MICRO FOCUS INTRODUCES NEW ENVIRONMENT TO LEVERAGE AND EXTEND MAINFRAME APPLICATIONS

-- Mainframe Express Enterprise Edition Enables Companies to Unlock the Value of Their Legacy --

CHICAGO, June 8, 2004 - Micro Focus International Ltd. (Micro Focus®), the leading provider of legacy application development and deployment software, announced today the availability of Mainframe Express Enterprise Edition, a unique, complete Windows®-based environment for mainframe application development, which offers organizations modernization solutions for their legacy portfolio, enabling Service Oriented Architectures and cutting development costs by up to 30 percent. With 70% of all business critical applications running on mainframes, CIOs and technology managers face the challenge of reducing costs while deploying new technology to support business innovation.

"Our legacy systems are critical to our business, and so is maintaining and enhancing them as cost effectively as possible," said Sandy DeCarufel, Vice President at Wachovia. "We believe that Micro Focus can help us achieve our goal of operational efficiency and flexibility through its new offering, Mainframe Express Enterprise Edition."

Mainframe Express Enterprise Edition combines a unique mainframe emulation and development environment with application analysis and automated program and component generation. Mainframe Express Enterprise Edition also drives significant improvement in application performance and delivery, reducing operating costs and risks. Reduced administration costs mean a much faster return on investment and increased operational savings. In addition, existing CICS or IMS legacy services can be extended to Web Services, .NET or J2EE, to accelerate business agility without the cost or risk of application changes or retraining.

"Despite years of dire speculation to the contrary, the mainframe is still very much alive," said Ron Exler, Director of Research Operations with Robert Frances Group. "Enterprises still have a tremendous amount of critical business logic and data on mainframes. Regarding rehosting, server consolidation, and other legacy extension initiatives, there is no one right answer to every scenario. However, integration across platforms is essential. Mainframe Express Enterprise Edition provides a robust solution for developing and maintaining mainframe applications with the proper support of newer standards."

"We were able to preserve our investment in COBOL at low cost and minimal risk because our programmers were able to become productive so quickly," said John Elliott, Director of Information Technology for Campus Partners. "Leveraging and extending our legacy system was the best option for us, and Micro Focus helped us preserve the value of our legacy investment."

"Micro Focus is committed to providing customers with products that extend the value of their legacy investments to support strategic business initiatives," said Tony Hill, chief executive officer at Micro Focus. "By giving our customers development options for leveraging legacy applications, we enable them to drive further value from those investments and extend critical applications to new technology platforms."

About Micro Focus

Micro Focus is the leading provider of COBOL application development and deployment software for contemporary platforms and architectures. Micro Focus enables organizations to unlock the value of their legacy by reusing their business-critical assets, resulting in reduced costs, increased agility and minimal risk. Founded in 1976, Micro Focus is a global company with principal offices in the United Kingdom, United States and Japan. For more information, visit www.microfocus.com.

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Micro Focus is a registered trademark of Micro Focus International Ltd. All non-Micro Focus products mentioned in this announcement are property of their respective owners.