launch new products to the market faster as well as be better equipped at integrating systems.

Following a 20-month review, Scottish Widows decided upon Progress’s SOA based toolset for its ease of use, rapid development capability and technical reliability of its solutions, as well as its excellent reputation in the marketplace.

William Carmichael, Principal Application and Technology Architect, Scottish Widows commented: "Scottish Widows is one of Europe's largest Life, Pensions and Investments companies and in the current economic climate it’s important that we’re operating as efficiently as possible. Technology lies at the heart of this strategy. The superior performance of Progress Software’s portfolio of integration solutions was very attractive to us particularly as they afford us a robust, easy to use solution with full management controls. This will make an important contribution to ensuring that Scottish Widows customers and stakeholders continue to receive the highest level of efficiency that the market can offer.”

Rick Reidy, Chief Executive Officer, Progress Software said, "Like Progress Software, Scottish Widows has a long heritage of delivering excellent services. With our best-in-class solutions, it now has the tools to further enhance its reputation of providing an unparalleled service to its customers.”

About Scottish Widows

Scottish Widows was founded in 1815 as Scotland’s first mutual life office. Becoming part of the Lloyds TSB Group in 2000, Scottish Widows has become one of the most recognised brands in the life, pensions and investment industry in the UK. The product range includes ordinary long term insurance, such as life assurance, pensions, annuities and permanent health insurance, and savings and investment products. Using a multi-sales network of Financial Advisers, Direct Sales, Direct Marketing, the Internet and via the branch network of Lloyds TSB, Scottish Widows currently employs about 4,000 people.

Scottish Widows news releases appear on our website at www.scottishwidows.co.uk/mediacentre

As part of the Lloyds Banking Group, Scottish Widows is proud to be an Official Provider of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. For further details of Scottish Widows sponsorship of the London 2012 Games, visit www.scottishwidows.co.uk/london2012

About Progress Software Corporation

Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS) provides application infrastructure software for the development, deployment, integration and management of business applications. Our goal is to maximize the benefits of information technology while minimizing its complexity and total cost of ownership. Progress can be reached at www.progress.com or +1-781-280-4000.