The Hackett Group

November 30, 2006

Hackett: Shared Services Can Drive Dramatic Finance Cost Reductions, But Many Companies See Little to No Cost Benefit

With Focus on Customer Satisfaction, Measurement, and Standardization, Some Companies See Cost Reductions of Over 40% Through Shared Services; Separate Study Finds that Conservative Approach in Europe Drives More Balanced Results

ATLANTA, November 30, 2006 - Companies can cut finance process costs by over 40% through the use of shared services, and also improve customer satisfaction, process quality, and productivity. But many companies never see these gains, due to common errors in their sourcing decision making or implementation efforts, according to new research findings from The Hackett Group, a strategic advisory firm and an Answerthink company (NASDAQ: ANSR).

Hackett's 2006 Enterprise Book of Numbers analysis found that nearly one in every five companies see process costs drop by more than 40% as a result of their shared services implementations. But more than 30% of all companies see process costs remain unchanged or actually increase as a result of shared services implementations, and another 12% see only small cost reductions. Similar results were found in analyses of the impact of shared services on customer satisfaction, process quality, and productivity.

Hackett's research identified several best practices companies use to generate improved performance in these areas as part of shared services implementations. Hackett also detailed common mistakes companies make that prevent them from seeing improvements.

In a separate study of European companies, Hackett found more balanced results, with most companies showing between 10% and 40% cost reduction as a result of finance shared services implementations. Hackett's analysis found two major factors drove the differing results. U.S. companies are often more aggressive in their shared services implementations, while European companies take a more conservative approach, weighing potential return on investment and possible risk. This leads European companies to generate less dramatic cost savings, but also ensures that there are far fewer cases among European companies where the use of shared services causes costs to increase. In addition, Hackett believes that European companies are more likely to be taking advantage of wage arbitrage due to the close proximity of Eastern European labor markets.

"Shared services is clearly a powerful technique for improving efficiency and effectiveness in corporate finance," said Hackett Senior Business Advisor Tom Bangemann. "But it takes commitment, focus, and initiative to get it right. Companies that bring these to the table reap significant rewards. But those that don't can feel all the pain and see none of the gain. Worse yet, they can even find that their costs increase."

According to Hackett Senior Business Advisor Penny Weller, "Companies that get the most out of shared services implementations treat them like an independent business, and emphasize elements such as customer satisfaction, performance measurement, and accountability. Shared services can't be just a corporate mandate that companies try to enforce. The best also focus on change management, and understand that eliminating the lion's share of decentralized activity in corporate finance takes time, communication, and the backing of senior management. You can't expect to reeducate everyone overnight. If you get this part wrong, people dig their heels in and you end up with 'shadow systems' that undercut centralization efforts. Finally, shared services must be seen as an opportunity for process improvement. Standardization and simplification are where a lot of the savings come from. They need to be an integral part of the change effort.

"The value of successful shared services even extends well beyond short-term ROI," explained Weller. "It's the first step to further reducing cost structures through globalization. Once finance processes have been centralized and standardized, they become portable, and it becomes much easier to take advantage of labor arbitrage opportunities available offshore, either through captive operations in low-cost labor markets or by outsourcing."

More information on The Hackett Group is available: by phone at (770) 225-7300; by e-mail at info@thehackettgroup.com; or on the Web at www.thehackettgroup.com.

About The Hackett Group

The Hackett Group, a strategic advisory firm, is a global leader in best practice research, benchmarking, and business transformation services that enable world-class performance across selling, general & administrative (SG&A) and supply chain activities. Through the acquisition of REL Consultancy Group, we offer Hackett-REL Total Working Capital services to liberate cash flow from operations. Hackett provides strategic insight, best practice advice and implementation services grounded in performance metrics obtained through 14 years and 3,500 benchmark studies at 2,100 of the world's leading companies.

This press release contains "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 Answerthink'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, among others, the ability of the products, services, or practices mentioned in this release to deliver the desired effect, our ability to effectively integrate acquisitions into our operations, our ability to attract additional business, our ability to effectively market and sell our product offerings and other services, the timing of projects and the potential for contract cancellations by our customers, changes in expectations regarding the information technology industry, our ability to attract and retain skilled employees, possible changes in collections of accounts receivable, risks of competition, price and margin trends, foreign currency fluctuations, changes in general economic conditions and interest rates as well as other risks detailed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 29, 2006 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.