Bedford, Massachusetts-based Progress Software Corp, developer of the Unix-based Progress 4GL development environment and relational database management system which is used by many value-added resellers, reported good growth in 1991, net profit soaring 61% to $6m on revenues that climbed 45% to $58m (CI No 1,843). Though still relatively small, Progress has only been trading 11 years, going public just last July. Trading in the company’s shares opened at $25 six months ago, this week hovering around the $44 mark, valuing Progress at some $231m. It boasts $40m assets and the strongest balance sheet in the industry. The software firm, based in Basingstoke, Hampshire in the UK, at the same time announced that its Progress relational databse product has been chosen by Strathclyde Regional Council as the preferred relational database management system for the development of new distributed systems on multi-user minicomputers – a valuation system for the new council tax will be the first application to be developed. According to UK managing director Jim Bush, the three-year contract will be worth UKP58,000 at first, covering the Progress application development licence and user run-time licences, which include the Results user query and report-writing tool; the contract is expected, however, to generate a total UKP2m to UKP3m revenues, banking on some 4,000 potential users. Strathclyde says that it chose Progress primarily because of its flexible architecture and value for money. Another contributing factor to Progress’s acclaim among users is the development environment’s support for Santa Cruz Unix, VAX/VMS, MS-DOS, OS/2, and CTOS/BTOS – the company has also promised to support Digital Equipment Corp’s OSF/1 Unix operating system when it becomes available. When users subscribe to the Progress development environment, they automatically receive the Progress relational database, though Progress quietly supports access to Oracle, Rdb and RMS relational databases. And the company has announced a read-write gateway for access to Informix C-ISAM files. The new gateway also supports Sun Microsystems Inc’s NetISAM files and C-ISAM files created with Micro Focus Level II Cobol. Furthermore, Progress has developed bridges to Excelerator and KnowledgeWare software development tools. Watch this space for a mega announcement in March, which Progress Software says will double its market potential.
