solutions Integrator Brain Power

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APR|L 15, 1998 VOL. 2 NO. 8

WINNING SIRATEGIES OR

THE INTEGRATIONCOMMUNITY

braowero l f AnswerThinks

indeeda "giant

brain," sCTO

A[ lanFrank

descr ibest , then

Frank i tssquare

in the f rontal

lobe.He bet ieves

he is bui td inghe

lT-servicesirm of

tomorrow,

through he

methodology f

thought-process

operators nda

market is ionof

the "extended

enterpr ise."ee

whatyou think.

BYCURTISF.

FRANKLIN R.

In



E D I T O R ' S N O T E :

o talk with Allan Frank, chief techni-

cal officer ofAnswerThink Consult-

ing Group, is to let a torrent of ideas

sweepyou along. The thoughts come fastand

furiously, with concepts from mathematics,

information theory, business trategy,and pop

culture all colliding and blending to build

imagesof thoughts and theones.

In early 1997 Nlan Frank, Ted Fernandez,

and Ulysses Knotts, three of the most influen-

tial partners in KPMG Peat Marwick, walked

out on the same day. The company they

formed, AnswerThink Consulting Group, is

now plowing some of tle sameprofessional-

services ields as heir alma mater-but with an

approach hat is unique to the youngerfum.

Senior Editor Curtis Franklin recendysat

down with Allan Frank to discuss he struc-

tures that make AnswerThink a model forthe IT-servicescompanies of tomorrow, and

what the three founders hope to achievewith

their creation.

Sotutionsntegrator:oumentioned eing xcited

about orminga companywith a particularvision.

What makes his so exciting?

AilanFrank: here are so many dimensions o

the excitcment. Having been in consulting

since he 1970s, now have he opportunity

to createsomething. It's almost like a crys-

tallinestructure: If it has he proper symme-

try to it, that crystal will grow with thatsymmetry. Similarly, if you build a flawed,

asymmetricalstructure, the degree of error

gets worse and worse. In a larger organiza-

tion so much energy getsapplied o organi-

zational inertia, whether it's politics or just

dealing with the issuesof the day.

We're effectively a giant brain. We offer

the combined intellectual capital, experi-

ence, and knowledge of the people in

AnswerThink, either from the basic skills

and competencies hat they bring to the

table or from having done problem-solving

for similar clients n the past.We wanted to

create an intellectual framework that provid-

ed us with some consistency around

"extended enterprise."

We have a clear vision of our competitive

advantage-a world-view of where our

clients sit. That world-view is centered on

the notion of the extended enterprise.The

industrial busine s model is dead. The

receivableof one company is the payable of

the other, and whether you use phrases ike

"supply chain,"((integrated

business," or

AnswerThinkonsutting roup

Miami, L

(30s) 7s-800s

www.answerthink.com

Founded:April1997

Employees:401

Key xecutives:edFernandez,EO; t anFrank,TO;Ulysses notts, xecutive f sales ndmarketing

Key vendor partners:AurumSoftware,Oracle,

PeopleSoft,unMicrosystems

Corecompetencies: rocessmprovement,roject

manaSement,T strategy,echnology rchtecture

and ntetration, etwork esign, pplication evel-

opment, atabasemplementation

Biggestmanatementchallenge:To grow as an

integratororganized lonS strateSic orizontat,

ratherhanvertical, ompetencies

something else,our clients are much l ike aweb ofinterrelated value chains.

The extended-enterprisemodel provides

a ger.reric paradigm for how we help our

clientsdeal with these new problems.

ls his oystallinestructure eflected n the organi-

zationalstructureof what you'rebuilding,or are

you ollowinga more nditional modelbut with a

different ntellectualoverlay?

That's why I said t is so exciting-it's multi-

dimensional . Even the intellectual overlay has

multiple dimensions. Competitive advantage

in today's world has to come from under-standing that the experienceof working with

us provides profoundly different outcomes

for our clients. Our only lasting competitive

advantage comes liom how we think and

integrate knowledge. So the other part of

AnslyerThink is this notion of how we think

about a problem, how we kind of fold around

a solution, and then how we execute.

Very early on we invested a significant

amount of money in a technology infrastruc-

ture. The Big Six were alwaysearly adopters

of Lotus Notes and similar kinds of things,

and it made a lot of sense.But if you read all

the industry rags about knowledge manage-

ment, you will hear that the one big impedi-

ment is culture-the behavior of people and

the desire to share.

If the entire intellectual capital of the expe

rience of the individuals in AnswerThink can

be focusedon everyproblem, that's powerfiil.

So the other key differentiator is what we

would call a knowledge-enabled delivery

process.Even our compensation model-our

reward system-was right from day one:

based on contributions to the

knowledgebaseand that kind of

thing.

It soundsikea key hingyouhad o

do wascastoff traditionalnotions

of corporate urf-building within

AnswerThink.The valuepropositions or us in

solutions is to provide more

value through more experience.

You want repeatabili ty. If I've

dorre something f ive t imes

befbre, and I can bring to the

table experience of how I've

done it well and not well, that's

a solid value proposition.

N{ost integrators focus on

*'hirt clients do at the physical

laver. Their svstems ook at the

functions and then lsk how systemsenhance

them. That set of intellectual Lego blocks

has nothing to do u'itl.r people; it has to do

with what people do-functions.

I'll give you an example n BPR [business

process re-enginecringl. The f irst year,

everybody played rvith tl.ris from the big,

high-impact side-hou'can we make more

money, rightf Let's cnhrnce the revenue-

generatingprocess.So th$'$,ent around and

said, "Let's give even'body a laptop."

Somehow. then. sales-fbrceautomation

was born out of thi s rvhole notion. And whatdid it really dol Contact management.Yes,

they could log in and look at inventory sta-

tus quicker.Yes, hey could maybepull down

some data. But the last time I checked, these

have nothing to do with closing a sale.

Closing a sale is all about knowing your

customer, understandir-rg he customer's

business,and being able to articulate how the

product or servicecan add value. What's real-

ly going on is much more inside his head. If

I could press a button and have the system

give me the answers o the questions inside

my mastersalesman's ead, then I could take

him under my arm and that would help me

close he sale.So we've created this thought-

process ayer.

We've created a set of generic thought-

processoperatorsfor ourselves o allow us to

work on this level. Once I write them down

in litde pictures, I can say "That's what it

looks like! Boy, that's ugly." Then I can apply

operatorsof refinementon it .

Well, how do you optimize thought

Drocess f vou don't write it down! So we

w l r r ' . s o l u t i o n t i t t e g r e t o r . c 0 m a p r i l 1 5 , 1 9 9 8 s o l u t i o n s i n r e g r a t o r



E D I T O R ' S N O T E :

o talk with Allan Frank, chief techni-

cal officer ofAnswerThink Consult-

ing Group, is to let a torrent of ideas

sweepyou along. The thoughts come fastand

furiously with concepts from mathematics,

information theory, business trategy,and pop

culture all colliding and blending to build

imagesof thoughts and theones.

In early 1997 Nlan Frank, Ted Fernandez,

and Ulysses Knotts, three of the most influen-

tial partners in KPMG Peat Marwick, walked

out on the same day. The company they

formed, AnswerThink Consulting Group, is

now plowing some of the same professional-

services ields as heir alma mater-but with an

approach hat is unique to the youngerfum.

Senior Editor Curtis Franklin recendy sat

down with Allan Frank to discuss he struc-

tures that make AnswerThink a model forthe IT-servicescompanies of tomorrow, and

what the three founders hope to achievewith

their creation.

Solutionsntegrator:oumentioned eing xcited

about orminga companywith a particularvision.

What makes his so exciting?

AtlanFrank: here are so many dimensions o

the excitement. Having been in consulting

since he 1970s, now have he opportunity

to createsomething. It's almost like a crys-

tallinestructure: If it has he proper symme-

try to it, that crystal will grow with thatsymmetry. Similarly, if you build a flawed,

asymmetricalstructure, the degreeof error

gets worse and worse. In a larger organiza-

tion so much energy getsapplied o organi-

zational inertia, whether it's politics or just

dealing with the issuesof the day.

We're effectively a giant brain. We offer

the combined intellectual capital, experi-

ence, and knowledge of the people in

AnswerThink, either from the basic skills

and competencies hat they bring to the

table or from having done problem-solving

for similar clients n the past.We wanted to

create an intellectual framework that provid-

ed us with some consistency around

"extended enterprise."

We have a clear vision of our competitive

advantage-a world-view of where our

clients sit. That world-view is centered on

the notion of the extended enterprise.The

industrial busine s model is dead. The

receivableof one company is the payable of

the other, and whether you use phrases ike

"supply chain,"((integrated

business," or

AnswerThinkonsutting roup

Miami, L

(30s) 7s-800s

www.answerthink.com

Founded: prit1997

Employees:401

Key xecutives:edFernandez,EO; ttan rank,TO;Ulysses notts, xecutive Bsales ndmarketinS

Key vendor partners:AurumSoftware,Oracle,

PeopteSoft,unMicrosystems

Corecompetencies: rocessmprovement,roject

manaSement,T strategy,echnology rchtecture

and ntetration, etwork esign, pplication eve[-

opment, atabasemplementation

Biggestmanatementchallenge:To grow as an

inteSrator rganized long strategichorizontat,

ratherhanvertical, ompetencies

something else,our clients are much l ike aweb ofinterrelated value chains.

The extended-enterprisemodel provides

a ger.reric paradigm for how we help our

clientsdeal with these new problems.

ls his cystalline structure eflected n the organi-

zational tructure f whatyou're uilding, r are

you ollowinga more nditional modelbut with a

different ntellectualoverlay?

That's why I said t is so exciting-it's multi-

dimensional.Even the intellectualoverlayhas

multiple dimensions. Competitive advantage

in today's world has to come from under-standing that the experienceof working with

us provides profoundly different outcomes

for our clients. Our only lasting competitive

advantage comes fiom how we think and

integrate knowledge. So the other part of

AnslyerThink is this notion of how we think

about a problem, how we kind of fold around

a solution, and then how we execute.

Very early on we invested a significant

amount of money in a technology infrastruc-

ture. The Big Six were alwaysearly adopters

of Lotus Notes and similar kinds of things,

and it made a lot of sense.But if you read all

the industry rags about knowledge manage-

ment, you will hear that the one big impedi-

ment is culture-the behavior of people and

the desire to share.

If the entire intellectual capital of the expe

rience of the individuals in AnswerThink can

be focusedon everyproblem, that's powerfiJ.

So the other key differentiator is what we

would call a knowledge-enabled delivery

process.Even our compensation model--our

reward system-was right from day one:

based on contributions to the

knowledgebaseand that kind of

thing.

It soundsikea key hingyouhad o

do wascastoff traditionalnotions

of corporate urf-building within

AnswerThink.The valuepropositions or us in

solutions is to provide more

value through more experience.

You want repeatabi lity. If I've

dorre something f ive t imes

before, and I can bring to the

table experience of how I've

done it well and not well, that's

a solid valueproposition.

Most integrators focus on

*'hirt clients do at the physical

laver. Their systems ook at the

functions and then ask -rowsystemsenhance

them. That set of intellectual lrgo blocks

has nothing to do t'itl.r people; it has to do

with what people do-functions.

I'll give you an example n BPR [business

process re-enginecring]. The f irst year,

everybody played u'ith this from the big,

high-impact side-hou'can we make more

money, rightf Let's enhrrnce he revenue-

generating process.So theY$,ent around and

said, "Let's give everybodya laptop."

Somehow. then. sales-fbrceautomation

was born out of thi s rvhole notion. And whatdid it really dof Contact management.Yes,

they could log in and look at inventory sta-

tus quicker.Yes, hey could maybepull down

some data. But the last time I checked, these

have nothing to do with closing a sale.

Closing a sale is all about knowing your

customer, understanding the customer's

business,and being able to articulate how the

product or servicecan add value. What's real-

ly going on is much more inside his head. If

I could press a button and have the system

give me the answers o the questions inside

my mastersalesman's ead, then I could take

him under my arm and that would help me

close he sale.So we've created this thought-

process ayer.

We've created a set of generic thought-

processoperatorsfor ourselves o allow us to

work on this level. Once I write them down

in litde pictures, I can say, "That's what it

Iooks like! Boy, that's ugly." Then I can apply

operatorsof refinementon it .

Well, how do you optimize thought

Drocess f vou don't write it down! So we

wl r t r . s o la t io n t i t te g te to r .c o m a p r i l 1 5 , 1 9 9 8 s o lu t io n s in re g ra to r



si exclusive--r

create thought operators) and the thought

o p e r a t o r s l i n k t o b u s i n e s s p r o c e s s .

K n o w l e d g e -m a n a g e m e n tenv i r onm en t s

deliver intellectual contact-hopefully, just

in time-anlnvhere , anytime, n anticipation

of the thought process.Because,again, it

gets back to information.

It soundsikeyouareusingAnswerThinks he ab

to atrcat extent.

Yes! You got it! Our thought processdivides

into four pieces: argeting, architecture, con-

struction, and migration. I don't care fyou're

building a s\rstemor solving a problem. I love

when consulting firms, particularlysmall ones,

say, "We don't have a methodology." Srhat

you have then is just a bunch of people-

you're selling bodies. The targetingphase s all

about getting your arms around the problem

space.

fuchitecture is not only targeting the right

problem; the architecturephase s the two-hun-

dred-thousand-foot view-"[rt's now architect

the solution and tscomponents." Construction

is getting it down, desigrring t, and building it.

Migation is propagating it. All products that we

develop come from this base.When you talk

about a knorvledgebase, he interesting thing is

that there's a relationship between the size of

the knowledgebaseand how hard it is to get the

information out. The Web is aperfect example.

When do you need he knowledgeasa con-

sultantf You need it while you build value for

your client. So the methodology framework

provides the scaffolding for how to organize

the knowledge. We grve everybody a laptop

with CD-ROMs and a big, fat hard drive-we

just have one central knowledgebase hat sits

on the Web. And so what happens s that, asa

byproduct of what you do, you're contributing

knowledge to the knowledgebase. t's auto-

matically indexed and all that other stuff.

We created a generic set of levels, egard-

less of who you are. By the wa5 100 percent

of the people in AnswerThink-regardless of

level-are owners) unlike most institutionswith three founders, where they keep all the

stock. For every acquisition that we make,

even f we bought a small company owned by

one person, we insist that the owner give

away stock to every single employee regard-

lessof leve l. Now, obviously,different contri-

butions warrant different stock amounts and

so forth.

lVhen I talk

about measuring

what's in the

knowledgebase,

we measurerwo

things. We mea-

s u r e c o n t r i b u -

tions,but anybody

can pur a nugger

of worthless stuff

advantatecomes rom how we

think and ntegrate nowledge.

Our only asting ompetitive

We startedsmall.Now, aswe speak,we're

more han 350 strong. t's very mportant o

institutionalize.When we booted up, we did

this ust like we would do a large ransforma-

tion ob. It's very nteresting henyou starta

business ithout anybusinesso startwith. We

applied hat time verywisely and we broke up

the companynto processes.e usedone ofour senior transformation eaderso help us

through. So we really ried to do this right.

ALLAN FRANK, ANSWERTHINK

in. Wealsomeasuresage. very simplemea-

surements how manypeopleacruallyouch

it, you know, andpull it down.

Obviously,hen ouwereint startinghe irm,herc

were oplewho, hroughheirexperience,'tott''

when hismodelwasbeing eveloped.ow hat

you're rcwing,owmuch f t ishiring eople ho

alreadyhavet'' andhowmuch f t is raining?

I don't know that I cangive you apercentage

answer. t metry to answerrom a coupleof

angles.First of all, today AnsweiThink has

more peoplewho didn't sta:.t rom the begin-

ning than hosewho did. So,even fthere were

a small kernel of peoplewho had a similar

thought process, ur merger-and-acquisition

strategyhasbeen one where an essentialilteris basicallyo seek eoplewho alreadyget t."

Take, for instance, he Hackett Group

acquisition.Greg Hackett and his group are

the leading ransformationconsultans n the

financeand human-resourcesrocurement

space.Peoplehavebeen rying to get Greg

Hackett or years, ut he choseus. He's tie

leader n the field. And it's because his

grokking, f you will, of our model was ike a

completemind-meld.We'vebeenverycarefi:l

in combiningwith groupshatget t.

You have o be smartenough o package

the messagen different waysand also o rec-

ognize hat any organization s madeup of all

kinds of people-left brain,right brain,up,

down, and the things that they do are differ-ent. The vastmajorityof peoplehat we have

are experiencedeople.The essence f the

businesss really argeting hoseexperienced

people.Their obs tend to be much more n

theproblem-solvingpace.

Whanorcloseyoureyand rcjectout,here oyor

see nswerThinkoing?o ou ee nswerThinks n

80dX)-personorganizationdownthercad?sthatone

of hedrcamshatyouhaveor t?

Well, you know, I swted by saying hat we

wanted o redefneconsulting ndvaluepropo-

sition. Is there an

endgamef I'm not

sure I see his as an

endgame. Maybe

the best way to

answer it is Ted

Fernandez,Ulysses

Knotts, and I-

three of us-are the original founders. We

made a life decision, and that life decisioncame

out of a personal, profound set of common

questionsthat we were asking ourselves.

There was nothing fundamentally wrong

with KPMG. But we were sitting around and

saying, What do we want from the businessf

The institution that we came from and that

whole ilk aroseout of organizations hat were

built over 100 yean ago. And, yes,drey came

from a different world.

We said o ourselves hat we wanted to create

a legacy.A hundred years rom now it may be

something different, but where we came from,

I'm not sure the original founden foresaw the

future or even he notion of consulting and what

it would be like. They saw hemselves s busines

advison to aworld that was moving from anoldindustial model to a new industrial model.

I'd rather not get into the discussion f how

big, in terms of quoting numbersand so forth. I

guess would rather leave the answer the way

that I started.In redefining consulting,we want-

ed to find our greamess.Obviously, it will turn

into numbers and things like that, but the great-

ness omes rom somethineelse. O

Copyright a 1998by IDG Channel ServicesGroup, an lnternotional Data Group Publication.

Reprinted rom Solutions Intetrator, 111 peenStreet, Framingham,MA 01701. eprinted by Reprint Management Services,717)560-2001l.

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