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E-moil pb @liberiynet.org Web site:www.omcity.comr/philodelphio September-11,1997 Vol.l6,

No. 30 . $1

A group hatthinks t has heansweCAROLPATTONSPECIALOTHE USINESSOURNAL

CONSHOHOCKEN - Earlier thisyea4 49 KPMG Peat Marwick employ-ees left the consulting arm of the BigSix accounting frrm to start Answer-Think Consulting Group, a Miami-based consulting and systems integra-

tion company.The exodus of manpower, most of

whom were KPMG partners an dsenior managers, was led byAnswerThink's co-founders

. Ted Fernandez, former nationalmanaging partner of KPMG's strate-gic services consulting;

. Allan Frank, chief technology offr-cer, national partner in charge ofenabling technologies and global ser-vice leader for enabling technologiesconsulting worldwide; and

I

"lsn't capitalismwonderful?"

AllanFrankAnswerThinko-founder

O

Led by technology guru Frank, theConshohocken operation is expectedto be one of AnswerThink's largestoffices. Frank had led the enablingtechnologies practice at KPMG's thinktank in Radnor.

AnswerThink's founders have builttheir organizationwith more than $20million from two venture capitalfrrms, Golder, Thoma, Cressey,RaunerInc. of Chicago and Miller Capital

Management Inc. of Coconut Grove,Fla. The company's goal is to go publicduring 1998, Frank said.

AnswerThink's equity-based systemwhere "everybody's an owner," asopposed o a tiered partnership modelthat has been adopted by frrms likeKPMG, served as a signifrcant tool tosecure funds for internal growth,acquisitions and new products andservices,Frank said.

The equity-based structure is alsointended to curb employee turnover toless than 10 percent, predicted Frank,

adding that the No. 1 issue in the

BOBFLEISCHHAUERBUSINESSOURN

industry is attracting and retainingtalent. With firms competing forskil led workers, he said turnoverrates have climbed as high as 25 percent.

"We're creating a system where thesuccessofthe entire organization ulti-mately accrues to each and everyowner," Frank said.

o"We are using knowledgemanagementconceptsat thevery core of our business.Sincwe are just one big brain, thereal value of our people is thecombined intellectual assetsofeverybody'sexperiences."

AllanFrankAnswerThinko-founder

a

. IJlysses Knotts, national partnerin charge of sales and marketing.

"I t really comes down to having theenergy and the desire to create some-

thing with our own hands," explainedAllan Frank, AnswerThink's chieftechnology officer in the company'sConshohocken office. "We want toredefrne consulting and the experi-ence that clients and customers havewith firms like ours."

Incorporated in April, the companysupports six other locationsAtlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, NewYork City and San Jose, Calif. Withabout a dozen national clients, its pro-jected revenues for this year are $40million, but Frank said that numbermay snowball to $500 million within

three vears.

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PHILADELPHIAUSINESSOURNAL O TELECOMMUNICATIONSCOMPUTERS SEPTEMBER.11,1

AnswerThink has 160 employees.Frank said the company is expected toincrease its staff to 300 by Octoberand 500 by next March.

Early on, the company's start was

thwarted by a breach-of-contract suitfiled by KPMG, which declined to com-ment on AnswerThink or its ownrestructuring plan.

While the suit was settled in May,Frank said AnswerThink's init ialfocus was on establishing core companyvalues rather than developing it stechnical infrastructure and soughtways to capture employee knowledge.It soon developed a technology calledMind Share, which logs sharableemployee knowledge and experiences.

"We are using knowledge manage-ment concepts at the very core of our

business," said Frank, adding thatAnswerThink's employees view thepractice as a natural extension orbyproduct of the company's opera-tions. "Since we are just one big brain,the real value of our people is thecombined intellectual assets of every-body's experiences."

In June, the company expanded itsintellectual assets by merging withRelational Technologies Inc., anOracle applications implementationand systems integration firm inDallas and Atlanta. It also agreed topurchase the Continuous Improvement

Center, formerly a part of the Instituteof Management Accountants.Frank said the company merged

with Relational Technologies because

of its proven track record for imple-menting Oracle package solutions andthat its management team, which wascompatible with senior staff atAnswerThink, possesseda synergy of

Oracle package skills and technologyabilities. Acquiring the ContinuousImprovement Center enab led Answer-Think to enhance its benchmarkingexpertise.

Last month, the company alsoacquired Summit Consulting Group inMiami, a provider of technology strat-egy and implementation services.Terms of the sale were not disclosed.Frank said he anticipates more dealswithin the next 60 days, such as apartnership with major Year 2000solution providers and a major acqui-sition of one of the world's leading

experts in functional improvementservices and benchmarking.AnswerThink's business services

are focused around the functions of acorporation's chief financial officer,sales and marketing czar and thechief information officer. Its special-ties are knowledge management, net-work and systems integration, pack-age integration for Oracle andPeopleSoft, data warehouse technolo-gy and Internet, Year 2000 and elec-tronic commerce solutions.

"We believe that most companies arebecoming extended enterprises,"

Frank said. "If you asked us to imple-ment an Oracle package, it's not justthat we're implementing it for you asa client, but also understanding that

Oracle might have to talk to somebodyelse's PeopleSoft system."

AnswerThink has adopted this mul-tidimensional approach to positionitself apart from its competitors,

Frank said. Consulting firms mustdeliver information and systems capa-bilities to businesses that are geo-graphically dispersed an d possiblyspread across numerous differenttrading partners.

Frank believes AnswerThink's com-petitors offer only pieces of thatapproach. None are focusing onextended enterprises as the core oftheir business,he said.

Frank added that the theories hiscompany has developed about thenature of consulting will soon beaccepted nto the mainstream and that

other frrms will copycat its approach."We're not just providing value in

the marketplace but also creating aworkplace and an environment thatbreeds intellectual excellence andvalue," he said.

The company is also busy building a15,000-square-foot technology centeron the fourth floor of 100 W. Elm St.,Conshohocken. That's the same build-ing in which it is temporarily leasingspace, said Frank. Its new offrces areexpected to be completed in November.

Although AnswerThink's foundersare proud of their prior accomplish-

ments at KPMG, Frank said they haveno regrets striking out on their own tobuild an organization. Said Frank:"Isn't capitalism wonderful?" .

By permission f The Philadelphia usiness ournal, 00 MarketStreet, uite300,Philadelphia, A 19106 215)238-1450.

Reprinted y Reprint vlanagementervices,717)560-2001.