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September 08, 2004

LEVEL FOUR SOFTWARE TO DEMONSTRATE UNIQUE APPROACH TO ATM NETWORK STRESS TESTING AT ACE 2004 ANNUAL MEETING

ACE 2004, ACI Worldwide North America User Group, 12-15 September 2004, Vancouver, Canada

London, 8 September 2004 - Level Four Software, the leading provider of ATM test and development software is to demonstrate its Network Stress Tester product at ACE 2004, the annual North America BASE24 user group conference in Vancouver next week. Network Stress Tester is a new approach to stress testing that simulates high volumes of actual ATM transactions rather than simple message traffic. A number of Level Four's European and Middle East customers are BASE24 users, this includes Lloyds TSB, Nationwide Building Society, LINK Interchange Network, Giro Bankcard, OTP Bank, Den norske Bank and Arab National Bank.

Network Stress Tester provides more realistic stress testing that in turn enables better performance and capacity testing of ATM networks. This provides banks with a greater level of confidence when new ATM functionality is deployed. Network Stress Tester, which was announced earlier this year, is currently on trial at a major UK bank, with pilot discussions underway with a number of Level Four's existing customers.

Network Stress Tester creates a virtual ATM network based on the actual data from a bank's live ATM system. The stress test is a true reflection of the transaction mix for each bank, including cash withdrawal, cash deposit, account balance check, cheque book order, or money transfer. Network Stress Tester incorporates the differences in ATM hardware and software and is able to replicate multi-vendor networks.

Variants in the transaction mix can be adjusted to test a network for future changes. For example a bank could change the proportion of EMV transactions used in the stress test, to test the performance of the network at a higher percentage of EMV transactions. Many existing stress testing solutions cannot handle the complexity of EMV transactions, therefore do not provide a true representation of EMV-ready network performance. Level Four's Network Stress Tester enables banks to prepare more fully for the roll-out of new hardware and software through stress testing new parameters in advance.

Martin Macmillan, CEO at Level Four Software said: "Many banks do not run thorough stress tests frequently enough because of the cost implications and complexity of the configuration. Network Stress Tester provides an easy-to-use tool that replicates the real ATM network and stress tests with high volumes of real ATM transaction data.

"By using Network Stress Tester for capacity testing, a bank can improve information about the level of transactions that could be considered an operational risk - the highest capacity the network can cope with."

Some alternative stress testing solutions require a mainframe to run a full testing program, which is expensive to maintain purely for testing purposes. Level Four's Network Stress Tester is a flexible and cost-effective desktop system. A small to medium ATM network could be tested from just one high specification PC. Network Stress Tester is scalable so is equally capable of stress testing larger networks of more than 10,000 ATMs and volumes of 400 transactions per second (TPS), using rack-mounted servers, controlled through a central management function.

Network Stress Tester is part of Level Four's successful ATM Channel Development Suite that has been implemented at leading financial institutions worldwide for complete end-to-end ATM network testing from the desktop.

Level Four is exhibiting at stand no. 16 at the annual ACI Worldwide conference, ACE 2004, 12-15 September 2004, Vancouver, Canada. The conference takes place at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel, 1088 Burrard Street, Vancouver.

For further details about the event please visit: www.aciworldwide.com/usergroups/americas

Perfil de Level Four

La suite integrada BRIDGE de productos de software abierto ATM de Level Four ha sido desarrollada para dirigirse a las necesidades de usuarios de ATM que buscan maximizar su inversión en la cadena de ATM. BRIDGE se dirige a bancos y a usuarios de ATM que tienen, o desean tener, una red ATM moderna basada en el conjunto de la industria CEN/XFS estándar abierto. Como oferta realista, BRIDGE satisface las necesidades de los usuarios de ATM en las áreas de instalación, pruebas y monitorización así como la ejecución de software ATM.

Desde 1995, Level Four ha construido una considerable base global de clientes en banca y en el sector de medios de pago, incluyendo, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB, National Bank of Dubai, Rabobank, LINK and Standard Bank of South Africa. La Sede de Level Four está en Dunfermline, y el resto de oficinas están en Maidenhead, Dubai y Charlotte NC.

Para mayor información, visiter: www.levelfour.com

Si desea más información, póngase en contacto con:

Martin Macmillan
Level Four Software Ltd
Tel: +44 (0) 1383 720 118
E-mail: martin@levelfour.com

Hotwire PR
Nicola Truman / Alexia Ward
+44 (0) 20 7608 2500
E-mail: levelfour@hotwirepr.com



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