Alinean and Birchman Group Form Joint IT
Value Measurement Venture for CIOs

Expands Alinean’s European Presence

ORLANDO, Fla. (October 5, 2005) — Alinean, Inc., the market-leading provider of IT benchmarking and ROI measurement tools, today announced that UK-based IT value consultancy, The Birchman Group, has integrated Alinean’s ROI Analyst™ Enterprise into its offerings to help clients accurately align IT investments and financial measurement with business objectives.

“Many organizations are concerned with the accountability of current and potential IT assets and there is an abundance of management solutions out there to track existing asset performance,” said Niel Schoeman, a partner at The Birchman Group. “We have found that Alinean is the best solution because it allows us to make intelligent Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) decisions prior to investment.”

The Birchman Group’s proven service offering, supported by Alinean, allows the company to deliver large and tangible benefits to its clients by quickly and accurately aligning IT with business objectives, often a time-consuming and painstaking task. The Alinean ROI Analyst Enterprise has significantly improved the quality of The Birchman Group’s analysis and the time-to-delivery. The Birchman Group assists customers in gaining maximum benefit from technology investments through strategy development, business case development, program management, benefits tracking, process improvement, change management and other IT Value Management services.

“Quickly understanding which IT investments are delivering the greatest value in an IT project portfolio is the biggest request we receive as we enter the budget season,” said Michael Friedlander, vice president of business development with Alinean. “Using Alinean ROI Analyst Enterprise, The Birchman Group is helping its customers deliver significant business benefits and competitive advantage through IT investments.”

The pressure on IT budgets leaves little opportunity for innovative technology investments. The Alinean ROI Analyst Enterprise framework can measure the financial impact of virtually any technology investment.

The Alinean ROI Analyst™ Enterprise from The Birchman Group is expected to be available worldwide starting in early Fall.

About The Birchman Group Ltd.
From business strategy to successful IT solutions, The Birchman Group provides completely independent expertise in planning, executing and deriving business value from IT programs. Pioneering the IT Value Management approach in Europe and South America, The Birchman Group can assure that corporate IT spending is balanced between support and innovation, is aligned with business goals, is formulated with reference to corporate peers, is comprehensively program-managed and delivers according to fully risk assessed plans. The outcome ensures that the IT department becomes a stable and consistent business value generator. With global reach The Birchman Group has enabled blue chip organizations to realize strategic intent by building complimentary and cost effect IT strategies; comprehensively assess, plan and manage a suitable and significant portfolio of Return On Investment (ROI) and Total Cost Ownership (TCO) justified programs measured by business outcomes; and deliver these programs utilizing the highest caliber Birchman program and project expertise. Established in 2003, The Birchman Group has grown rapidly to more than a 100 employees in five countries, which reflects the success of IT Value Management as a service offering and the demand from organizations for The Birchman Group’s unique set of services and resources. Additional information can be found at www.birchmangroup.com or call 44(0)118 988 0229.

About Alinean

Alinean develops software and solutions to streamline the B2B selling process with business value selling solutions – using ROI/TCO and business case analysis to prove and improve the value of solutions to prospects and customers. The company’s founding team pioneered the concept of interactive ROI and TCO software in 1994, developing award-winning solutions for leading B2B vendors and consultants. Its research methodologies and software tools are used by analyst firms and consultancies such as IDC and B2B leaders such as Oracle, HP, Dell, SAP, Microsoft, Symantec and IBM, and have helped justify billions of dollars in IT spending and derived value. For more information, visit www.alinean.com or call 407.382.0005.
 

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