London, May 22, 2006 - The Hackett Group, a strategic advisory firm and an Answerthink company (NASDAQ: ANSR), today announced that senior executives from ten of Europe´s most successful companies, including HP, Rolls- Royce, Barclays, Lufthansa, National Grid, Philips, and Rhodia, will present insights into their efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of back-office operations at Hackett´s 2nd Annual European Best Practices Conference, in Cannes, France from 1-2 June 2006, sponsored by Cognos and HP.
At the two-day, invitation-only event, entitled "Leveraging G&A for Competitive Advantage: From Back Office to Front of the Line," Hackett will also preview findings from its 2006 Book of NumbersTM research, which quantifies spending, staffing, and other key efficiency and effectiveness metrics of world-class performance in finance, IT, HR, procurement and other SG&A (Sales, General, & Administrative) areas. Finally, the conference will offer insights into the optimisation of Total Working Capital, Business Process Sourcing, and Enterprise Performance Management.
"Our 2006 research, and the companies that are presenting at this year´s conference, clearly demonstrate that a competitive cost position in SG&A is just a starting point to world-class business performance," said Hackett Chief Research Officer Richard T. Roth. "In an economy where products and services can be delivered from virtually any location or time zone, the best organisations are also focusing on SG&A effectiveness. This is how SG&A can transcend its humble back-office image to become an important component in the race to the front of the line," said Mr. Roth.
According to Hackett President, Europe Andrew Ashby, "European companies have more than €460 billion of excess cash tied up in working capital due to ineffective business processes. These weaknesses also impact a company´s service quality and costs. Understanding how companies achieve effectiveness improvements is one of the primary focuses of Hackett´s second annual European conference."
Some of the most respected companies in Europe are currently scheduled to present alongside Hackett at the conference, which will be held at the InterContinental Carlton Hotel in Cannes, France. Subjects to be explored include strategies for reducing business process complexity, approaches to driving effectiveness and efficiency at the enterprise level, techniques for attracting and retaining top talent, and ways to maximise technology investments.
The following is a preliminary agenda of executive speakers and their topics:
Barclays Bank plc Head of Organisational Fitness Jill Robinson; Novo Nordisk Project Manager Corporate Finance Julie Waras Brogren and Hackett Senior Business Advisor, Finance Joel Roques
"Best Practices to Support the Optimisation of the Finance and Accounting Functions"
Deutsche Lufthansa Senior Vice President Financial Reporting, Taxes and Accounting Klaus Furck
"Effective Accounting in the Volatile Airline Business"
Folksam Insurance Group Chief Controller Patrick Schinzel
"One Single Truth - Performance Management in Folksam Insurance"
HP Head of Business Processing Outsourcing EMEA Les Mara
"Creating and Adaptive Enterprise: Leveraging Operational Excellence and Innovation to Optimise Agility, Growth and Sustainable Value within a World-Class Shared Services Environment"
National Grid plc IS Commercial & Procurement Manager Kevin Leadbetter
"Supply Chain Transformation at National Grid"
OMV Group GmbH, Senior Vice President & Managing Director Johann Kandelsdorfer
"OMV Solutions Service Approach within the Whole OMV Group"
Philips Corporation Senior Vice President Global Finance and Shared Services Michel E. de Zeeuw
"Setting up Shared Services and Improvement in Connection with Best-in-Finance"
Rhodia Group Chief Operating Officer Gilles Auffret
"Rhodia - A Turnaround Story"
Rolls-Royce plc Director of Finance Strategy Geoffrey Lewin
"Finance Transformation Journey Takes Off at Rolls-Royce through Working Capital"
Hackett Chief Research Officer Richard T. Roth
"Jacks or Better: Lower G&A Costs Are Just the Start for Hackett´s 2006 World-Class Performers"
Hackett Director & Senior Business Advisor Finance Dr. Fritz Roemer
"World-Class Enterprise Performance Management"
Hackett European Practice Leader, Transformation and Advisory Tom O. Bangemann and Hackett Global Practice Leader, Process Globalization and Outsourcing Julio Ramirez
"Globalisation of the Back Office - In Search of the Best Global Talent at the Best Cost - Best Practices in Retaining Top Talent and the Positive Impact of HR on G&A"
More information on The Hackett Group´s 2nd Annual European Best Practices Conference is available: by phone at +44 (0) 207 003 8150; by e-mail at info[at]thehackettgroup.com; or on the Web at www.thehackettgroup.com/events/euro06.
About The Hackett Group
The Hackett Group (www.TheHackettGroup.com), a strategic advisory firm and an Answerthink company, is a world leader in best practice research, benchmarking and business transformation services that empirically define and enable world-class enterprise performance.
Through the acquisition of REL Consultancy Group, a global leader in generating cash improvement from working capital, we offer Hackett-REL Total Working Capital services to liberate cash flow from operations through improved working capital, reduced costs and increased service quality. Hackett-REL has helped clients in more than 60 countries free up over $25 billion through working capital improvements in the last 10 years alone.
Only The Hackett Group empirically defines world-class performance in sales, general and administrative (SG&A) and supply chain activities with analysis gained through 3,500 benchmark studies over 14 years at 2,000 of the world´s leading companies. Our clients comprise 97 percent of the Dow Jones Industrials, 77 percent of the Fortune 100 and 90 percent of the Dow Jones Global Titans Index.