Leading U.S. Investment, Insurance Firm Licenses Alfabet’s Planningit In Major Deal To Strategically Align It With The Business

Business Editors/Technology Editors

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16, 2008--alfabet Inc., the leading software provider in strategic IT planning and management, today announced that one of the largest investment and insurance companies in the U.S. has licensed alfabet’s planningIT to increase collaboration and visibility between IT and the business. The software was implemented in five months and is already successfully in operation.

alfabet’s new client joins a growing list of global financial services players, including Credit Suisse, AMB Generali, Munich Re and AXA Winterthur that are already using planningIT to strategically plan and manage their IT organizations to realize and support business goals.

planningIT is a cross-industry software solution that is unique in tightly coupling business priorities and IT deliverables with current and future initiatives. It supports every business activity in the planning process from demand to budget. planningIT comprises a logical IT inventory that provides transparency into an organization and focused processes that enable collaborative IT planning between all affected IT, business and finance stakeholders.

Insurance companies, in particular, are in a phase where they need to carefully manage the transformation of their IT landscape to consolidate systems, decrease costs and increase their level of agility in order to remain globally competitive. alfabet’s planningIT allows them to do just that.

During a thorough evaluation of its needs, the client determined it wanted to continuously align its business processes, organization, IT investments and project portfolio with its strategic vision and goals. The implementation of planningIT at the financial services firm is their first decisive step towards achieving these objectives.

After evaluating several modeling tools, including a failed proof-of-concept, it was decided that modeling tools would not fulfill their requirements. alfabet’s planningIT was selected based on the software’s data-driven approach and ability to manage IT and support collaboration between IT and business counterparts. By establishing the workflows, processes and information base supported by planningIT, the client gained powerful means to govern and manage change and align IT with business objectives. Transformations and projects can now be collaboratively planned and roadmapped, actions accounted for and up-to-date analysis reports can be generated instantly.

“planningIT helps customers improve their capabilities in IT Management and achieve better IT related business performance and value,“ said Erik Masing, CEO and president of alfabet. “Firms not only within financial services, but from many other industries, come to alfabet with objectives such as maximizing returns from application and project investments, improving business agility, IT cost management, streamlining enterprise architectures, improving IT organizational efficiency and aligning business and IT strategies. We work closely to help our clients attain these important objectives effectively and efficiently.“

About alfabet (www.alfabet.com)

alfabet enables companies to see, analyze, control and align IT initiatives with business priorities continuously. Its planningIT® software is unique in tightly coupling business priorities and IT returns with current and future initiatives. Competitive point solutions offer modeling or repository functions with a static view of priorities, architecture and infrastructure. alfabet provides a holistic, integrated and collaborative approach that offers continuous transparency into how IT and business information, processes and roles are changing and need to be managed over time.

The company serves a global user community of over 20,000 IT professionals in more than 40 countries in a variety of industries, including automotive, financial services, telecommunications, logistics, high-tech and others. Its customers include international corporations such as AMB Generali, Coca-Cola, BP, Daimler, Deloitte, Porsche and T-Systems. Founded in 1997, alfabet is based in Berlin with U.S. headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.

All companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.