Company : Press Release

Electrum Provides Intranet for Franklin Templeton Investments
EDINBURGH - November 17th, 1997

Electrum Multimedia, the Edinburgh-based Internet software developer recently participated in the development of an intranet for Franklin Templeton Investments Limited.

The intranet was commissioned by the Franklin Templeton Investments office in Edinburgh for their European operation and it has won widespread praise from all parts of the group. The Edinburgh office of Franklin Templeton Investments, one of the world's leading suppliers of financial investment products, recently commissioned the installation of an intranet for its European operation.

The intranet was developed jointly by Franklin Templeton Investments, Electrum Multimedia, the Edinburgh-based Internet software developer, and Clear Cut. Franklin Templeton Investments provided the content, Electrum developed the software and Clear Cut designed and created the web pages.

The intranet provides Franklin Templeton Investments staff with corporate information, on-line procedures and up-to-date information on sales and sales forecasts for the whole of Europe.

Electrum was responsible for the interactive front-end and the development of software to take data from spreadsheets and incorporate it, as tables and charts, into web pages. The software automatically incorporates the latest spreadsheet data into the web pages, making it easy to deliver accurate, up-to-date information over the intranet.

Dougie Adams, Business Planning Director, Europe for Franklin Templeton Investments, said, "As part of a global organisation with a rapidly growing European business, our intranet is becoming the key communication tool. One of the challenges we face is keeping the information on it up-to-date and accessible. "Electrum's software development automates much of this process, providing us with a cost-effective long-term solution." he added.

The work for Franklin Templeton Investments was based on Electrum's expertise in developing tools and applications to automatically create web pages from existing data and make the Internet easier to use. The front-end is based on an interactive map that shows sales and sales forecasts for every sales office and region throughout Europe. All the information is available on a single web page, which makes it easy for the user to find information and to compare information from several offices or regions. The user simply points at a country or office and the sales information for that region or office is immediately displayed as a table or chart.

Gary McGill, Technical Director at Electrum, said: "We are delighted with the outcome of the work with Franklin Templeton Investments . The joint development enabled us to concentrate on our area of expertise - software development. This is an excellent example of what businesses can achieve with an intranet. The staff now have immediate access to the information they need from the PC's on their desks. They can continue to use the power of spreadsheets for data analysis and charting, while taking advantage of the local area network and web browsers for information distribution and easy access."

Franklin Templeton Investments, based at Saltire Court, is part of the US$190 billion Franklin Templeton Group, one of the world's leading suppliers of financial investment products.

Electrum specializes in the development of interactive software for multimedia and web applications.

All enquiries, please call:

Stuart Harper, Electrum Multimedia, 0131 555 4241, stuart@electrum.co.uk, http://www.electrum.co.uk