CONTACT INFORMATION

Optiron
www.optiron.com

(412) 467-2350
info@optiron.com

PITTSBURGH, PA., May 29, 2001- Optiron Corporation, a leading provider of web based customer care and billing solutions and services for utilities and energy service companies, announces a strategic partnership with Astea International Inc. (Nasdaq: ATEA), the leading developer and supplier of equipment-service-centric Customer Relationship Management (eCRM) software.  By way of a remarketing agreement, Astea’s AllianceEnterprise eCRM Suite™ is being integrated with Optiron’s Readi System® suite of integrated modules.

"This new integration allows utilities who use the Readi System to have their call centers and customer records even more tightly linked to their service departments and third party suppliers," said Angelo F. Pasquale, Optiron’s president and CEO. "It provides for the efficient dispatching and tracking of meter sets, service line maintenance, emergency service or any other service," he added. "Utilities can monitor and provide customers with real-time information regarding their service order provisioning and fulfillment process. In addition to web-based access to their converged utility and non-utility products and services bill, customers can also have web-based access to their service order status as well."

“We are delighted that Optiron chose Astea’s expertise and technology to enrich their end-to-end billing and customer care solutions with the Readi System,” said Zack Bergreen, president and CEO of Astea Intenational. “The AllianceEnterprise integration enables Readi System users to offer a higher level of service to their customers at a significantly lower cost.”

Greg Cicio, Astea’s director of business development, added, “This partnership is another example of how Astea is broadening its business opportunities with its new Global Solutions Partner Program. Optiron is an experienced player in utilities and energy services markets and a web-savvy company that uses the Internet to deliver their advanced software solutions for clients to bill for electric, gas and water utilities as well as telecom and non-utility products and services. This new relationship certainly improves Astea’s positioning in these market sectors.”

Optiron is integrating AllianceEnterprise to strengthen the Readi System’s Work Order Module (www.optiron.com/readi_system/modules/work_orders.htm) that improves utility productivity by automatically generating work orders for routine and emergency service based on the availability of service personnel and user defined business rules. It reduces asset management costs by managing and tracking inventory of meters and other service equipment. Further, it improves business process by interfacing with Mobile Data, AM/FM, Work management, Leak Management and non-utility inventory management systems.

About Optiron Corporation
Optiron Corporation (www.optiron.com) provides web-based billing and customer care solutions and services to utilities, energy service companies, municipal authorities and cooperatives. Optiron's founders have more than 25 years direct energy industry business experience, including early participation in retail choice, and 13 years energy industry and other commercial application development experience. Optiron is partly owned by Philadelphia, PA-based Resource America, Inc. (Nasdaq: REXI). Resource America, Inc. operates businesses in energy, energy technology and real estate finance.

About Astea International Inc.
Astea International Inc. (www.astea.com) specializes in the development, implementation and maintenance of equipment-service-centric Customer Relationship Management (eCRM) software solutions that are used by companies in multiple industries to improve productivity, top-line revenue growth and customer interaction. Astea creates value for clients by applying its 20-plus years of best-practices experience with Fortune 1000 companies to deploy software and services for enterprise management of information, people and materials in companies engaged in the sale, service and support of capital equipment. Astea supports a global client base and markets its products through direct and indirect sales and services networks throughout North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

© 2001 Astea International Inc. Astea is a registered trademark and AllianceEnterprise eCRM Suite and is a trademark of Astea International Inc. All other company and product names contained herein are trademarks of the respective holders.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that 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 possibilities that the companies mentioned in this press release may not purchase licenses for AllianceEnterprise, the continuing acceptance of Astea’s products, general competitive pressures in the marketplace, and continued overall growth in the customer relationship management solutions industry. Further information regarding these as well as other key risk factors and meaningful cautionary statements that 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, 2000, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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