Meridian Launches Competitive Upgrade Program

FOLSOM, Calif. (March 29, 2004) — Meridian Project Systems (MPS), provider of leading-edge enterprise software solutions for the real estate, construction and facility lifecycle, announces a $750 per license upgrade credit toward the purchase of Prolog Manager or Proliance as part of its "Move Up to Meridian" program.For a limited time, Meridian is extending this upgrade credit to users of Primavera Expedition and other qualifying self-hosted project management solutions. This program is designed to showcase the deep functionality of Prolog and Proliance and to provide an aggressive incentive to companies frustrated with their existing project management solutions.After a decade on the project management scene, Meridian has established a reputation for innovative products and market leadership within the AEC industry and beyond. The 2003 Constructech National Construction Technology Survey revealed that Prolog Manager is the leading project management solution in the industry, capturing 25.3% market share. Prolog was followed by Primavera Expedition with only 13.8% market share and other offerings each with less than 10% market share.Introduced in 2003 and designed for global enterprises, government agencies, and engineering and construction firms, Proliance is the first project and program controls solution built on Web services and XML technology. Proliance uniquely allows global companies to manage projects, programs and business processes across their organizations and external supply chains."Customers today are frustrated with a short-term, one-product strategy and want to standardize with one vendor who can provide market leading solutions today, as well as modern systems for tomorrow,” contends Jim Olsen, Meridian chief executive officer. “We're offering this program to companies who need to lower IT and operational costs, while standardizing on a more flexible and powerful project management portfolio.”Past Primavera customers agree. "As former Expedition users, we were constantly challenged with collaboration roadblocks. After making the decision to move to Prolog, we had tremendous success using the embedded collaboration tools. Prolog helped our Weslyan and Harvard University projects move smoothly - on time and on budget," said Geoff Gilbert, IT manager of Lee Kennedy Co., Inc.According to Michael Callahan, vice president of John T. Callahan and Sons, Inc., "We switched from Expedition because its solution was too rigid and did not fit well with how our company does business. It lacked flexibility in manipulating project information already entered. We decided to switch to Meridian because it was critical that we efficiently track budgets, change orders and requisitions. We were really impressed with the features in Prolog and found it to be much more powerful than Expedition."For more details on the "Move Up to Meridian" competitive upgrade program, or to see the list of qualifying products, go to http://www.mps.com/upgrade/ or call 800-850-2660. Available information includes a "Move Up to Meridian" program data sheet, a competitive positioning overview and a detailed guide about data migration from Expedition to Prolog.

As the market share leader and industry innovator, Meridian invites Primavera users to join the rest of the market in utilizing Meridian applications to manage the projects, programs and overall operations of their companies.