The Hackett Group, Inc. (Hackett) is a global IP platform-based Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) strategic consulting and executive advisory digital transformation company.
Hackett provides dedicated expertise in Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) enabled enterprise transformation services across front, mid and back-office areas, including its highly recognized Oracle, SAP, OneStream and Coupa implementation offerings.
In early 2024, the company launched its AI assessment p...
The Hackett Group, Inc. (Hackett) is a global IP platform-based Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) strategic consulting and executive advisory digital transformation company.
Hackett provides dedicated expertise in Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) enabled enterprise transformation services across front, mid and back-office areas, including its highly recognized Oracle, SAP, OneStream and Coupa implementation offerings.
In early 2024, the company launched its AI assessment platform, AI XPLR, which helps clients identify, evaluate, and design Gen AI enablement opportunities. Using AI XPLR, the company's experienced professionals guide organizations to harness the power of Gen AI solutions, designed to digitally transform their operations to achieve quantifiable, breakthrough results, allowing it to be key architects of its clients' Gen AI journey.
Gen AI will fundamentally change the way companies operate, as well as the way consulting services are sold and delivered. The Gen AI platform capabilities the company has developed in AI XPLR, which were expanded with ZBrain, which the company acquired as part of the LeewayHertz acquisition, is highly differentiating and the company expects will enable the company to effectively compete in this emerging and important space.
Hackett has completed over 27,500 benchmarking and performance studies with major organizations. These studies are executed utilizing the company’s Quantum Leap platform which drives the company’s Digital Transformation Platform (‘DTP’ or ‘Hackett DTP’). This includes the company’s benchmarking metrics, best practices repository, and best practice configuration and process flow accelerators, which enables the company’s clients and partners to achieve digital world-class performance. The company considers this, along with its recent innovations, its core Hackett Intellectual Property ("IP") which allows the company to identify, design and evaluate transformation opportunities to be proprietary and key components of its Hackett solutioning IP.
The company’s transformation expertise is grounded in best practices insights from benchmarking the world’s leading businesses – including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 90% of the Fortune 100, 70% of the DAX 40 and 51% of the FTSE 100, which inform and are delivered by the company’s platforms.
Although demand for digital transformation remains strong in traditional areas, the company expects it to be redefined by the rapid emergence of Gen AI technologies. As the company heads into 2025, it anticipates that IT budgets will increase, with significant attention and allocations to Gen AI solutions, as well as the related opportunities and threats it brings. While in 2024, Gen AI budgets were primarily focused on developing awareness in AI, in 2025, the company expects to see increasing amounts in IT budgets specifically allocated to Gen AI initiatives in high feasibility and impact areas. The company also expects to see increasing investment in data quality and value initiatives, which are critical to any Gen AI strategy.
Strategy
The following are the keys to the company’s strategy:
Launched AI XPLR - The company's AI assessment platform allows it to measure and assess the impact of Gen AI technologies. The company uses its best practice process flows and benchmark database to inform its Gen AI-assisted platform to simulate industry-specific AI solutions, guiding its detailed, quantifiable assessment of the potential business benefits of Gen AI technologies, as well as an organization's readiness requirements. Further, the company uses its vendor market intelligence research to assist with the key selection considerations of Gen AI solution providers. This detailed business and technology perspective helps it guide its clients through the significant opportunities and critical considerations that they will have to evaluate and understand. The company is also utilizing the AI XPLR platform as the vehicle to integrate the Gen AI impact and all Hackett IP across its offerings.
Acquired LeewayHertz Technologies - A highly recognized Gen AI consulting and implementation firm focused on the design and deployment of AI agents and agentic enterprise workflows. Given the strategic access and platform-expanding capabilities of AI XPLR, it was natural for the company to extend its AI implementation capabilities to be able to fully develop and implement the Gen AI use cases it was identifying. The acquisition also included a sophisticated Gen AI orchestration solution, ZBrain, which the company agreed to contribute into a to-be-created joint venture with the LeewayHertz founder (the JV). The JV, which will be named ZBrain, Inc., will bring together the AI XPLR and ZBrain software platforms and will focus on licensing the platforms and creating the first-of-its-kind Gen AI ideation through implementation software as a service offering.
New Licensable Platform Innovations – The company now sees potential Gen AI platform opportunities from innovations envisioned to facilitate and accelerate the delivery of its Oracle, OneStream, SAP, and Coupa technology implementation services. Its AIxelerator and Ask Hackett AI solutions may have greater value as licensable software as a service platforms to external users. Ask Hackett AI is now intended to be a seed for the development and introduction of the company's own Small Language Model, or SLM, which it calls its Hackett Solutioning Language Model.
Gen AI Executive Advisory and Market Intelligence Programs - The company has expanded its Market Intelligence programs by integrating proprietary Gen AI solutioning content and adding dedicated sales expertise in an effort to grow high-margin annualized recurring revenues. IP-based relationships have historically provided over 40% of the company's business transformation and technology consulting revenue entry points.
Transitioning IPaaS to AI XPLR Licensing – The company is now offering the opportunity to license AI XPLR to attract new alliance partners that can leverage its unique AI XPLR capabilities to position their downstream technology offerings.
Quantum Leap (QL) – The company's next generation benchmarking and continuous improvement software as a service solution. This market-leading benchmark solution allows it to improve the client experience by delivering twice the insight and reducing the client effort by half, thus redefining its benchmarking leadership. It covers over 100 enterprise process areas across 20 industry groups on an end-to-end, functional, or individual process basis.
Hackett DTP – The company has digitized its IP and changed the way it shares and delivers its IP with clients across its benchmarking, executive advisory, IPaaS, market intelligence, business transformation, and cloud enterprise application solutions. Hackett DTP accelerates the speed to value realization by helping organizations achieve their performance targets through a combination of benchmark metrics, best practices, and software configuration and process flow accelerators delivered in a fully automated platform.
Hackett Connect – Launched in October of 2023, it is the company's Executive Advisory and Market Intelligence membership platform, which allows its clients to avail themselves of its expert advisors, syndicated research, benchmarking, and best practices IP. It also automates access to its inquiry support, webcasts, briefings, and events.
Expanded Cloud Capabilities - The company expanded its Oracle Cloud applications addressable market from Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) to include Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and the entire Oracle Cloud application suite. It has also expanded its alliance partners to include Coupa and Ariba in Procurement, as well as OneStream in EPM and Corporate Performance Management (CPM). In regard to SAP, the company was an early provider of S/4 HANA, which allowed it to quickly transition its implementation skills and benefit from the SAP migration to the Cloud. The company is now evaluating and will soon be able to provide the extended agentic AI capabilities these providers are expected to introduce throughout 2025.
The Hackett Institute and Certified Global Business Services (‘CGBS’) Program – The company moved its training content to a state-of-the-art learning management platform. It has started to evaluate how to incorporate its Gen AI solutioning content from its proposed Hackett SLM into new training programs.
The company expects AI XPLR, along with the LeewayHertz acquisition and the rapidly emerging Gen AI services, to be the key drivers for its growth, alongside the historical leverage of its wedge or IP-centric recurring revenue Executive Advisory and IPaaS offerings.
The company's QL, DTP, and Hackett Connect platforms resulted in a new way to share and leverage its IP across its offerings. This required it to digitize its intellectual capital and the way it shares it with clients across its benchmarking, executive research advisory, business transformation, and Cloud Enterprise application implementation solutions. The company's ability to fully digitize its IP and align proven technology and organizational solutions to help clients drive transformational change allows it to highly differentiate its offerings. It also enables the company to engage and support clients more efficiently, remotely, and where appropriate, continuously.
Hackett uses its proprietary benchmarking enterprise performance metrics and best practices repository intellectual capital to help clients accelerate the value realization from technology investments. The company’s benchmark offerings allow its clients to empirically quantify their performance improvement opportunity at an actionable level. It also provides the company visibility into how leading global companies deploy technology or organizational strategies to optimize their performance. This insight results in a proprietary Best Practices Repository, as well as best practice software configurations, process flows and organizational strategies. Utilizing the benchmarking metrics and repository of best practices, combined with the global strategy and implementation insight of the company’s transformation and technology associates, Hackett has also created a series of organizational and technology accelerators that allow the company’s clients to effect proven sustainable performance improvements. These offerings are supported by the company’s QL, DTP and Hackett Connect platforms.
The company’s Hackett DTP leverages its inventory of Hackett-Certified best practices, observed through benchmark and other business transformation engagements, which correlate best practices with superior performance levels. The company utilizes Capability Maturity Models to better understand its clients’ capabilities and organizational maturity so that the company can determine the level of performance that they can realistically pursue. In addition, the company utilizes Hackett’s intellectual capital in the form of best practice process flows and software configuration guides to integrate Hackett’s empirically proven best practices directly into business processes and workflows that are enabled by enterprise software applications. The repository of best practice processes and software configuration guides now reside in the new releases of the company’s DTP. This allows the company to utilize its IP on client engagements to ensure that best practices are identified and implemented, whenever possible. This coordinated approach addresses people, processes, information, and technology, all within the framework of the company’s Hackett-Certified best practices.
Leveraging the company’s AI XPLR, QL, Hackett DTP and Hackett Connect platforms, the company’s engagements often begin with an assessment of a client’s performance, which is normally gained through benchmarking key processes and comparing the results to world-class levels and industry standards captured in the Hackett performance metrics database. The company then helps clients prioritize and select the appropriate best practices to implement through a coordinated workflow automation and organizational design improvement strategy. Without a coordinated strategy that addresses the seven key business components which include organization and governance, process design, process sourcing, service placement, information, enabling technology, skills and talent. The company has designed detailed best practice process flows based on Hackett’s deep knowledge of world-class business performance. This enables clients to streamline and automate key processes and generate performance improvements quickly and efficiently at both the functional and enterprise levels.
Similarly, the company integrates Hackett-Certified, proven and emerging best practices directly into technology solutions. The automation of inefficient processes only serves to continue to drive up costs, cycle times and error rates. The company has completed detailed fit-gap analyses in most functional areas of major business application packages, including Oracle, SAP and other leading enterprise applications to determine their ability to support best practices. Application-specific tools, implementation guides and process flows allow the company to optimize the configuration of enterprise software applications. Hackett DTP enables the foundation for improved performance.
The specific client circumstances normally dictate how they engage the company. The company’s intention is to be responsive to client needs, and to establish a continuous and trusted relationship. The company has developed a series of offerings that allow it to efficiently help its clients without regard to where they are in their respective performance improvement lifecycle.
Correspondingly, the company remains focused on executing the following strategies: expanding its IP and brand market permission to its offerings; continuing to position and grow Hackett as an IP-centric strategic advisory organization; introducing new licensable IP platform offerings; continuing to expand the company’s QL/DTP Content and Technology; leveraging the company’s offshore capabilities; and seeking out strategic acquisitions.
Offerings
The company offers a comprehensive range of services, including IPaaS, executive advisory and market intelligence programs, benchmarking, business transformation and technology consulting services. With strategic and functional knowledge in finance, human resources, information technology, procurement, supply chain management, corporate services, customer service, and sales and marketing, the company’s expertise extends across the enterprise. The company has completed successful engagements in a variety of industries, including automotive, consumer goods, financial services, technology, life sciences, manufacturing, media and entertainment, retail, telecommunications, transportation and utilities.
Global Strategy & Business Transformation segment (‘Global S&BT’ Segment)
Gen AI Consulting, Executive Advisory, IPaaS and Market Intelligence Programs
The company’s Executive Advisory, IPaaS and Market Intelligence programs provide on-demand access to world-class performance metrics, peer-learning opportunities and best practice implementation advice, including the rapidly emerging Gen AI use cases and related content from the company’s AI XPLR platform. The scope of Hackett’s Advisory programs is defined by business function (Executive Advisory), end-to-end process coverage (Process Advisory) and Software and Services Intelligence (Market Intelligence). The company’s programs include a mix of the following deliverables:
Hackett Connect: Online, searchable repository of best practices, performance metrics, conference presentations and associated research available to Executive Advisory, IPaaS and Market Intelligence Program Executives and their respective teams.
Best Practice Accelerators: Dedicated web-based access to best practices, customized software configuration tools, best practice process flows used to support the sale, configuration and organizational implementation and post implementation support efforts of partner software.
Advisor Inquiry: Hackett’s inquiry services are used by clients for quick access to fact-based advice on proven approaches and methods to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of selling, general and administrative, finance, human resources, information technology, procurement, enterprise performance management and shared services processes.
Best Practice Research: Empirically based research and insight derived from its Hackett benchmark, performance and transformation studies. The company’s research provides detailed insights into the most significant proven approaches in use at world-class organizations that yield superior business results.
Peer Interaction: Regular member-led webcasts, annual Best Practice Conferences, annual Member Forums, membership performance surveys and client-submitted content provide ongoing peer learning and networking opportunities.
Introduction of New Gen AI Content and Vendor IP- centric Offerings: The company is continuing to seek new opportunities through strategic alliances and channels to use the company’s IP to help others sell and deliver their products, such as the company’s IPaaS offerings and Hackett Institute programs. The company continues to look for other potential programs through which to introduce new IP-centric offerings through the company’s platforms and expand the power and reach of the company’s brand. AI XPLR is an excellent example of this strategy.
Benchmarking Services
The company’s benchmarking group has measured and evaluated the efficiency and effectiveness of enterprise functions for over 9,200 organizations globally. This includes 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 90% of the Fortune 100, 70% of the DAX 40 and 51% of the FTSE 100. Ongoing studies are conducted in a wide range of areas, including selling, general and administrative, finance, human resources, information technology, procurement, enterprise performance management and shared services. Hackett has identified approximately 2,200 best practices for over 550 processes in these key functional areas and uses proprietary performance measurement tools and data collection processes that enable companies to complete the performance measurement cycle and identify and quantify improvement opportunities in as little as four weeks. Benchmarks are used by the company’s clients to objectively establish priorities, generate organizational consensus, align compensation to establish performance goals and develop the required business case for business and technology investments.
Business Transformation Group
The company’s Business Transformation group helps its clients develop a coordinated digital transformation strategy that allows the company’s clients to achieve meaningful performance improvements across the enterprise. The company’s experienced teams utilize the Hackett performance measurement data to link performance gains to industry best practices. The company’s strategic capabilities include operational assessments, process and organization design, change management and the effective application of technology. This group will lead the company’s AI XPLR efforts with a clear objective of establishing its capability of becoming key architects of the company’s clients’ Gen AI journey. The company also maintains its procurement (Coupa and Ariba) functionally led groups and the company’s OneStream CPM teams within this group.
Oracle Solutions Segment
The company’s Oracle Solutions segment helps clients choose and deploy Oracle applications that best meet their needs and objectives. In 2017, the company acquired Oracle ERP and Cloud implementation capabilities. This allowed the company to greatly increase the size of its Oracle addressable market and strongly positioned the company to be a strategic provider of Oracle’s rapidly growing cloud software and services market. The software market is rapidly moving to cloud-based software, which led the company to aggressively transition its Oracle Solutions segment from being primarily focused on the implementation of Oracle EPM on-premise software to the entire Oracle Cloud Enterprise Suite. Another significant investment the company made was to digitize all of its IP and to build the company’s proprietary Hackett DTP. By specifically building one of the company’s first versions around the Oracle Cloud application functionality, the company can quickly demonstrate how to optimize the configuration of Oracle Cloud applications to drive to its fully intended transformative outcome. These improvements cover many aspects of service delivery, including process improvement, technology deployment, organizational alignment, information and data definition and skills and competency alignment. Solutions typically reside in three primary areas: Core Financial Close and Consolidation, Integrated Business Planning, and Reporting / Advanced Analytics. Solution innovations have taken the group into areas, such as big data, cloud technology data management and governance, and industry-specific analytic templates. This will now extend to Oracle imbedded and extended AI solutions.
SAP Solutions segment
The company’s SAP Solutions segment helps clients choose and deploy S4 HANA Cloud applications that best meet their needs and objectives. The company’s expertise is focused on SAP ERP, with primary focus on Life Sciences and Consumer Goods. The group offers comprehensive services from planning, architecture, and vendor evaluation and selection through implementation, customization, testing and integration. Comprehensive fit-gap analyses of all major packages against Hackett Best Practices, inclusive of imbedded Gen AI solutions, are utilized by the company’s SAP Solutions teams. The company’s tools and templates help integrate best practices into business and analytical applications. The group also offers post-implementation support, change management, exception management, process transparency, system documentation and end-user training, all of which are designed to enhance return on investment. The company also provides off-shore application development and Application Maintenance and Support (‘AMS’) services. These services include post-implementation support for select business application and infrastructure platforms. The company’s SAP Solutions group also includes a division responsible for the sale of the SAP suite of applications. This will now extend to SAP imbedded and extended AI solutions.
Clients
The company focuses on developing long-term client relationships with Global 2000 firms and other sophisticated buyers of business and IT consulting services. During 2024, the company’s ten most significant clients accounted for 31% of total revenue. In addition, during 2024, the company’s largest client generated 11% of total revenue.
Business Development and Marketing
The company’s extensive client base and relationships with Global 2000 firms remain the company’s most significant sources of new business. The company’s revenue generation strategy is formulated to ensure that the company is addressing multiple facets of business development. The company has a regional sales and market development effort in both North America and Europe, so the company can better coordinate the sales and marketing messages from the company’s various offerings. The company’s compensation programs for its associates reflect an emphasis on optimizing the company’s total revenue relationship with its clients.
Business Development Resources
Although virtually all of the company’s advisors and consultants are expected to contribute to new revenue opportunities, the company’s primary internal business development resources are consisted of the following:
The Leadership Team, Principals and Senior Directors are consisted of the company’s senior leaders who have a combination of executive, regional and anchor account responsibilities. In addition to their management responsibilities, this group of associates is responsible for growing the business by fostering executive-level relationships within accounts and leveraging their existing contacts in the marketplace.
The Sales Organization is consisted of associates who are 100% dedicated to generating sales. They are deployed geographically in key markets, primarily focused on developing new relationships and they are aligned to the company’s core group areas within their target accounts. They also handle opportunities in their geographic territories as they arise. The company is making incremental investments in dedicated sales resources for its Benchmarking, IPaaS, Executive Advisory and Market Intelligence offerings.
The Business Development Associates are consisted of trained groups of telemarketing specialists who are conversant with their respective solution areas. Lead generation is coordinated with the company’s marketing and sales groups to ensure that the company’s inbound and outbound efforts are synchronized with targeted marketing and sales programs.
The Delivery Organization is consisted of the company’s billable associates. The company encourages associates to pursue additional business development opportunities through their normal course of delivering existing projects thereby helping the company expand its business within existing accounts.
In addition to the company’s business development resources, the company has a corporate marketing and communications organization responsible for overseeing the company’s marketing programs, public relations and employee communications activities.
The company has organized its market focus into the following categories:
Strategic account criteria include the size of the company, industry affiliation, propensity to buy external consulting services and contacts within the account. The sales representative working closely with regional leadership is primarily responsible for identifying business opportunities in the account, acting as the single point of coordination for the client, and performing the general duties of account manager.
Regional Accounts are accounts within a specified geographic location. These accounts mostly include large prospects, past clients, existing medium-sized clients and mid-tier market accounts and are handled primarily on an opportunistic basis, except for active clients where delivery teams are focused on driving additional revenue.
Strategic Alliance Accounts are accounts that allow the company to partner with organizations of greater scale or different skill sets or with software developers enabling all parties to jointly market their products and services to prospective clients.
Community Involvement
One important way the company puts its values into action is through its commitment to the communities where the company works. The company does so by encouraging and supporting its associate’s communities and personal volunteer and service programs and social gatherings.
Intellectual Property
World Class Defined and Enabled, Quantum Leap, Digital Excelleration, Intellectual Property-As-A-Service, Digital World Class, Hackett Certified and Book of Numbers are registered trademarks of Hackett's and the company owns registrations for certain of its other trademarks in the United States and abroad that the company uses in its business and are important to protect. The protection of these marks is an important part of the company’s strategy of increasing the brand recognition it has built around its empirical knowledge capital and the growing number of services the company provides.
History
The company was founded in 1991. It was incorporated in 1997. The company was formerly known as Answerthink, Inc. and changed its name to The Hackett Group, Inc. in 2008.
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