CHICAGO, Oct. 31, 2006 -- While many Fortune 500 companies spend between $100 to $200 million a year capturing and analyzing information about their business, few CEOs have a clear idea of where the money is going, or the additional business value that can be created with a sound information and analytics strategy, according to Diamond Management & Technology Consultants, Inc. (Nasdaq: DTPI).

"Nothing in our economy has changed more in terms of its production and consumption than information and the ability to analyze it," said John Sviokla, Diamond's Global Managing Director of Innovation and Research. "Today, the ability to gather, organize, analyze, and act on information faster than the competition is a hallmark of leading companies. Unfortunately, most companies find the value of their information assets depreciating and don't get the full value of their knowledge workers."

But while some companies struggle to create value from information, Diamond finds that others are creating an information advantage that dramatically increases their competitiveness. For example:

-- A major health care plan is improving customer service by using information analytics to fully understand the cost and quality of its programs, determine when patients should receive wellness interventions to minimize the severity and frequency of health issues, and to help doctors measure and improve their performance in caring for patients.

-- A national insurance carrier has set new levels of performance that are forcing competitors to respond in kind. In five years the insurer went from having two standard product pricing tiers to 400 -- a tremendous advantage in managing risk and competing on price. Where once it took 16 to 18 weeks to program rate changes into their various systems, it now takes only a week or two, generating a significant positive impact on financial performance.

-- Companies that had been spending more than $100 million on data solutions characterized by high data storage costs, massive custom computer applications, and inflexible reporting have been able to exploit new technology and simplify their computing environments. The results: 30-50 percent decreases in the time required to deliver information and 30-40 reductions in run-rate costs to analyze and produce meaningful reports.

The examples and others are detailed in a new Diamond whitepaper, "The New Economics of Information and Analytics: 5 Key Drivers of Success." Copies of Diamond's whitepaper are available by sending an e-mail request to: informationadvantage@diamondconsultants.com .

Key Drivers of Information and Analytics Success

"Creating an information advantage can actually change the dynamics of an entire industry," said Paul Blase, co-managing partner of Diamond's Insurance Industry practice. "Developing a differentiated information capability can create a more agile company that forces competitors to play catch-up on any number of dimensions, from pricing and new products to customer service and cost."

How can a company increase the business value of information? The Diamond whitepaper offers five specific suggestions:

"Aim high and focus carefully," said Blase. "Sometimes the highest-impact uses of information will be revealed by looking at the big picture such as industry structure or the dynamics of competition. But you also need to drill down to what's really important: is the greatest opportunity to shake up your industry related to information delivery, deeper analysis, or getting new products to market more quickly? Keep the scope manageable."

It's also important to "know what you need to know," Sviokla added. "Management needs a clear, consistent view of how decisions are actually made throughout the organization before improving the decision-making process. Before making the effort know what factors are truly important, be they data granularity, the speed in which information is shared, or the integration of data across various functions."

A third suggestion is to conduct a quick assessment of how different areas of the business use data-driven analytic techniques which can uncover immediate opportunities for improvement with minimal technology investment. For example, in an eight-week analysis for a communications services provider, Diamond sorted through hundreds of thousands of transactions to identify specific actions that measurably improved the performance of the customer service department and dramatically increased the rate of new subscribers.

The challenge, Blase adds, is to focus on those areas that offer the greater potential, including:

-- Force Competitors to Play Catch-Up: Picking critical areas to compete using an information and analytics strategy based on evolving industry and value chain dynamics.

-- Improve Your Critical Operations: Cost effectively and systematically applying data-driven analytics and fact-based decision-making to improve business performance.

-- Speed Up and Push Out Decisions: Accelerating fact-based, data-driven decision-making across all levels of the organization.

-- Alter the Economics: Exploiting technology advancements and using new delivery processes to alter the economics of collecting, storing, managing, accessing, and analyzing data.

-- Agree on a Single Version of the Truth: Rethinking how to organize business and technology resources to get the greatest insights from information, at the appropriate speed, for the lowest cost.

That's easier said than done. The Diamond report notes that many CEOs have no true picture of the size of their company's analytic and information investments, where they are hidden, nor the return they actually deliver. The ad hoc process of adding capabilities has created tremendous complexity.

"Companies accumulate duplicate information, useless information and huge systems to store and manage that information," Blase said. "We say, 'eliminate the waxy build-up.' Look for redundancies and opportunities for business units or functions to share and analyze information across traditional boundaries. You'll find opportunities to reduce costs in the short-term and have a better view of what kind of strategic data architecture platform is required longer- term."

About Diamond

Diamond (Nasdaq: DTPI) is a premier global management consulting firm that helps leading organizations develop and implement growth strategies, improve operations, and capitalize on technology. Mobilizing multidisciplinary teams from our highly skilled strategy, technology, and operations professionals worldwide, Diamond works collaboratively with clients, unleashing the power within their own organizations to achieve sustainable business advantage. To learn more visit http://www.diamondconsultants.com .

Diamond's Information and Analytics practice provides fast, insightful analysis of complex marketing and operational issues, where intelligent use of data holds the key to better decisions and actions. Specific services include analytics to uncover and realize new revenue and cost savings; information management to track and measure key strategic business metrics not available otherwise; and information strategy to identify ways of using information to increase competitive advantage and to improve underlying information architecture for sustained, cost-effective delivery of higher quality information throughout the enterprise.

Contacts:
    David Moon
    Media Relations
    +1.312.255.4560
    david.moon@diamondconsultants.com