CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 21, 1996--Axiom Management Consulting, a Cambridge Technology Partners' (NASDAQ: CATP) subsidiary, today announced Rapid Business Renewal(TM) (RBR), a revolutionary new approach to business re-engineering that creates and revitalizes business operations in unprecedented time frames.

RBR represents a major breakthrough over traditional reengineering consulting methods by focusing on: renewing customer-facing processes for profitable growth rather than cost-cutting; speed of implementation; fixed price/fixed timeframe contracts; and covering all elements of change in parallel.

Whereas traditional re-engineering methods typically require 20-30 months to complete, RBR transforms business operations in less than a year - approximately half the time of typical approaches. Instead of focusing on cost-cutting, downsizing and operational efficiencies, RBR is applied within growth-oriented processes, such as customer service, sales and marketing, to generate greater revenues, market share and/or stronger customer relationships. And in place of the usual contract structure that forces the client to assume the risk of the engagement, RBR operates under fixed time/fixed price contracts in which Axiom accepts the burden of risk for the change effort.

"We have re-engineered the re-engineering process," said Mike Korchinsky, president, Axiom. "Existing models of business process re-engineering try to take on the entire organization, often resulting in lengthy engagements with unpredictable results. In contrast, RBR focuses on discrete business processes and revamps them in unprecedented time frames to generate profitable growth for the organization. In today's business environment, speed is critical to gaining competitive advantage."

James K. Sims, president and CEO of Cambridge Technology Partners, said, "RBR heralds a new age of business management in which organizations recognize that traditional notions of re-engineering and corporate downsizing -- which typically focus on cost cutting -- are short-sighted measures that cannot establish industry leadership. Instead, RBR increases revenue by creating better, faster and more customer friendly ways of conducting business."

RBR is distinguished from existing notions of business process re-engineering (BPR) by six major factors:

-- Speed of transformation and assimilation is an essential component of operational change (engagements completed in six to 12 months) -- Growth through value creation -- focus on creating, changing or= improving business functions, rather than cost-cutting -- Axiom assumes risk of engagement -- all client relationships are based= on fixed time/fixed price contracts -- Integrates all aspects of organizational change, including people, process, organization and technology -- Consensus-based thinking helps ensure successful implementation -- Cross-industry perspective for breakthroughs and innovative thinking

"RBR addresses the four essential pieces -- people, process, organization, and technology -- of successful transformation of `business systems' to generate maximum competitive advantage," said Brian Bouren, vice president, marketing of Axiom. "Our link to Cambridge's proven expertise in Rapid Application Deployment will provide clients with a unified, risk-shared process for integrating enabling technology alongside business solutions in extraordinary time frames."

RBR client engagements comprise four distinct stages:

-- Discovery -- assessment of goals and strategies; illustrates= desirability and feasibility of change initiatives (3 weeks)

-- Innovation -- creation of a practical solution to the discovered= problem; develops solid business case for implementing change (6-8 weeks)

-- Implementation -- development and implementation of test site; develops consensus around solution for roll-out (3-6 months)

-- Roll-out -- deployment and assimilation of new solution (variable)

RBR is a core component of The Cambridge Rapid Process Implementation (RPI) services, also announced today. Under RPI, Axiom's RBR is integrated with Cambridge Technology Partners' Rapid Application Deployment services to provide an integrated approach to the creation, development and implementation of new business processes, and their accompanying technology based systems.

Axiom, formed in 1988 and acquired by Cambridge in 1995, is an innovator in the field of business operations change. The firm helps clients master today's complex and fast changing business environment for competitive advantage by identifying, designing and implementing original solutions to business problems. Axiom gears growth-oriented change efforts to take place in six to 12 months, approximately half the time of traditional consulting projects. The firm offers a fixed time/fixed price for project completion, thus sharing with clients the risk associated with change, and guaranteeing unprecedented commitment to successful on-time, on-budget project delivery.

Founded in 1991, Cambridge Technology Partners is one of the fastest growing companies in the systems integration industry, with a proven track record of developing and deploying client/server distributed applications to more than 500 organizations worldwide. Working within a unique fixed time/fixed price model, Cambridge's systems development expertise also includes package implementation and educational services. Cambridge has had revenue growth at an average of 60 percent per year, and has expanded to 20 offices globally. CTP currently has more than 1,200 employees.

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Cambridge news on the Web: http://www.ctp.com

Axiom news on the Web: http://www.axiom.com

CONTACT: Brian Bouren

Axiom Management Consulting

(415) 546-6800, bboure@axiom.com

or

Anne Gowan

Miller West/Shandwick Technologies

(415) 962-9550, agowan@millerwest.shandwick.com