Network World Announces Winner of Extended Enterprise Innovator Award
National Gypsum Creates Self-service Extranet That Boosts Business with Partners and Customers

SOUTHBOROUGH, Ma. – November 17, 2004 – Network World, Inc. today announced the winner of its 2004 Extended Enterprise Innovator Award, honoring the company that demonstrates visionary use of emerging technologies to create a business ecosystem linking employees, customers, suppliers and other partners. This year’s Extended Enterprise Innovator Award goes to National Gypsum for applying leading-edge technology to effectively deliver a superior service experience that helps differentiate the company in a hotly competitive market.

The heart of National Gypsum’s extended enterprise operation is a self-service extranet that allows customers to check invoices, monitor order status and track the location of deliveries in close to real-time. National Gypsum synchronizes the extranet every few milliseconds with updated transaction information and utilizes GPS (geo-positioning satellite) information so customers can track critical deliveries. That helps suppliers forecast more accurately by utilizing inventory and trend information.

National Gypsum’s network grew from one that offered limited dial-up access by 150 employees to secure access by over 9,000 customers, suppliers and employees. That’s enabled the company to achieve significant cost savings by reducing the number of sales offices. What’s more, the company has cut telecom costs from $60,000 to $6,000 annually by replacing costly toll-free telephone numbers with flat-fee, local calling to the extranet and intranet.

“This award honors a company that understands the importance that advanced technology plays in extending the enterprise to support their critical business objectives,” said Beth Schultz, Signature Series editor. “National Gypsum exemplifies the intention of this award by continually improving processes that position itself as a preferred vendor.”