NEW YORK, September 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- Most Innovative Financial Services Technology Finalist Selected
for its Unique Business Transaction Management Software

OpTier(R), the leader in Business Transaction Management(TM) (BTM) for
the enterprise, today announced that it has been named a finalist for the
2008 Financial Innovation Awards Most Innovative Financial Services
Technology Solution. The Financial Innovation Awards recognize financial
services organizations and technology providers that demonstrate excellence
in one of 22 categories. OpTier's CoreFirst(R) software is one of only five
finalists in this technology vendor solution category which recognizes the
innovative development of a software package, application or tool set for the
financial services industry. Award winners will be announced at a ceremony in
London on November 19.

"The Financial Innovation Awards are now firmly established as one of the
most prestigious awards ceremonies in the financial services industry," said
Chris Ray, director of marketing, events and alumni at the ifs School of
Finance. "Entries from organizations across the globe combined with a
rigorous judging process mean that those who are shortlisted, and especially
those that win one of the award categories, can take pride in having truly
excelled in the financial services industry."

CoreFirst is the first and only product to deliver end-to-end visibility
of all transactions, across all execution tiers within the IT environment all
the time. With CoreFirst's BTM, companies can manage transactions at the
point of invocation through to completion, regardless of physical or virtual
computing architectures. By uniquely identifying all transactions, OpTier
provides a real-time picture of every transaction in order to reduce outages,
quickly isolate and repair problems, improve operational efficiency and
reduce overall costs.

CoreFirst is particularly valuable for organizations in the financial
services sector where failure to immediately meet service level agreements
(SLAs) for transactions such as the execution of a trade or payment cut-off
time can be extremely costly. CoreFirst also enables organizations to
prioritize these transactions so that during times of increased activity,
SLAs are still met.

"Several of the world's largest financial services organizations are
already realizing the benefits that CoreFirst offers in helping to align IT
with the needs of the business," said Israel Mazin, CEO of OpTier. "This
recognition by the Financial Innovation Awards is a further testament to the
uniqueness, value and quality of our solution and our close work with these
demanding organizations as we continue to develop and advance the BTM
capabilities of our products."

About ifs School of Finance

The ifs School of Finance is a registered charity incorporated by Royal
Charter. We provide financial education to financial services professionals
the world over, and to consumers in the UK. The ifs School of Finance also
provides a range of Continuing Professional Development services and
executive education. With over 80,000 students in 100 different countries,
the ifs School of Finance is one of the world's leading providers of
financial education.

For further information, please contact Phil Hall (Head of Media, Public
Affairs & ifs ProShare at the ifs School of Finance) on 07813004414 or e-mail
phall@ifslearning.ac.uk.

About OpTier

OpTier(R) harnesses the power of real business transactions with its
unique Business Transaction Management (BTM) software solutions. Our
CoreFirst(R) product assures that business transactions flow smoothly within
IT applications and infrastructure without bottlenecks or outages, for
improved end-user experience and reduced cost. Our Active Context
Tracking(TM) (ACT) technology delivers end-to-end visibility -- of all
business transactions, across all tiers, all the time -- by continuously
discovering the links between IT components and business services. It also
prioritizes IT transactions and processes based on business needs, for true
IT optimization. For more information, visit www.optier.com.

"Active Context Tracking", "Business Transaction Management",
    CoreFirst, OpTier and the tagline "Putting first things first" are 
                         trademarks of OpTier Ltd.

Contacts:
    
    Lindsay Diamond                      Jennifer Barlow or Avi Dines
    OpTier                               Schwartz Communications, Inc.
    +1-212-679-2700                      +1-781-684-0770
    Lindsay.diamond@optier.com           OpTier@schwartz-pr.com



Web site:  http://www.optier.com