Dan Sholler

In a surprising shift, the founder and longtime CEO of Progress software Joe Alsop is leaving the company (see the press release) Rick Reidy, the new CEO has been a longtime employee who started with Progress in 1985. However, this change at the top might signal a change in direction for the company, which historically has focused on being a technology provider and selling through an indirect channel. While this is still a strong business for Progress, the growth is coming in enterprise software that is sold directly to customers. Although Progress has sold products this way for some time, their investments in marketing and customer support have not been as strong as in companies who have focused on a direct sales model. This should require a new approach to the product portfolio, marketing and branding (historically Progress has sold their products with very independent brand identities, such as Sonic and DataDirect). The question of whether this increased investment will have an impact on earnings in what will likely be a down year for everyone is interesting. Under Joe Alsop, Progress has been a very steady performer. It will also be interesting to see whether, in this age of consolidation of software, whether an independent player with a number of extensions to the software platform can continue to thrive.

Gartner customers who would like more info on Progress can find lots of research on the Gartner site, including  the analysis of their recent analyst day , and our recent report on the middleware market that is part of the Market Share: All Enterprise Software Markets, Worldwide, 2007  .