Progre Helps Akioma Enable Citizen Developers with Easier Busine Rules in New CRM System

March 12, 2014

Progress Helps Akioma Enable Citizen Developers with Easier Business Rules in New CRM System BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Progress (NASDAQ: PRGS) today announced that Akioma Software, which creates specialized, industry-specific CRM systems, is relying on the Progress Pacific platform to empower its customers to become more effective citizen developers by replacing complex coding requirements with intuitive drag and drop business rules capabilities.

At the outset of creating its new CRM system, Akiomas goal was to integrate a business rules management system (BRMS) that would reduce the need to traditionally code individual changes by 50-60%. A BRMS enables business analysts and policy makers - those who best understand the dynamics forcing change within an organization - to easily model and deploy business rules without needing traditional programming skills. By utilizing the Progress Corticon business rules management system within the Progress Pacific platform, Akioma was ultimately able to replace nearly 100% of the business rules coding required in the final application, slashing development lead times from between four and six weeks to just a few days.

Akiomas clients include companies who sell complex products and services in unique, multi-step deals such as manufacturers of custom-engineered equipment. Due to this complexity, they require a CRM system that enables them to quote and deliver proposals with thousands of sub-orders, possibilities and contingencies. In this type of an environment, the automated testing, modelling and analysis capabilities of the Progress BRMS solution help to ensure that the business logic will produce the correct outcome for all possible scenarios.

Akiomas CRM system includes everything from product management to offer creation and can be adapted to the precise business logic of each. It is a highly functioning tool that allows for dynamic process flows based on variable business factors. Every Akioma customer has its own customization needs, which are often extensive. By implementing a BRMS and splitting the underlying application from the customer-specific rules, the CRM system becomes easier to update. Akioma can update customers to new versions because the rules are independent of the application.

Customer and Executive Quotes:

Mike Liewehr, founder and managing director at Akioma, said, Our customers and users dont adapt to the application, the application needs to adapt to the customers. To create systems that can meet complex and evolving requirements meant we needed a business rules management system tool that was as powerful as a full coding language.

He added, Quicker development is great but the most exciting thing that has been enabled by the Progress Pacific platform is the ability to turn our customers into citizen developers. Removing huge swathes of code with simple drag and drop rules puts the power in the hands of the business experts.

Dr. Mark Allen, chief technology officer, decision management, Progress, said: Akiomas CRM solution is a fantastic example of the real business benefits that can be achieved by incorporating a robust rules engine. With the Progress Pacific platform and Corticon BRMS software, Akioma accelerated its time to market, and delivered a solution that is far easier to configure to the unique needs of their clients.

Additional Resources:

Akioma Website

Progress Corporate Blog

Progress App Dev Blog

Progress Customer Stories

Follow conversation about Progress Pacific at #PRGSPacific and #PaaS

Follow Progress on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google

About Progress Software Corporation

Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS) is a global software company that simplifies the development, deployment and management of business applications on-premise or in the cloud, on any platform or device, to any data source, with enhanced performance, minimal IT complexity and low total cost of ownership. Progress can be reached at www.progress.com or 1-781-280-4000.

Progress, Pacific and Corticon 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 names contained herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Progress Software

Rick Lacroix, 1-781-280-4604

rlacroix@progress.com

or

LEWIS PR

Jon Brigden, 0207 802 2626

progressUK@lewispr.com

Source: Progress Software Corporation

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LINK:	http://investors.progress.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=832187...
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