In late 1999 we extended our successful business model to a web-based system, EnronOnline. EnronOnline has broadened our market reach, accelerated our business activity and enabled us to scale our business beyond our own expectations. By the end of 2000, EnronOnline had executed 548,000 transactions with a notional value of $336 billion, and it is now the world’s largest web-based eCommerce system.

With EnronOnline, we are reaching a greater number of customers more quickly and at a lower cost than ever. It’s a great new business generator, attracting users who are drawn by the site’s ease of use, transparent, firm prices and the fact that they are transacting directly with Enron. In 2000 our total physical volumes increased significantly as a direct result of EnronOnline.

EnronOnline has enabled us to scale quickly, soundly and economically. Since its introduction, EnronOnline has expanded to include more than 1,200 of our products. It also has streamlined our back-office processes, making our entire operation more efficient. It has reduced our overall transaction costs by 75 percent and increased the productivity of our commercial team by five-fold on average. We are not sitting still with this important new business tool — in September 2000 we released EnronOnline 2.0, which added even more customer functionality and customization features and attracted more customers.