Contract Labor and Professional Services: Lasting Benefits for Temporary Solution

Market Wire, May, 2007

As enterprises continue to spend millions of dollars annually on contract labor and professional services and show no signs of slowing, it is critical that they leverage technology and services to gain visibility into the management of their procurement programs for spend in these complex categories, according to a new report by the Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS).

The report, "Contract Labor and Professional Services: The Right People, At the Right Time, At the Right Price" found that leading procurement and supply management executives are faced with significant pressure to gain better visibility into their workforce management performance programs. Drawing on research from over 200 companies, the report discovered that Best-in-Class enterprises are saving 13% on their spend in these categories compared to only 3% savings achieved by their peers as a result of investment in program implementations and upgrades.

"Use of contingent labor and professional service engagements as an alternative to increasing FTEs is becoming a more common workforce management strategy," said lead author and Aberdeen Research Analyst William Browning. "Millions of dollars are being spent each year on each of these complex categories so organizations are placing increased emphasis on investment in program management and spend intelligence tools to gain better visibility, drive savings, and improve process efficiency."

Best-in-Class organizations report superior "time-to-fill" cycle-times and lower turnover rates, they have robust workforce performance programs, and they set goals for (and actively measure) the performance in their temp-to-hire conversion rates. Best-in-Class organizations are also:

--  25% more likely to use a workflow system for review and approval of
    contract labor and professional services acquisitions
--  33% more likely to use automated requisition tracking
--  67% more likely to utilize a range of other contract management tools
    

Aberdeen recommends that enterprises looking to achieve these Best-in-Class benefits should centralize program management while improving collaboration among the key stakeholders -- HR, procurement, and the line of business, and utilize a single system to automate workforce requisitions, enable the selection of preferred vendors, and provide overall program visibility.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due to the following underwriters: ClickCommerce, eWork, Bartech Group, and Kelly Services.

To download a complimentary copy of "Contract Labor and Professional Services: The Right People, At the Right Time, At the Right Price," please visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=3966

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com .

Media Contact: William Browning III Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5229 william.browning@aberdeen.com