Astea International Integrates Abalon Customer Management Software With Leading Cognos PowerPlay Business Intelligence Tool.

HORSHAM, PA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 13, 1998--

PowerPlay's OLAP capabilities enhance analysis

and organization of sales data

Astea International (Nasdaq:ATEA) today announced it has enhanced its Abalon CMS(TM) (Customer Management Software) sales and marketing support software to integrate with PowerPlay(R), the leading business intelligence tool from Cognos(R) (Nasdaq:COGNF; TSE:CSN). As a result, Abalon customers can now analyze and organize their sales data using the power and flexibility of Online Analytical Processing (OLAP).

The integration of the recently released version 3.8 of Abalon CMS with Cognos PowerPlay, considered the universal OLAP standard, enables the rapid, multidimensional analysis of corporate sales information. Abalon customers can now import their data into highly compressed multidimensional information packages called "InfoCubes." InfoCubes reduce the volume of data while indexing information and allow PowerPlay to provide a rapid response to a user's analytical questions.

The synergy between PowerPlay and Abalon CMS offers immediate and compelling advantages for sales and marketing professionals and provides another capability that significantly distinguishes Abalon CMS from other sales and marketing software solutions. While other products offer only traditional "funnel" or "pipeline" metaphors for the sales process, Abalon CMS 3.8 goes beyond these concepts to provide unprecedented flexibility and power to analyze data.

"Abalon's InfoCubes provide multiple ranges of views and perspectives of data," said Orjan Grinndal, Astea's vice president of corporate marketing. "Sales and marketing executives can analyze their own data over any period, or custom model the data in many different and highly informative compound views." For example, Abalon users can now clearly focus on their position in the sales cycle by defining groups of customers and displaying them in a meaningful three-dimensional graph. Abalon users also can choose to categorize corporate data in different ways, such as sales by location, time period, customer category, product area or by individual salesperson.

PowerPlay brings three key analysis techniques to Abalon CMS customers:

-- Drill-down - Allows for easy movement from one level of

analytical detail to the next.

-- Slice and Dice - Provides views of data from any angle by

inserting or moving rows and columns of data in multiple

combinations.

-- Graphical Analysis - Users can create multiple graphical views of

data and seamlessly move from one view to another.

OLAP Capabilities Improve Analysis of Sales Data

PowerPlay's OLAP capabilities help Abalon CMS users analyze and access corporate data and organize the information in a business context. The graphical navigation of multidimensional information makes it easier to investigate sales trends and find answers to questions rapidly.

PowerPlay provides interactive charts and graphs that users can select to best reflect the analyzed data without understanding the underlying database structure. "Abalon CMS generates a lot of useful data over time," said Grinndal. "Eventually, users acquire too much information and it becomes increasingly difficult to visualize and handle. Sales and marketing professionals can greatly benefit from PowerPlay's ability to generate instantaneous custom views of data without the need to define a custom report. Abalon users can easily put different factors in the InfoCube for multidimensional analysis, then quickly enter additional criteria for a different view."

"The power of this solution comes from the depth of our Abalon software supporting multidimensional data," added Grinndal. "Cognos' PowerPlay is the perfect match for Abalon CMS because it can display the wide range of models and sales processes created in Abalon."

The multidimensional difference that OLAP provides is the ability to compare any element in a set of data to any other element. Unlike flat, two-dimensional databases, a multidimensional array is similar to a cube with many sides. The cube is arranged so that each data item can be easily located and assessed. Sales and marketing professionals can quickly solve problems by uncovering the necessary data and slicing, dicing and rotating the cubes to quickly rearrange information for comparative and graphical viewing.

"Once a company has invested in the Abalon CMS software, it makes sense to ensure users have access to the data in a meaningful way," said Paul Hill, vice president of strategic alliances and business development at Cognos. "By offering PowerPlay, our award winning business intelligence and OLAP tools, Astea is providing one of the most complete solutions for sales and marketing professionals on the market today.

About Astea International

Astea International develops client/server-based customer management solutions that enables organizations to automate their customer support, field service and sales and marketing operations. This includes DISPATCH-1(TM), the industry's leading customer service application; ServiceAlliance(TM), the first integrated service automation software that enables medium-sized organizations to utilize the business functionality and best practices that until now, only larger Fortune 500 companies could deploy; the Abalon(TM) sales and marketing solution, and HEAT(TM), the leading help desk product from the Bendata division. Astea markets its products through a direct sales and services network throughout North America, Europe, Israel, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

The company's customer base of approximately 4,000 companies and 90,000 end users includes such industry leaders as Groupe Bull, Ericcson Telecom, GTE Customer Networks, Siemens Business Communications Systems, Sprint and the Swedish PTT. Astea differentiates itself by its industry-leading customer care expertise, its commitment to providing "best of breed" end-to-end solutions for automated customer care systems, and its flexibility in offering a full spectrum of products for companies of different sizes and needs. Astea can be reached at [phone] or via the World Wide Web at www.astea.com or www.abalon.se. -0- This press release contains forward-looking statements which are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could materially affect future results. Among these risk factors are continuing acceptance of Astea's products, general competitive pressures in the marketplace, and the continued overall growth in the customer interaction software industry. Further information regarding these as well as other key risk factors and meaningful cautionary statements which could affect the Company's financial results are included at length in the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1997, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

CONTACT: Astea International Inc.

Orjan Grinndal

[phone]

[e-mail]

or

Media Contact:

Steven Greene

Sperling Greene Assoc.

212/366-5060

[e-mail]

or

Investor Relations:

Harvey Goralnick

Focus Partners LLC 

212/752-9445

[e-mail]