alfabet Announces Record Q1 Profitability and Growth EBITDA at 18%; Revenue up 50% Over the Previous Quarter

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — May 26, 2009 — alfabet, the leading software provider in IT planning and business IT management, today announced record results for the first quarter of 2009.

alfabet continues to buck economic trends by significantly growing its profitability and revenue margins, posting EBITDA at 18%; a positive cash flow; and a 50% increase in revenue over the previous quarter. alfabet’s performance remains well above the average market growth rate of 10% - 15% [Enterprise Architecture Tool Trends: Slow Adoption But Expanding Usage by Henry Peyret, April 7, 2009].

“Demand for our planningIT solution continues to rise steadily as enterprises look for more effective ways to shed costs, underperforming IT assets, and improve IT’s efficiency and effectiveness in managing business change,” said Erik Masing, CEO of alfabet. “CEOs, CIOs and also CFOs increasingly ask for process support providing information to better understand, plan and manage IT change and investments to deliver business value.”

Analysts are in agreement. “Planning tools are a dream come true to planning teams and to CIOs. Having such a wealth of information in one place in a format that allows for the data to be easily manipulated and compared is a desire of all IT organizations across all decision-making processes,” according to a March 2009 Forrester report titled “Tools For IT Planning,” which identifies alfabet a “clear leader” in this market.

Other Q1 highlights for the year to date included the following:

• alfabet released planningIT 5.0 - a highly significant offering because of its innovations in three key areas: visualizations and personalized cockpits; IT management integration with enhanced mechanisms for updating data in the planningIT repository with information from external sources; and  risk management, providing organizations with the ability to identify risk exposure, understand what IT systems carry risk, what the implications of the risk are and what kind of mitigation measures are necessary.
• Two new services packages show management within two months where to cut costs and the expected impact to business. The Control IT and $ave services, which are to be announced to the market shortly, provide decision-makers with the necessary evidence to cancel unneeded licenses, reduce maintenance, stop projects, postpone programs immediately and set up leaner processes going forward.
• alfabet expanded its global user base to 25,000 in over 40 countries, signing several major deals in the financial services, telecommunications and manufacturing sectors.
• CTI Consulting joined alfabet’s international partner network.
• The European Business School and University of Hamburg joined the alfabet Academic Program, now serving 10 member institutions.  The schools use planningIT to foster best practice skills development in their IT and computer sciences curriculums.
• A recent customer survey shows highest ever satisfaction rates among customers and a resounding commitment to planningIT and the value it delivers.

“To manage IT complexity you need a good methodology and a good tool. Without a tool, you’d be lost. We decided on planningIT, which is a tremendous support for us -- the repository together with the methodology, the processes, the governance and the people -- we now have the complexity under good control." CTO, Private Banking, Credit Suisse

“By documenting applications in planningIT you can see everything from a process-related perspective, which lets you easily identify redundancies or areas you may harmonize or consolidate applications." Manager Corporate IT, Technology & Architecture, Evonik Industries.

“The decisive factor for planningIT was that instead of trying to describe the concrete operational IT processes, such as project management, product management and service processes, planningIT functions as an umbrella for all IT processes and provides a bird’s eye view of the IT, the master planning and the project portfolio. What I really liked was that planningIT has this clear focus and thus remains straightforward and easy to manage for us. I was especially impressed by this aspect of planningIT.” Petra Finke, CIO, Rhenus Assets & Logistics

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 25,000 IT professionals in over 40 countries in a variety of industries, including automotive, financial services, telecommunications, logistics, high-tech and others. Its customers include international corporations such as Credit Suisse, Munich Reinsurance, BMW, AXA Winterthur, Deutsche Bahn, OCBC 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.

For Additional Information
Contact:
Elyse Familant
GCC, Inc.
978-725-3637
ElyseF@gccpr.com

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