Going it aloneResigning his partnership at KPMG in January 1997 didn't mean that Ted Fernandez was headed for an early retirement. Fernandez, the top partner in the firm's Miami office, started his own consulting firm, answerthink, a month later, taking three other KPMG partners, including their chief technology officer, with him. Needless to say, his former employer wasn't too pleased - KPMG immediately slapped him with a lawsuit charging that the ex-partners planned their departures while at KPMG, used proprietary information to plan their new company, and violated their partnership agreements by soliciting KPMG clients and employees. (Fernandez had defected in the first place because KPMG had rejected his plan to spin off its consulting operations into a separate public company - a path it has since taken with a February 2001 IPO.) The suit was settled in May 1997, paving the way for answerthink's incorporation. As part of the settlement, however, answerthink agreed to not solicit business from any KPMG clients for two years.
Thinking of the future instead
The memory of answerthink's early legal tumult faded quickly, as Fernandez and his rapidly-growing list of consultants (many of whom were KPMG refugees) expanded their menu of IT consulting offerings by gobbling up three consulting firms by the end of 1997. By the end of 1999, the company had 11 offices across the U.S. and had acquired six more firms. At the end of answerthink's non-compete contract with KPMG in 1998, they promptly snapped up business from Fernandez's former employer.
Making a public appearance
Answerthink itself wasted no time going public. Its IPO, floated in May 1998, netted $38.5 million for the fledgling company. In November 1999, answerthink merged with THINK New Ideas to create one of the largest 'end-to-end' e-business solutions providers with over 1,600 employees in 16 offices across the country. Think New Ideas offices in Atlanta, Boston, London, New York, San Francisco and Torrence, Calif. changed their names to answerthink, while the remaining two offices in Seattle and Hollywood, Calif. kept the Think New Ideas name. A formal name change in June 2000 made then AnswerThink Consulting Group's new moniker answerthink, inc. In December 2000, answerthink issued a warnings revision for the fourth quarter, explaining that the company was working to reduce its exposure to Internet projects. This resulted in layoffs of about 150 people.
Accumulating associations and acclaim
Answerthink has forged partnerships with heavy hitters such as IBM, Samsung Securities, iClick and OnLink. One of the company's newest ventures is the creation 13 business-to-business e-commerce marketplaces, or ePlexes. Already 20 percent of answerthink's employees are working on these online sites where buyers and sellers meet to benefit from automating their transactions. Answerthink hopes this addition to its e-business solutions - which range from web design to e-business consulting, from benchmarking best practices to software package implementation - will keep the company in its leading position. This position was corroborated in December 2000 with two "Outstanding Web Site" and five "Standard of Excellence" awards in the Web Marketing Association's 2000 WebAward web site competition. Based on design, content, innovation, interactivity, navigation, ease of use and use of technology, the awards recognized answerthink's work with clients such as Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), Lipton, and Procter & Gamble. The year 2001 kicked off with President and CTO Allan Frank's selection to Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders.
