<PAGE> 1
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, DC 20549
FORM 6-K
REPORT OF FOREIGN ISSUER
PURSUANT TO RULE 13A-16 OR 15D-15 OF
THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the month of August 4, 1997
Micro Focus Public Limited Company
(Translation of Registrant's Name into English)
The Lawn, Old Bath Road, Newbury, England RG14 1QN
(Address of Principal Executive Offices)
(Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant files or will file annual
reports under the cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F.)
Form 20-F ___X__ Form 40-F ______
(Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant by furnishing the
information contained in this form is also thereby furnishing the information to
the Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of
1934.)
Yes ___X__ No _____
(If "Yes" is marked, indicate below the file number assigned to the
Registrant in connection with Rule 12g3-2(b):82-795.)
<PAGE> 2
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
EDITORIAL CONTACT:
Dan Spaulding
Micro Focus
(415) 843-7358
[email protected]
MICRO FOCUS(R) INTRODUCES INDUSTRY-LEADING CHANGE
AND TEST SOFTWARE FOR YEAR 2000 CRISIS SOLUTION
Workbench/2000(TM) Enhances Company's Award-winning Softfactory/2000(TM)
for Increased Savings and Productivity in Y2k Compliance
PALO ALTO, CALIF.--AUG. 4, 1997--Micro Focus (NASDAQ:MIFGY), a leading supplier
of tools and solutions for the development and maintenance of enterprise
application systems, today announced the availability of Workbench/2000(TM), an
industry-proven development and testing environment for modifying programming
code for Year 2000 (Y2K) compliance and general MVS application maintenance.
Workbench/2000 is the only Y2K testing tool in the industry to offer an
extensive MVS compatible, distributed maintenance and development environment.
Unlike rival industry offerings which utilize scarce and expensive mainframe
resources for testing, Micro Focus makes use of PC and local area network
technology to enable continuous operations away from the host mainframe for
increased savings and programmer productivity.
"Workbench/2000 is a highly productive change and testing tool that
introduces a more focused working environment and a faster development process
that is not dependent on mainframe technology, as are other testing tools in the
industry," said Stephanie Moore, senior analyst at the Giga Information Group.
"Micro Focus' strategy of moving these operations to the distributed environment
will provide significant benefits for many of its customers."
Workbench/2000 provides the technology needed during the change and test
phases of Y2K projects, as well as the tools for general MVS maintenance and
development for operations well beyond the turn of the century. It is part of
Micro Focus' award-winning SoftFactory/2000(TM), a seamless, comprehensive Y2K
toolset and methodology that enables IT organizations to correct Y2K problems
with intelligent rules optimized for logic-based remediation for more efficient
compliance.
"We chose the Micro Focus solution because it is a product set based on
proven technology and it ensures a productive, cost-effective end-to-end
solution for us," said Peter Szirmak, a senior at Information Balance, a
Toronto-based training and consulting company offering comprehensive Y2K
services. "With Workbench we offer unit-tested delivery of modifications from
our Year 2000 Factory. This is important because we ensure superior quality
while most other out-sourcing vendors provide only untested modifications."
Animator(R) is Workbench/2000's visual interactive debugging environment
for program source code. It enables users to modify and test applications
visually, allowing continuous monitoring of the effects of Y2K date changes
while providing instantaneous verification of the Y2K modifications in a
single-unit mode, as well as within the entire application.
"Micro Focus has leveraged more than 20 years of experience in maintaining
legacy systems to create the industry's fastest load-and-go testing environment
in Workbench/2000," said Peter Katz, Micro Focus Year 2000 Solution general
manager. "Workbench/2000 also offers the industry's leading COBOL mainframe
compatibility, enabling users to maintain their current code investment."
<PAGE> 3
Workbench/2000's DateWarp capability is used during unit testing of changed
source code to modify the current date without affecting other workstation
applications, giving users flexibility when testing the results of a date change
during or before programs are executed. Regression testing includes recording
pre-tests for playing and recording all output on the screen, making changes and
recording post-tests, and then comparing the results. Animator's analyze
function keeps track of all modified code to ensure all changes have been tested
and do not affect other areas of the program code.
Workbench/2000 is available today from Micro Focus. Online help and
"show-me scripts" guiding developers through program analysis, error
identification, code correction, and program testing are also available.
The SoftFactory/2000 suite of applications also includes
SmartFind/2000(TM), an intelligent rules-based analysis tool for identifying
lines of COBOL code that require Y2K remediation; Revolve/2000(TM), a proven
tool for identifying and categorizing Y2K code in several languages and
supporting multiple Y2K conversion methodologies; and Process/2000(TM), a proven
planning and implementation guide for Y2K conversions.
Micro Focus provides tools and technology to help corporations meet
changing business requirements. The company's state-of-the-art programming
solutions allow application developers to manage and extend their enterprise
applications for: Distributed Computing --developing and deploying production
systems in distributed environments; Legacy Solutions --moving application
development and maintenance off the mainframe; and Year 2000 assessment and
implementation --providing solutions for preparing systems to handle the
millennium date change.
In the U.S., Micro Focus is located at 2465 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto,
Calif. 94303. Telephone: 415/856-4161. In the U.K., the company is located at
The Lawn, Old Bath Road, Newbury, England, RG14 1QN. Telephone: 01635-32646. For
additional information on Micro Focus and its products, visit Micro Focus' Web
site at http://www.microfocus.com .
###
Micro Focus and Animator are registered trademarks of Micro Focus. All other
companies and products as they appear in this release are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective holders.
<PAGE> 4
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
Micro Focus Group Public Limited Company
(Registrant)
Date: September 25, 1997 By: /s/ Loren E. Hillberg
---------------------------------
Loren E. Hillberg
Vice President and General Counsel
