The Hackett Group, Inc.

Welcome to the Hackett Group First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Your lines have been placed in a listen-only mode into the question-and-answer session. Please be advised that the conference is being recorded. Hosting tonight's call are Mr. Ted Fernandez, Chairman and CEO Mr. Rob Ramirez, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Ramirez, you may begin. Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss the Hackett Group's first quarter results. Speaking on the call today and here to answer your questions are Ted Fernandez, Chairman and CEO of the Hackett Group, and myself, Robert Ramirez, CFO. A press announcement was released over the wires at 4.06 p.m. Eastern Time. For a copy of the release, please visit our website at www.thehackettgroup.com. We will also place any additional financial or statistical data discussed on this call that is not contained in the release or in the investor relations page of our website. On the investor relations page of our website. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that in the following comments and in the question and answer session, we will be making statements about expected future results, which may be forward-looking statements for the purposes of the federal securities laws. These statements relate to our current expectations estimates and projections and are not a guarantee of future performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict and which may not be accurate, especially in light of COVID-19. Actual results may vary. These forward-looking statements should be considered only in conjunction with the detailed information, particularly the risk factors contained in our SEC filings. At this point, I would like to turn it over to Ted.

Thank you, Rob, and welcome, everyone. As we normally do, I will start with quarterly overview comments, and then ask Rob to comment on operating results, cash flow, and also provide his comments on outlook. The call will then return to me for some market strategic related comments, and then we will open it up for Q&A. Let me again start by welcoming everyone to our first quarter earnings call. Although circumstances are improving, I would like to continue to acknowledge those dedicated individuals who continue to work nonstop and under very difficult circumstances to support all of us during the pandemic. Also, I want to acknowledge our associates and clients that quickly and successfully adapted to the remote delivery requirements around the globe. Consistent with our comments, since the end of the second quarter, we continue to experience increased client engagement and demand for our services through this quarter. It is clearly evident that organizations are increasingly recognizing the need to embrace digital transformation as a requirement to remain competitive. Correspondingly, this afternoon we reported net revenues of $63.4 million and pro forma earnings per share of 27 cents, up 17% sequentially, and equally important, up 12.5% from the prior year. Although net revenues were down 3%, in the prior year, they were up 7% sequentially, which is consistent with the demand recovery we have been experiencing and expected now to continue into the second quarter. U.S. sequential revenue growth was up 8% and flat on a year-over-year basis, which was comparing itself to a mostly pre-pandemic quarter. This was led by the continued bounce back of our strategy and business transformation group, In our EEA group, the sequential growth was primarily driven by our Oracle ERP and SAP practices, as well as strong growth in our emerging OneStream practice. The pandemic has accelerated the deployment of digital technologies to support cloud-enabled transformation, which has resulted in the growth of these practices. We are also further encouraged by the increasing activity in the U.S. and the sequential improvement expected in Europe into the second quarter. Of special note is the noticeable improvement we are now seeing in the second quarter in our Oracle EPM business. As many of you know, this group has adversely impacted our year-over-year growth over the last several years as we have transitioned that group from on-premise to cloud implementations. We believe that our on-premise cloud transition is now behind us, which should result in improving revenue growth going forward. The investments we have made to fully digitize all of our IP and the development of our IP as a service platforms, which include Quantum Leap, our state-of-the-art global benchmarking platform, and our proprietary Hackett Digital Transformation Platform, better known as BTP, are highly differentiating our offerings and continue to be important drivers of our growth for many years to come. Additionally, our partnerships in rapidly growing e-procurement, EPM, and other cloud and workflow automation providers also continue to be a key part of our digital transformation strategy and are important future drivers of growth as well. On the balance sheet side, our ability to generate strong cash flow from operations has allowed us to increase our dividend and buy back stock. We have strong cash balances and a fully available credit facility to fund acquisitions we identify while continuing to invest in our business. It is important to reiterate that it was at the start of last year, having that strong cash position with no outstanding debt provided us with the ability to properly manage the demand disruption we faced. With that said, let me ask Rob to provide details on our operating results, cash flow, and also comment on outlook. I will make additional comments on strategy and market conditions following Rob's comments. Rob? Thank you, Ted.