Centrica Deploys Plumtree Enterprise Web Applications to 27,000 Employees

Centrica Deploys Plumtree Enterprise Web Applications to 27,000 Employees
AA, British Gas and One.Tel Connected to 'Essential' Portal to Improve Service
and Save Over $3.7 Million per Year 


SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 11  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Enterprise Web leader Plumtree
Software  today announced that Centrica, a leading provider of energy and other
essential home services world-wide, has implemented the "Essential" portal on
time and in budget. Based on Plumtree's Enterprise Web Suite, the Essential
portal allows Centrica's businesses, including the AA, British Gas and One.Tel
to easily access vital product and customer information. It also serves as a
platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration, which together are helping
deliver significantcross-group synergies and benefits.

Centrica says it plans to extend Essential to Centrica's global business
operations as well as its mobile workforce, including the AA breakdown service,
over the next couple of years. Centrica intends to use the portal to help
further improve customer service by enabling staff to deal with inquiries more
quickly and effectively and estimates it will save up to $3.7 million per year
by replacing paper-based information distribution in Centrica's British Gas call
centers.

The Essential portal provides employees with real-time access to an integrated
billing and CRM system, product and services information, competitive
intelligence, sales tools, e-learning applications and internal communications.
Both structured and unstructured information is delivered electronically to
employees, replacing the need for paper-based information sources. Essential's
intelligent search engine is designed to let users find what they need
immediately, saving time and helping stem information overload.

Centrica looks to benefit from reduced printing, communication and photocopying
costs as well as improved knowledge sharing across the enterprise. The Essential
portal has also helped to build a sense of community among the different
Centrica brands, stimulating cooperation and encouraging collaboration.

Plumtree connects applications online, in real time across the whole Centrica
enterprise, enabling 27,000 employees to access corporate and team- specific
information. In order to maintain local control for Centrica's individual
business units, the portal has been divided into 45 communities, which
transparently map the various departments that make up each of the company's
brands.

Centrica started building the portal in February 2003 and completed deployment
in September. Senior executives showed their support and belief in the project
from the outset by involving 1,000 employees from the finance department in the
pilot stage. A survey conducted by Centrica found that 91 percent of these
employees agreed that Essential will be really useful to their daily work. "It's
a huge improvement on what we had before," one user commented. "When you are on
the front line dealing with customers, you need all the information in one
place." Feedback from the survey highlighted the intelligent search engine as
being a great tool. One employee said: "Not only is the portal laid out in an
easy-to-use format, but it halves the time needed to search for files."

"Essential enables us to make the maximum use of our assets by providing rapid
access to applications and information," said Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, Program
Director Global Intranet, Centrica plc. "Connecting the businesses is critical
to the fulfillment of our long-term strategy to deepen relationships with our
customers. We are also committed to being an employer of choice for the most
talented people in our target sectors. Plumtree has proved to be both
functionally rich and highly cost effective to deploy."

"Essential isa great example of a complex business delivering a variety of
applications and information to its staff through the Enterprise Web," said
Charlie Abrahams, Plumtree's European Managing Director. "The company has both
simplified access to information and reduced the cost of ownership for many Web
applications by using a single Plumtree framework."

About Centrica

Centrica is a leading provider of energy and other essential home services. In
2002, it had a turnover of 14.3 billion pounds Sterling ($26billion USD). In
the UK, Centrica offers gas and electricity supply and related products under
the British Gas brand, roadside and financial services from the AA and telecoms
products and services through One.Tel and British Gas. In North America Centrica
is the market leader in the unregulated sector of energy supply through its
subsidiary in Canada, Direct Energy, and in the USA through our Energy America
business. In Texas Centrica also operates as WTU Retail Energy and CPL Retail
Energy. Our commercial division, Direct Energy Business Services, provides
integrated energy solutions for businesses across Canada and Texas. The group's
strategy is to retain and attract customers in its core businesses through
continual improvements in service and value, while at the same time developing
new opportunities in the UK and internationally. It has over 38,500 employees
globally, of which over 36,000 are in the UK. More information is available at
http://www.centrica.co.uk/

About Plumtree Software

Plumtree Software is the Enterprise Web leader. Plumtree's mission is to create
a comprehensive Web environment for employees, customers and partners across the
enterprise to interact with different systems and work together. Plumtree's
Enterprise Web solution consists of integration products for bringing resources
from traditional systems together on the Web, shared services such as
collaboration, content management and search for building new Web applications,
and a portal platform for delivering theseWeb applications to broad audiences.
Plumtree's independence and its Web Services Architecture allow this solution to
span rival platforms and systems, helping maximizing customers' return on their
existing technology investments. With offices in more than a dozen countries,
Plumtree has licensed over 575 customers, including Boeing, Ford Motor Company,
Procter & Gamble and the U.S. Navy.

Plumtree is a registered trademark of Plumtree Software, Inc. and/or its
subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries. All other registered and
unregistered trademarks in this document are the sole property of their
respective owners. 

DATASOURCE: Plumtree Software



CONTACT:  Carilu Dietrich, Public Relations Manager of Plumtree Software,

[phone] or 



Web site:  http://www.centrica.co.uk/ 

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

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