ANSR Hackett Grp., Inc.(The) (MM)

-- Renowned benchmarking expert to provide Cognos customers with best-practice insights -- BURLINGTON, Mass., Feb. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and corporate performance management (CPM), today announced that The Hackett Group's (NASDAQ:ANSR) Chief Research Officer, Richard T. Roth, is joining the advisory board of the Cognos Innovation Center(TM) for Performance Management. Mr. Roth is responsible for guiding and directing The Hackett Group's analysis and published research, and for architecting its benchmarking methodology. He joins an esteemed group of advisors to form a team of visionaries that will guide Cognos in advancing state-of-the-art Performance Management solutions. Cognos Innovation Center advisors also include Beyond Budgeting Roundtable Research Director, Jeremy Hope; Palladium Group Inc. President, Dr. David P. Norton; and Sonax President, David Axson. Cognos Performance Management solutions help enable CEOs, CFOs and CIOs to achieve operational excellence by transforming their companies into world- class performance management organizations. These offerings help companies accelerate the automation of financial management and operational processes to increase efficiencies, improve the integrity of information, and transform performance management decision-making for sustainable competitive advantage. The Hackett Group is a strategic advisory firm, and a world leader in best practice research, benchmarking, and business transformation services that empirically define and enable world-class enterprise performance. Mr. Roth has over 20 years of experience in benchmarking and best practices, working with executives to achieve world-class performance in all areas of SG&A, including finance, information technology, human resources, and procurement. In his role as advisor, Mr. Roth will participate in one-on-one vision sessions, executive roundtables, and workshops designed to help companies understand the opportunity for improvement and develop a vision and roadmap using industry best-practices for sustainable process improvement. "World-class companies are making significant progress in re-engineering their financial processes and implementing technology to sustain the required performance visibility and operational efficiencies, and to drive faster, deeper insights into their business and the associated market opportunities and challenges," said Mr. Roth. "I'm pleased to be associated with Cognos, and to support their goal of offering global organizations software and systems that can serve as an important enabler of these efforts." Cognos is partnering with Mr. Roth and The Hackett Group to help its customers better understand and mirror the best-practices leading companies employ as they journey to become "world-class." "The addition of Rick Roth to our Innovation Advisory Board is at the heart of Cognos' strategy to engage world-class thought leaders that will help us understand our customers' performance management needs today and in the future," said Renee Lorton, SVP and General Manager, Cognos Performance Management Applications. "Our goal is to provide visionary solutions to our customers, enabling them to improve organizational effectiveness and maximize profits through state-of-the-art performance management." About the Cognos Innovation Center The Cognos Innovation Center was established in June 2004 and expanded to Europe in May 2005 to advance the understanding of proven planning and performance management techniques, technologies and practices. A strategy execution practice was added in November 2005. Staffed by experts in planning, management, and technology, the Innovation Center partners with more than 400 Cognos customers, academics, industry leaders, and others seeking to accelerate adoption, reduce risk, and maximize the impact of technology- enabled performance management practices. Visit: http://www.cognos.com/innovationcenter/. About Cognos Cognos, the world leader in enterprise business intelligence and corporate performance management, delivers software and services that help companies drive, monitor and understand corporate performance. Cognos delivers the next level of competitive advantage -- Corporate Performance Management (CPM) -- achieved through the strategic application of BI on an enterprise scale. Our integrated CPM solution helps customers drive performance through planning; monitor performance through scorecarding; and understand performance through business intelligence. Cognos serves more than 23,000 customers in over 135 countries. Cognos enterprise business intelligence and performance management solutions and services are also available from more than 3,000 worldwide partners and resellers. For more information, visit the Cognos Web site at http://www.cognos.com/. Cognos and the Cognos logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cognos Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Media Contacts: Carrie Bendzsa Cognos, 613-738-1440 Donna Keenan Lois Paul & Partners, 781-782-5791 Investor Relations: John Lawlor Cognos, 613-738-3503 First Call Analyst: FCMN Contact: carrie.bendzsa@cognos.com DATASOURCE: Cognos CONTACT: Media Contacts: Carrie Bendzsa of Cognos, +1-613-738-1440, ; or Donna Keenan of Lois Paul & Partners for Cognos, +1-781-782-5791, ; or Investor Relations: John Lawlor of Cognos, +1-613-738-3503, Web site: http://www.cognos.com/ Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/107867.html

Copyright