TOP executives of business rules management (BRM) system software-maker Progress Software Corp. expressed keen interest on the financial verticals market in Asia.
“Southeast Asia’s next, that’s what we’re focusing on more,” Asia Pacific and Japan Managing Director Stephen McNulty said in a news conference in Singapore.
McNulty spoke before the Bedford, Massachusetts-based firm reported on September 25 that 6.22 percent, or $4.93 million, of its third- quarter 2014 revenue from continuing operation of $79.274 million was contributed by Asia.
But while the firm reported income from continuing operations was $11.1 million compared to $7.2 million in the third quarter of last year, contribution of Asia slid by 4.7 percent from 5.171 million.
The company opened its Japan office last year and supported start-up firms in India in September.
McNulty also said in the news conference in mid-September that they are encouraging independent software vendors in Asia to participate in a contest for start-ups called ExtremeTech Challenge, which Progress Software is supporting through its own contest within that contest.
Participants in that contest will receive free development licenses, free product training and mentoring, Chief Technology Officer Mark Allen said in the same news conference.
The winner will receive $25,000 in market development funds, with the two runners-up receiving $5,000 in marketing development funds each, according to a company news brief.
Participants must, however, use the firm’s products, like Corticon BRM software.
Progress is raising the stakes for ISVs, challenging them to build their applications using our development tools like Corticon, Allen said.
Corticon, which competes head to head with IBM Corp.’s WebShere ILOG in the BRM market, simplifies and automates decision-making processes, Allen explained.
For example, a 35-year-old skydiver could be appraised automatically for an insurance-risk premium, thereby helping insurers cut steps and costs. “There are no coding rules. It’s not programming. It’s like using a spreadsheet so we can take people with no programming experience and background, and in a matter of three days teach them to be as productive as somebody who is a programmer,” Allen said.
He cited as another example the processing of claims that could take to only seven from 21 manual steps with the use of his firm’s BRM software.
“Eighty-five percent of claims processing could become automated. Corticon provides them with lower cost and greater agility as against doing this, making some decisions, manually.”
Allen, who developed Corticon while in the medical industry, said the product has a “patented algorithm that performs and scales very well with increasing amount of data you’re processing.”
“Rules interact with one another in complex ways. But the complexity increases as the rules increase. So what we have is a BRM that allows businesses to solve much more complex problems.”
Citing a quiet period prior to the announcement of the firm’s third- quarter 2014 performance, Allen and McNulty declined to provide details on Progress Software’s plans for Asia.
Nonethelles, McNulty said the firm has been in talks with financial verticals in the Philippines and that Progress Software’s Japan office “has been doing good.”
Image credits: Dennis D. Estopace