Astea appoints Kevin Roche vice president of program management; 15-year veteran will head customer interaction software company's new program management teams.

HORSHAM, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 7, 1996--Astea International Inc. (NASDAQ: ATEA) today promoted Kevin Roche to vice president of program management to oversee the company's new program management teams for its customer interaction software solutions.

Roche will report directly to Astea's president and CEO, Zack Bergreen.

Roche joined Astea in 1992 as a senior project consultant. He quickly advanced within the company to his most recent position as director of product management, where he was responsible for product development and delivery. In his new position, Roche will work closely with all areas of development, marketing, sales and services, and will be responsible for developing, communicating and driving Astea's strategic business objectives for all its product lines.

"Kevin's 15 years of customer service, manufacturing and information technology experience have been invaluable to Astea and its product development," said Bergreen. "In his new position, he will play a key role in helping us determine the direction of future products, while continuing to lead the corporate initiative to develop a customer/market-driven product development focus."

Roche will retain his previous product management responsibilities, and will manage software direction and delivery through the company's product teams. These teams will be responsible for managing all aspects of Astea's different product lines-from development and support to documentation and marketing.

"The new program management teams are critical to the company's continued success in the customer interaction software market. We feel these focused teams will enable Astea to continue providing field service automation, customer support/help desk, and sales and marketing automation solutions with the same depth of functionality that have made the company a market leader," Roche said.

Prior to joining Astea, Roche was with Wang Laboratories for over 10 years, gaining experience in manufacturing, customer service, repair operations and software deployment. During that time he held several positions of increasing responsibility, culminating in senior manager of manufacturing operations, responsible for vertically integrated PC manufacturing operations and the implementation of policies, procedures and direction that led to ISO 9002 certification and registration. Roche's other positions at Wang included senior manager of western region field service.

Roche earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Northeastern University. He has been certified by the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS.)

About Astea International

Astea International develops client/server-based customer interaction software that enables organizations to automate their customer support, field service and sales operations. With more than 500 employees worldwide, Astea markets its products through a direct sales and services network throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The company's customer base of approximately 2,000 companies and 40,000 end users includes such industry leaders as Allen-Bradley; Mercedes Benz; NCR; E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.; U-Haul; Chevron; Ricoh Corp.; and Savin Corp. Astea can be reached at [phone]; via e-mail at [e-mail]; or via the World Wide Web at www.astea.com.

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