Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), a leading provider of application infrastructure software used to develop, deploy, integrate and manage business applications, has 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 Sofoftware 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."