ATLANTA, GA and STAMFORD, CT, March 25, 2003 -- ForestExpress, a leader in business-to-business integration and catalog content services for the forest products and allied industries, and International Paper today announced the continuing success of their efforts to integrate wood suppliers to International Paper’s wood fiber supply chain systems. In an effort to automate and improve the flow of key information to suppliers, IP has provided scale ticket, contract and fulfillment status information electronically by way of the ForestExpress network hub. These e-commerce activities represent key elements of the company’s wood fiber procurement and supply chain management strategy. Electronic scale ticket information has created new opportunities for wood suppliers to evaluate and analyze their business. A new ForestExpress service, Business Intelligence Center, allows suppliers to analyze and download scale tickets, shedding light on trends and patterns that could impact daily operations. As part of the introduction, IP sponsored a two-month free trial period for selected suppliers.   “Automating scale tickets and contracts are a part of our overall efforts within IP to reduce overall supply chain costs and to help our wood suppliers improve their business,” said Dana Saucier, general manager of fiber supply for IP’s Forest Resources business. “During February we transmitted more than 100,000 scale tickets and provided hundreds of our suppliers with timely, accurate information with greater efficiencies.”   Thornton & Associates, Inc., a wood supplier to International Paper, receives electronic scale ticket information from ForestExpress daily. “We couldn’t be more pleased with the information,” said Larry Jones, vice president and general manager of Thornton & Associates. “We’ve significantly reduced the work required to correct data entry errors, which used to take hours every week. This way, we can put more focus where it should be – on our customers and our business.”    An active participant in the ForestExpress Trading Center for online wood fiber procurement for more than two years, International Paper has expanded their relationship with ForestExpress recently to include EDI and XML integration messaging. ForestExpress provides integration services to the range of forest products supply chain participants, from large manufacturers to distributors to raw materials producers. ForestExpress CEO Bob Renner commented on the recent implementation, “It’s exciting to see International Paper take their activity to the next level. We continue to seek ways to help customers reach their e-commerce objectives, and automating IP’s information exchange with their suppliers is an example. We’re proud to be part of reaching that goal.”