The Hackett Group to Unveil 2005 SG&A Research Findings at its 15th An

    Business Editors

    ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 29, 2005--

    Conference Also Features Presentations by C-Level Executives from
    Alcoa, InterContinental Hotels, Nextel, and Others; Special Guest
    and Rock Legend Steve Miller to Discuss His Strategies for Success

    The Hackett Group, a business process advisory firm and an Answerthink company (NASDAQ:ANSR), announced today that it would release its 2005 SG&A world-class performance metrics and findings at its 15th Annual Best Practices Conference, "Enterprise Performance Management: Building Harmony in Purpose and Execution," in Atlanta April 28 and 29th.
    The research, which quantifies spending, staffing, and other key metrics of world-class finance, IT, HR, and procurement organizations, will be one of several conference highlights. The two-day invitation-only event will feature senior executives from 12 of the world's most successful companies including Alcoa, InterContinental Hotels, Nextel, Royal Caribbean, and others, who will share their approaches on many critical business topics including: Benchmarking for Competitive Advantage, Business Process Sourcing Strategies, Generating a Return on Compliance Efforts, and Increasing Technology Return through Consolidation and Standardization.
    Finally, the conference will feature a very special guest speaker - Rock Legend and CEO Steve Miller, who will discuss his strategies for building trust, making personal connections, and sustaining his brand through decades of dramatic change in the musical industry.
    Three Business Advisory Services Member Forums will immediately precede the Best Practices Conference on April 27. These exclusive forums, which focus on Finance Shared Services, Application ROI, and Plan-to-Results, offer members of Hackett's process advisory programs the opportunity to learn about and participate in discussion of the latest research findings from Hackett, dialogue on relevant issues they are currently facing, and discuss their companies' successes and challenges in an open peer learning environment.
    "Our Best Practices Conference has always been a strong venue for C-level executives and their direct reports to learn from their peers and benefit from early access to the latest Hackett research findings. This year is no exception," said Bruce Barlag, CEO of The Hackett Group. "We've put together an exceptional lineup of companies to speak on topics relevant to virtually every SG&A area.
    "However, the addition of Steve Miller makes this an even more special event. In addition to being an incredible musician, Steve has developed a uniquely effective approach to running The Steve Miller Band as a business. It has helped him prosper over the long-term in an industry where success is often quite short-lived. There are definitely lessons that today's business leaders can learn from his experience."
    Executives from 12 companies are currently scheduled to present at the conference, which will be held at the new InterContinental Hotel-Buckhead in Atlanta. The following executives are currently scheduled to present:

InterContinental Hotels Group, Inc. President The Americas Stevan Porter Surviving the Burning Platform: Making 1+1+1=4

Mr. Porter will discuss how he led a turnaround in the largest division of the world's most global hotel company, including the role played by the Group's Global Shared Services organization.

Alcoa, Inc. North American CIO Kevin Horner Impact ROI in Technology through Consolidation and Standardization

Mr. Horner will detail his company's dramatic drive to reduce costs and improve efficiency through consolidation. This effort has netted annual cost savings of $35-$40 million annually, eliminated over 1,000 applications, and consolidated 60 data centers down to two.

Georgia-Pacific Corporation Vice President & CIO James Dallas Benchmarking: After the Morning After

Mr. Dallas will analyze the four phases benchmarking initiatives go through and what is required to get and sustain bottom line results.

Honeywell International Inc. Director North American Financial Services Karen Bryant-Gianiorio Honeywell's Journey to World-Class Procure-to-Pay Operations

Ms. Bryant-Gianiorio will discuss Honeywell's four-prong strategy to achieve excellence in procure-to-pay, including consolidation, linking of procurement and payables organizations, business process automation, and global sourcing initiatives.

Lucent Technologies Inc. Executive Vice President Procurement Joseph Carson Innovating Procurement to Deliver Exceptional Value in Efficiency and Effectiveness

Mr. Carson will discuss how Lucent replaced its old procurement organization with a centralized, strategic Supply Chain Network, transforming suppliers into strategic partners and contributing to Lucent's bottom line as the company became profitable for the first time in 2000.

Nextel Communications, Inc. Chief Information Officer Richard LeFave Managing Vendor Relationships to Meet Business Needs

Mr. LeFave will address how corporate IT functions need to balance its portfolio of solutions to achieve optimal delivery and scalability. Nextel has been very successful at leveraging strategic partnerships to provide such benefits as streamlining its costs and workforce.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Executive Vice President & CFO Luis Leon Royal Caribbean Cruises Towards Improved Process Performance

Mr. Leon will describe how Royal Caribbean's rapid growth created significant challenges for back office operations, and how the company used Hackett benchmarks to gain new insight and drive changes in staffing and process design.

Technitrol Inc. Senior Vice President Human Resources David Lacey Managing an Asian HR Operation from the US

Technitrol has the unique challenge of having all but 750 of its employees based in China. Mr. Lacey will detail the issues they face daily regarding employee retention and talent management.

Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Strategies and Learnings

Speakers will discuss the strategies they are using to ensure Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, as well as their learnings.

The Hackett Group Chief Research Officer Richard T. Roth 2005 Performance Metrics and Best Practices of World-Class Companies

Mr. Roth will provide insights and analysis on how world-class leaders have raised the bar, and which best practices they are using to gain efficiencies.

Steve Miller Band CEO and Rock Legend Steve Miller Music Branding - What's the Real Score?

Steve Miller will explore the ways in which he created and has sustained a "brand" throughout 40 years' of significant change in the music industry.

Leadership for International Finance LLC President Blythe McGarvie Fit In, Stand Out: Mastering the FISO Factor for Success in Business and Life

Ms. McGarvie, who is a member of the board of directors of Accenture, The Pepsi Bottling Group, The St. Paul Travelers Companies, Inc. and Lafarge North America, will share insights and examples about leadership and how to Fit In, Stand Out: Mastering the FISO Factor for Success in Business and Life, the title of her book to be published this Fall.

ESPN Football Analyst Bill Curry Two Pains in Life ... The Pain of Discipline, the Pain of Regret... You Choose

As an NFL Super Bowl Champion, elite college head football coach and an ESPN analyst, Mr. Curry will share his expertise on what it takes to expand your perspective, set goals, and take the initiative to accomplish these goals.

    More information on The Hackett Group's 15th Annual Best Practices Conference is available: by phone at 770-225-7300; by e-mail at info@thehackettgroup.com; or on the Web at http://www.thehackettgroup.com.

    About The Hackett Group

    The Hackett Group - http://www.thehackettgroup.com -, a business process advisory firm and an Answerthink company, is a global leader in best practice research, benchmarking and transformation advisory services that empower executives to achieve world-class enterprise performance. Only The Hackett Group empirically defines world-class performance in sales, general and administrative (SG&A) and supply chain activities with analysis gained through 3,300 benchmark studies over 13 years at more than 1,865 of the world's leading companies.
    The foundation of Hackett's benchmarks, transformation services, and membership-based advisory programs is our proprietary database of Hackett-Certified(SM) Practices, approaches which are proven to correlate with superior performance metrics. This unparalleled knowledge repository enables Hackett business advisors to provide data, advice, and strategic insight with a level of integrity and authority available nowhere else. As of this writing, Hackett clients comprise 93 percent of the Dow Jones Industrials, 80 percent of the Fortune 100 and 90 percent of the Dow Jones Global Titans Index.

    About Answerthink

    Answerthink, Inc., http://www.answerthink.com , is a strategic business advisory and technology consulting firm that enables companies to achieve world-class business performance. By leveraging the comprehensive database of The Hackett Group, the world's leading repository of enterprise best practice metrics and business process knowledge, Answerthink's business and technology solutions help clients significantly improve performance and maximize returns on technology investments. Answerthink's capabilities include benchmarking, business transformation, business applications, business intelligence, and offshore application development and support. Founded in 1997, Answerthink has offices throughout the United States and in Europe and India.

    Certain statements in this press release are "forward looking statements'' within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward looking statements. Factors that impact such forward looking statements include the ability of the Company to attract additional business, changes in expectations regarding the information technology industry, the ability of the Company to attract skilled employees, possible changes in collections of accounts receivable, risks of competition, price and margin trends, changes in general economic conditions and interest rates as well as other risks detailed in the Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

--30--CP/mi*

CONTACT: The Hackett Group, Atlanta Gary Baker, 610-234-5900 gbaker@thehackettgroup.com

KEYWORD: GEORGIA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE PUBLISHING ADVERTISING/MARKETING TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE SOURCE: The Hackett Group

Copyright Business Wire 2005