ATLANTA, May 31, 2006 - The Hackett Group, a strategic advisory firm and an Answerthink company (NASDAQ: ANSR) today launched a new Hackett-REL Total Working Capital Executive Advisory Program, a membership-based service for executives responsible for developing and executing working capital optimization strategies.
The Hackett Group acquired REL Consultancy in late 2005, and this program, which builds upon REL´s global leadership in working capital optimization, is the first offering of the combined organization. It provides a continual resource of best practices research, performance metrics, on-demand advisor access, and online research to guide adoption of best practices, promote staff education, facilitate change agendas, and gain transparency into the proven techniques used by world-class organizations.
In conjunction with the program launch, Hackett-REL announced findings from its new research volume, "Book of Numbers Research Series: 2005 Performance Metrics and Best Practices in Total Working Capital." Hackett-REL´s analysis found that the 2,000 largest companies in the US and Europe have over $1 trillion in cash unnecessarily tied up in working capital, in the form of late or unpaid bills and excess inventory. By implementing best practices and achieving working capital levels seen by leaders in this study, companies can also reduce annual costs by up to $42 billion. Taken together, these working capital improvements could enable companies to boost net profits by up to 11%.
Working capital optimization efforts focus on improving the performance of three cross-functional processes: customer-to-cash, as measured by Days Sales Outstanding (DSO); purchase-to-pay, as measured by Days Payables Outstanding (DPO); and forecast-to-fulfill, as measured by Days Inventory On-hand (DIO).
"Companies today are under tremendous pressure to increase cash flow and improve bottom-line performance," said Hackett-REL Global Practice Leader Stephen Payne. "But before they turn to options such as divestitures, credit lines, or attracting new investors, most companies could benefit from looking at working capital optimization. Maximizing corporate operating cash flows is one of the most cost effective ways to increase shareholder value. This Executive Advisory program is designed to provide them with the empirical data, insights, and support they need to reap significant benefits."
The Total Working Capital Book of Numbers, which is available only to members of Hackett-REL´s new Executive Advisory Program, contains detailed metrics and recommendations for total working capital improvement. Comparative data is provided for the US and seven European countries, and across 70 industries, including leaders and laggards by industry. In addition, Hackett-REL Advisors provide detailed prescriptions designed to guide working capital improvement initiatives, describing and analyzing a range of best practices in areas ranging from policies and processes, the use of metrics, and technology implementation.
Case histories included in the Book of Numbers volume describe working capital improvement initiatives and their results at Dutch telecom provider KPN, Britain´s Rolls-Royce, and several other large multinational companies.
According to Hackett Chief Research Officer Richard T. Roth, "With this new program, we´re offering a continuous, trusted source of fact-based insight to help executives determine optimum working capital levels, and the strategies they can employ to deliver these levels amidst a rapidly changing business environment. This new program is very much an extension of Hackett´s historical mission, to help executives improve their operational efficiency and effectiveness, and drive towards world-class performance. The addition of this program helps organizations improve effectiveness through the optimization of working capital."
More information on The Hackett Group is available: by phone at (770) 225-7300; by e-mail at info[at]thehackettgroup.com; or on the Web at www.thehackettgroup.com.
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.
Hackett-Certified and Book of Numbers are trademarks of The Hackett Group.