The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT) today announced the launch of the Advanced Diploma in Global Business Services (GBS). This is the second offering in their Certified GBS Professionals (CGBSP) program, a comprehensive career development system for the GBS and Shared Services sector from CIMA and The Hackett Group.

The Advanced Diploma in GBS (ADGBS) is designed for current GBS leaders and members of a GBS organization’s senior management team. It is also relevant for senior executives who manage or work with GBS organizations, leadership at business process outsourcing companies, and others.

The ADGBS is the highest qualification offered under the CGBSP program and is designed to complement the other two certifications. The Certificate in GBS, which was launched last September, is designed for entry-level associates performing transactional or knowledge-based work. The Diploma in GBS, which will be launched this summer, is oriented towards mid-level managers or people preparing for the role of manager.

Each level of certification is driven by a comprehensive syllabus that teaches the skills and competencies required by employers to achieve the highest standards of excellence. At the foundation of the course materials are The Hackett Group’s extensive knowledge of GBS and functional best practices, based on its benchmarking, advisory, and transformation work with top global companies, combined with CIMA’s intellectual content and long-term education expertise. The certification programs are self-paced online learning tools that employees can complete over three to four months. Computer-based objective test exams are available in over 5,500 centers worldwide and are professionally invigilated to ensure the robustness of the assessment.

Participants in these programs also have access to an online knowledge center, offering access to material such as case studies, frameworks, and performance metrics from The Hackett Group, CIMA, and other organizations. The knowledge center is designed to support participants through exams and life-long learning, with additional material unlocked as individuals complete certification at each level.

A new self-assessment tool has also been launched in support of the Certified GBS Professionals program. The tool, which is available here (http://bit.ly/1X6kIMK), is designed to help organizations and professionals determine which of the certification programs is best suited to their needs.

“With this second offering in our Certified GBS Professionals program, we’ve chosen to address the needs of senior managers and leaders in GBS, largely in response to demand from the companies we’re already working with,” said Sean Kracklauer, Principal-in-Charge, Global Executive Advisory and Research for The Hackett Group. “We’ve designed this entire program to suit the full range of GBS professionals, complementing their functional training whether it’s in finance, IT, procurement, human resources, or another area. It’s a unique offering that combines CIMA’s training expertise with the empirically-proven best practices and intellectual property only The Hackett Group can provide. The combination of training, testing, accreditation, and a knowledge centre to help staff keep up with new developments and trends is unique and fills an unmet need across the GBS organizations we work with.”

Dr. Noel Tagoe, Executive Director of CIMA Education, said: “The ADGBS is an important step in our partnership with The Hackett Group. This brand new course and qualification fills a significant gap in GBS talent management and by using the latest technology absolutely fits the requirements of today’s executives. Our Advanced Diploma will further help GBS organizations, their employees and suppliers to gain the right competencies and insight in order to reach their full potential.”

The Hackett Group’s research shows that world-class GBS organizations offer managers and staff nearly three times the training hours of typical companies. Professionals are offered nearly twice the training hours. Better talent management also drives an array of bottom-line benefits, including nearly 50 percent higher return on equity and higher net profit margins and EBITDA.

The research also shows that the GBS evolution is accelerating. The Hackett Group estimates that there are now over 6,000 GBS centres globally, with a total staff of more than 4.5 million. Nearly three quarters of all GBS organizations have moved beyond single-function centres, to establish multi-function centres. But less than 10 percent of all GBS organizations have completed the evolution to create fully integrated services environments with an end-to-end process orientation and a comprehensive service catalogue.

To coincide with the launch of the ADGBS qualification, The Hackett Group is making available for download on a complimentary basis, with registration, its most recent GBS research piece: “The Evolution of GBS Organizational Designs: Design Choices Can Help GBS Leaders Reduce Friction, Tug-of-War over Resources by Competing Interests,” at http://bit.ly/1U8w5Tw.

For more information on the Certified Global Business Services Professionals program and its Advanced Diploma in GBS, please visit http://www.cimaglobal.com/gbs.

About the Certified Global Business Services Professionals Program

The Certified Global Business Services Professionals program is a collaboration between The Hackett Group and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). This unique collaboration combines CIMA's certificated global professional development program capabilities with The Hackett Group's global business services (GBS) best practice intellectual property. This brings to market the first comprehensive talent management and professional development qualification program specifically tailored for GBS and shared services professionals. By working together, The Hackett Group and CIMA are addressing the need for GBS and shared services organizations to provide clear, consistent and structured talent development programs based on best practices to grow the professional skills and knowledge needed to achieve and maintain world-class performance standards.

About CIMA

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), founded in 1919, is the world’s leading and largest professional body of management accountants, with over 227,000 members and students operating in 179 countries, working at the heart of business. CIMA members and students work in industry, commerce, the public sector and not-for-profit organizations. CIMA works closely with employers and sponsors leading-edge research, constantly updating its qualification, professional experience requirements and continuing professional development to ensure it remains the employers’ choice when recruiting financially-trained business leaders.

Professionalism and ethics are at the core of CIMA’s activities with every member and student bound by robust standards so that integrity, expertise and vision are brought together.

CIMA has formed a joint venture with the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) to establish the Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) designation. CGMA is the global quality standard that further elevates the profession of management accounting. The designation recognizes the most talented and committed management accountants with the discipline and skill to drive strong business performance.

CIMA is proud to be the first professional accounting body to offer a truly global product in the fast-moving area of Islamic Finance.

For more information about CIMA, please visit www.cimaglobal.com.

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About The Hackett Group

The Hackett Group (NASDAQ: HCKT) is an intellectual property-based strategic consultancy and leading enterprise benchmarking and best practices implementation firm to global companies. Services include business transformation, enterprise performance management, working capital management, and global business services. The Hackett Group also provides dedicated expertise in business strategy, operations, finance, human capital management, strategic sourcing, procurement, and information technology, including its award-winning Oracle EPM and SAP practices.

The Hackett Group has completed more than 11,000 benchmarking studies with major corporations and government agencies, including 93% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 86% of the Fortune 100, 87% of the DAX 30 and 52% of the FTSE 100. These studies drive its Best Practice Intelligence Centre™ which includes the firm's benchmarking metrics, best practices repository, and best practice configuration guides and process flows, which enable The Hackett Group’s clients and partners to achieve world-class performance.

More information on The Hackett Group is available at: www.thehackettgroup.com, info@thehackettgroup.com, or by calling (770) 225-3600.

Cautionary Statement Regarding “Forward Looking” Statements

This release contains “forward looking” statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements including without limitation, words such as “expects”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “plans”, “believes”, seeks”, “estimates” or other similar phrases or variations of such words or similar expressions indicating, present or future anticipated or expected occurrences or outcomes are intended to identify such forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are not statements of historical fact and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward looking statements. Factors that may impact such forward looking statements included without limitation, the ability of Hackett and the Certified Global Business Services Professional program and/or CIMA to effectively market the Certified GBS Program, the Certificate in GBS and the Advanced Diploma in GBS against competition from other consulting and professional/trade associations/companies who may have or develop in the future, similar offerings, the commercial viability of the Certified GBS Program, the Certificate in GBS and the Advanced Diploma in GBS, changes in expectations regarding global business services and shared service centres, the ability of Hackett to attract skilled employees, changes in collections of accounts receivable, risk of competition, price and margin trends, changes in general economic conditions and interests rates as well as other risk detailed in Hackett’s reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Neither Hackett nor the Certified Global Business Services Professionals program undertakes any duty to update this release or any forward looking statements contained herein.