NOAA System Receives Hammer Award Presented by Vice President; AppNet Builds Award-Winning e-Government Solution =============================================================== SILVER SPRING, Md. & BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 12, 2000--NOAA'S National Marine Fisheries Service today announced that it has been presented The Hammer Award by Vice President Al Gore for its state-of-the-art fishing permit and data tracking system built by AppNet, Inc. (NASDAQ:APNT), a premier provider of end-to-end e-business solutions. The prestigious Hammer Award is presented to teams comprised of federal employees, state and local employees, and citizens who have made significant contributions in support of reinventing government principals. The Vice President's Awards go to teams who have shown large impacts on customer service, bottom-line results, streamlining government, saving money, and exemplary achievements in government problem-solving. "AppNet is excited to be part of the award-winning team recognized by the Vice President," said Tom Richards, President of AppNet's e-Government Solutions Division. "It has been gratifying to witness the benefits the National Marine Fisheries Service is experiencing due to their e-government solution, such as improved manageability, flexibility, and cost-savings." NOAA Fisheries partnered with AppNet to build and maintain a complete system based on an infrastructure that can fulfill its mission of monitoring the Atlantic's highly migratory fish populations, including tunas and swordfish. The web site, www.nmfspermits.com, enables members of the recreational and commercial fishing communities to acquire and renew permits, report catches and landings, and access a library of related information via the Internet. The new permit and reporting system also provides a wealth of information to NOAA Fisheries with extensive data reporting and analysis capability. A key benefit of the system is its flexibility, allowing for the monitoring of additional fish species in the future. "Our new customer-friendly permit system has allowed us to be much more efficient and cost-effective, issuing over 23,000 permits per year at no cost to NOAA Fisheries, while the previous system could issue only 5,000 permits per year at a cost of $165,000," said NOAA Fisheries Director, Penny Dalton. "We're thrilled at the benefits resulting from the system AppNet built for us and are honored to have been recognized with this award." AppNet designed, built, and integrated the site's front-end e-commerce capability, and also handled the essential back-end functions such as order and payment processing, call center, and order fulfillment. As part of the project, AppNet hosts and manages all of the complex back-end e-commerce processing at its EC outsourcing facility. AppNet has built the NOAA Fisheries system using the Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition on an NT platform.
About NOAA Fisheries
The National Marine Fisheries Service is the principal steward of the nation's living marine resources. An agency of the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA Fisheries regulates the nation's commercial and recreational fisheries, managing species primarily under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act throughout 3.4 million square miles of federal waters, which extend three to 200 nautical miles offshore, generally. NOAA Fisheries also protects marine and anadromous species under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
About AppNet, Inc.
AppNet is a premier provider of end-to-end e-government solutions, from e-government portal development to supply chain integration. For agencies transforming themselves for the Internet, the company offers a unique mix of Internet strategy, marketing, and technology services. AppNet works with municipal, county, state and national Government agencies. For more information about how AppNet can bring you the power of e-business, visit www.appnet.com.
This press release may include "forward-looking statements" for purposes of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements herein, other than those of historical fact, including statements regarding future contractual arrangements or performance, competitive strengths, and business strategy, are forward-looking. Actual results or events may differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Information regarding the factors that could cause such differences is contained in AppNet's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CONTACT: AppNet Media: Alla Iaquinto, 301/581-2489 press@appnet.com or Investors: Kevin Taback, 877/551-2323 ir@appnet.com or NOAA Fisheries Gordon Helm, 301/713-2370 gordon.j.helm@noaa.gov |