Edmund Optics “Goes Live” With SAP® Business All-in-One and Other Solutions From SAP, Deployed by Answerthink

Answerthink, a division of The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT) focused on providing and supporting SAP® solutions, today announced the successful go-live implementation of the SAP Business All-in-One solution and other SAP solutions at Edmund Optics, Inc.

Edmund Optics, headquartered in Barrington, NJ, has been a leading supplier of optics and optical components to industry for 70 years, designing and manufacturing a wide array of multi-element lenses, lens coatings, imaging systems, and opto-mechanical equipment. Led by a staff of skilled optical engineers and scientists, Edmund Optics is application-focused and pursues new ways to implement optical technology, enabling advancements in semiconductor manufacturing, industrial metrology, and medical instrumentation. Its precision products improve efficiencies and yields and are used in test and measurement quality assurance applications, the automation of manufacturing processes, and research.

Edmund needed to upgrade from its legacy system to a solution providing integrated functionality and a stable environment capable of supporting future growth within its global operations. The implementation of SAP solutions brings Edmund Optics’ U.S. operations onto one integrated system while setting the stage for future deployments of SAP solutions in other locations outside of the U.S. Edmund has several complicated business processes, supported by the SAP solutions as part of the standard system, unlike its legacy system that required customization. Now Edmund will realize lower cost of ownership and support utilizing standard capabilities of the SAP solutions.

The project was completed in 32 weeks, which included core functionality in the areas of finance, materials management, production planning, customer relationship management, human capital management, business intelligence, and sales and distribution.

This was an aggressive project, considering the depth of business processes undertaken in an eight month timeline. Edmund required multiple order-to-cash sales processes utilizing the SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) application and core sales and distribution functionality with a Web interface. Full finance and controlling was implemented for internal and external reporting. Edmund utilized materials management for procurement, warehouse management and radio frequency for warehouse operations along with production planning for its manufacturing processes. The SAP ERP Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM) solution was implemented for time-tracking and cost-collecting. Edmund used a combination of SAP NetWeaver® Business Warehouse and SAP BusinessObjects™ solutions, including the SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation application, for its business intelligence reporting and budget processes.

"The use of these SAP solutions will enable us at Edmund to synchronize our global manufacturing and distribution system, delivering better information to the company, which in turn will allow us to better serve our customers,” said Jeff Harvey, director of Information Systems, Edmund Optics. “Answerthink provided the perfect partnership, leveraging its global implementation experience with SAP solutions to provide us the wisdom needed to implement this software in our three facilities in the United States.”

"The combination of scope, time and budget success would not have been achieved without the hard-working Edmund core and extended teams, who worked incredibly well with our experienced Answerthink team,” said John McGrath, principal, SAP Solutions Group, Answerthink. “This collaboration resulted in one of the most rapid post-go-live stabilizations that we have ever experienced.”

Answerthink is a strategic business and technology consulting firm that enables companies to achieve world-class business performance.

About Answerthink

Answerthink (www.answerthink.com) is an SAP gold channel partner that develops and offers qualified SAP Business All-in-One partner solutions – industry-specific software, implementation and training packaged solutions. By leveraging the best practices database of The Hackett Group, Answerthink helps clients improve performance and maximize returns on investments in SAP software. Answerthink is a division of The Hackett Group. Answerthink has been awarded a 2012 SAP Partner Impact award as the Overall SAP Channel Partner of the Year for North America.

About The Hackett Group, Inc.

The Hackett Group (NASDAQ: HCKT), a global strategic business advisory and operations improvement consulting firm, is a leader in best practice advisory, business benchmarking, and transformation consulting services including strategy and operations, working capital management, and globalization advice.

Utilizing best practices and implementation insights from more than 7,500 benchmarking studies, executives use The Hackett Group's empirically-based approach to quickly define and implement initiatives that enable world-class performance. Through its REL group, The Hackett Group offers working capital solutions focused on delivering significant cash flow improvements. Through its Archstone Consulting group, The Hackett Group offers Strategy & Operations consulting services in the Consumer and Industrial Products, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing, and Financial Services industry sectors. Through its Hackett Technology Solutions group, The Hackett Group offers business application consulting services that help maximize returns on IT investments. The Hackett Group has completed benchmark studies with over 2,800 major corporations and government agencies, including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 86% of the Fortune 100, 90% of the DAX 30 and 48% of the FTSE 100.

More information on The Hackett Group is available: by phone at [phone]; by e-mail at [e-mail].

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