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February 22, 2007

LEVEL FOUR AND SBS PARTNER TO DELIVER INDEPENDENT ATM MONITORING

Orlando, FL. 22 February 2007 – Level Four Software, a champion of open standards-based ATM software, today announced that the company has entered a partnership with Salzburger Banken Software (SBS), to deliver an independent control and monitoring solution for ATM and self-service networks worldwide. ATM deployers will benefit from a sophisticated and truly independent solution to monitor and control their machines, which will improve the availability and profitability of their networks.

Following IBM’s withdrawal of support for their OS/2 operating system, ATM deployers have now largely completed their migration to Windows-based machines. This move to Windows has been synonymous with the adoption of open standards with deployers benefiting from the ‘decoupling’ of hardware and software at the ATM. As a result, deployers can now more readily adopt a multi-vendor hardware strategy for their ATM networks. These networks can exploit independent software to deliver a higher quality customer service through improved maintenance and control. Open standards have enabled independent software solutions to be installed on the ATM, which can provide neutral supervision and control of the hardware, application software, and the operating system.

The KIXOperator control and monitoring solution from SBS utilises the industry standard CEN/XFS open interface to provide a detailed picture of the status of every machine in the network. Each machine is monitored locally using a sophisticated software agent, and diagnostic information gathered centrally in a secured server. This approach offers considerable benefits over the traditional method of monitoring machines using the message traffic between ATM and financial host. Remote diagnosis and repair is now possible rather than trying to second-guess a problem from limited status information.

Banks can tailor the level of monitoring to suit their exact needs, whether this be alerts to particular known hardware/software faults or more focused monitoring of a group of ATM terminals, for example with a newly deployed service. Whatever the defined parameters, SBS and Level Four provide independent ATM monitoring to help banks improve network availability and increase their revenue.

Level Four will leverage its global customer base and adopt the SBS KIXOperator solution into its BRIDGE product suite. North America and EMEA will be targeted initially, in response to a clear market demand. For Level Four, ATM monitoring complements its suite of independent ATM testing and development tools. Using Level Four’s flagship ATM TrueTest software, ATM applications are independently tested to help identify software faults before being deployed in the field, and ensure conformance with the XFS standard.

Steffen Unterreiner, VP Software Development self-services and cards at FIDUCIA IT AG, said: “Having used the KIXOperator advanced ATM monitoring solution from SBS to control our multi-vendor network of over 20,000 machines running with our product agree® SB in Germany since 2006, we see the benefits of advanced ATM monitoring every day. For us, it means better management and control of every ATM terminal and ensures we provide the best quality of service to our customers.”

Ian Kerr, CEO of Level Four, said: “ATM monitoring adds another important software component to our product portfolio and enables us to offer a wider range of complimentary solutions to our existing and prospective customers. Our goal is to provide a genuine independent alternative to the hardware manufacturers for open ATM software. We see a strong demand for a neutral ATM monitoring solution as the market moves away from a dependence on single vendor relationships.”


-ENDS-

Note to editor:
For more information on Level Four products, please visit: www.levelfour.com
For more information on KIXOperator from SBS please visit www.sbs.co.at


About Salzburger Banken Software (SBS)

SBS was founded in 1988 as a software development and consulting company for the banking industry. SBS operates offices in Austria and Germany. The company develops software for self-service terminals including ATMs, cash-recycling systems, statement printers and non-cash terminals. SBS develops multi-vendor applications for these hardware components.

Components are continually added to the SBS product suite that helps to create contemporary multi-vendor architectures. Within its product suite SBS offers a solution for ATM monitoring and diagnostics based on WEB application servers. This enables customers to have full access to their ATMs regardless of the type of the business application running on the ATM.

SBS is a reliable, independent and flexible supplier of a wide range of self-service solutions. These installations represent a market share of 4.5% of the Western Europe ATM market and a 1% market share of the worldwide ATM market.

About Level Four

Level Four’s integrated BRIDGE suite of open ATM software products have been developed to address the needs of ATM deployers seeking to maximise their investment in the ATM channel. BRIDGE is targeted at banks and ATM deployers who are running, or seeking to run, a modern ATM network based on the industry-wide CEN/XFS open standard. As a true holistic offering, BRIDGE recognises the needs of ATM deployers in the areas of installation, testing and monitoring as well as run-time ATM software.

Since 1995, Level Four has built an impressive global customer base of banks and payments processors including, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB, National Bank of Dubai, Rabobank, LINK and Standard Bank of South Africa. Headquartered in Dunfermline, Scotland, Level Four also has offices in Dubai and Charlotte NC.


For further information contact:

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