Actuate Hosts Successful Performance Management Thought Leadership Day.

Luminaries Share Ideas That Will Shape the Future of Performance Management

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- Actuate Corporation (NASDAQ:ACTU), the leader in Business Intelligence, Performance Management and Reporting Applications, announced today that thought leaders from several of the world's leading organizations converged at the Actuate Performance Management Center of Excellence in Toronto to discuss the reality and future of sustainable Performance Management. The event marked the first ever convening of the 'Ahead-of-the-Curve' Thought Leadership Forum, which was held on March 27th, 2007. The organizations, representing the full spectrum of Performance Management luminaries and applied experts, included BearingPoint, CLG, Computer Sciences Corporation, Deloitte, JD Irving, IBM, LECG, OpX Consulting, Promaco, and Price Waterhouse Coopers.

The goal of the gathering was to discuss Performance Management, the key limitations of current practices, and to identify opportunities for the creation of sustainable Performance Management within organizations today. The participants, who spanned several leading Performance Management methodologies, agreed that the methodologies behind Performance Management are evolving and that organizations need to implement a multi-dimensional approach in order to see the greatest impact.

The Forum reached consensus on many of the current challenges of Performance Management initiatives. The participants have agreed to further refine these ideas and work towards creating and evolving a body of knowledge to assist stakeholders and organizations in creating a culture of sustainable performance improvement. The Forum, in addition to several other leading organizations, will present their positions and findings at the Performance Management Thought Leadership Day at the Actuate International User Conference in Las Vegas, August 13-15, 2007. Some of the topics and insights from the Forum included moving from legacy models to continuous improvement, bridging the technology gap, changing the context of measurement and adoption of performance management.

Move from Legacy Models to Continuous Improvement

Ned Morse, CEO of CLG, commented, "Much of our technology, measurement and Performance Management practices come from manufacturing legacy models. We will need to move away from these models and reach towards the knowledge-based and service organization models that we have evolved to. A truly outstanding Performance Management system will need to have a continuously improving performance measurement and feedback system in place that consists of systematic measurement projects tied to timely feedback linked to the performers themselves - only then will a sustainable Performance Management culture permeate throughout the organization."

Bridge the Technology Gap

Some key early findings included a group agreement that technology has surpassed current performance paradigms' ability to deliver upon performance improvements. This new technology and methodology gap presents a great opportunity to expand and enhance a successful Performance Management initiative within organizations.

"There are inherent limitations with existing Performance Management systems; it's an issue which encompasses people, society, organizations and ecosystems as a whole. Unless these issues are addressed first, improvements in technology alone will not facilitate a company's overall performance evolution; maturity on both sides is inherent to sustainable Performance Management," said Dr. Greg Lomow of BearingPoint.

Change the Context of Measurement

"Performance measurement is the foundation of Performance Management. But because performance measurement is so closely related to rewards, very little real 'out of the box thinking' is encouraged. We need to change the 'context of measurement' so that people throughout the entire organization will be more eager to embrace Performance Management with positive attitudes rather than focusing only on what will bring rewards and avoid punishment," said Dean Spitzer, Performance Measurement Thought Leader with IBM Research.

Adoption of Performance Management

In addition, the thought leaders agreed that in most cases Performance Management programs inadvertently structure key flaws into their design and implementation. They concluded that these flaws begin to sabotage what the programs were trying to transform, and that systems and methodologies need to be adjusted and improved to further guarantee success. In most cases, organizations have in fact created environments that hinder the adoption of Performance Management efforts within the organization.

"The goal with the 'Ahead-of-the-Curve' Thought Leadership Forum is to advance Performance Management thought and assist organizations in the creation of a culture of continuous performance improvement. As we examined Performance Management implementations, we noticed consistently that they often perpetuate the problems they are trying to solve by creating performance paradigm silos. The key adoption is to present useful and relevant information in an intuitive, personalized manner so there is value to everyone in the organization from using the Performance Management application," said Daniel Kube, vice president of Partnerships and Alliances for the Performance Management Division of Actuate.

The 'Ahead-of-the-Curve' Thought Leadership Forum invites Performance Management experts to submit papers on the topic of "Sustainable Performance Management" for inclusion in the Performance Management Thought Leadership Day agenda. Papers should be submitted electronically to [e-mail]. The event will bring together esteemed subject matter experts within the industry. Speakers will include some of the leading theorists as well as long tenured veterans of applied Performance Management from some of the world best performing companies. To learn more about the event please visit www.actuate.com/AIUC2007.

About Actuate Corporation

Actuate Corporation, the leader in Business Intelligence, Performance Management and Reporting Applications, enables organizations to develop solutions that optimize corporate performance. Applications built on Actuate's open source-based platform provide all stakeholders inside and outside the firewall, including employees, customers, partners and citizens, with information that they can easily access and understand to maximize revenue, cut costs, improve customer satisfaction, streamline operations, create competitive advantage and make better decisions.

Actuate has over 4,000 customers globally in a diverse range of business areas including financial services and the public sector. Founded in 1993, Actuate has headquarters in South San Francisco, California, with offices worldwide. Actuate is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol ACTU. For more information on Actuate, visit the company's web site at www.actuate.com.

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