Centrica Deploys Plumtree Enterprise Web Applications to 27,000 Employees
12 February 2004 - 6:31AM
PR Newswire (US)
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, +1-415-399-7047 or Web site:
http://www.centrica.co.uk/ Web site: http://www.plumtree.com/
Copyright
Plumtree (NASDAQ:PLUM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2024 to Oct 2024
Plumtree (NASDAQ:PLUM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Oct 2023 to Oct 2024