POTTSVILLE, Pennsylvania, February 5, 2007 – Escalade Sports (NasdaqGM:  ESCA), a prominent sporting goods products and equipment manufacturer and distributor, is utilizing Extol business integration software to help the company meet its long-standing initiatives of operational efficiency and order accuracy. Escalade has been in business since 1927, and sells table tennis tables, billiard tables, basketball systems, playground systems, game tables, archery bows, darting products and fitness equipment to large retailers and dot com merchants. Extol is a leading provider of B2B integration software applications for both internal and external collaboration.

In 1996, Escalade began investigating business integration solutions because its legacy EDI system no longer met the requirements for modern business integration of transactions, processes and internal systems. The legacy system had become too expensive to maintain, and consumed scarce IT resources for routine daily operations.

They selected and implemented the EXTOL Integrator, which has allowed them to automate manual processes, eliminate custom coding for new processes or partners, and integrate EDI into back end systems. In addition, Extol’s automated systems have freed-up resources to work on more strategic projects.

“Extol does not require programming, which is fabulous,” says Pam Dallmeier, Escalade Electronic Commerce Coordinator. “I can on-board trading partners and customize EDI documents very quickly. This week I created an Advanced Shipping Notice (X12 transaction number 856) in less than half an hour – done, tested and in production!”

The benefit of rapidly on-boarding trading partners is of particular importance to Escalade because they are achieving growth and expansion goals by acquiring other companies. “Recently we acquired an archery products company, and were able to immediately on-board five or six of their existing trading partners, without interrupting the order, shipping and billing functions. With other EDI systems, this may have taken months,” explains Ms. Dallmeier.

The use of Extol has enabled Escalade to save substantially on VAN costs, and Extol’s superior customer support has been a main driver in Escalade’s selection of additional Extol business integration solutions. Escalade uses the IBM iSeries 810, has fifty trading partners, and uses more than a dozen different EDI documents.  

“Escalade is utilizing business integration technology to meet strategic business goals,” says Steve Rosen, Extol Vice President, Marketing. “Because of Extol functionality, customer satisfaction is higher, errors have been eliminated, and charge-backs avoided. Their staff is more efficient and productive, and the IT department is able to promptly support sales and business development initiatives.”

Wal-Mart and Sports Authority have notified Escalade that data synchronization will soon be mandatory. Escalade has already begun the process of using Extol to meet these mandates, and assumes the deployment will be as rapid as it was with the EDI capabilities.

EXTOL International, Inc. is a leading provider of B2B integration application software for resource constrained companies who want to integrate demand driven supply chains. Extol solutions are ready-to-use applications that target multiple B2B and internal challenges with a common integration platform that empowers existing IT teams to respond rapidly to new business opportunities and demands. Extol solutions are also available preconfigured to address specific electronic commerce applications including EDI, AS2, XML, data synchronization (1SYNC) and the integration and management capabilities required to take full advantage of supply chain functionality.  For more information, please visit www.EXTOL.com.