Limited BI Skill Sets Driving Companies Toward On-Demand BI Application Strategies

Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), revealed today that 30% of companies rate "Lack of internal BI Skill Sets (users)" as a top concern toward the delivery of actionable information to the enterprise. Additionally, industry Average and Laggards are twice as likely to have Data Quality issues as Best-in-Class organizations.

According to research presented in a new report, "Delivering Actionable Information to the Enterprise: Does On-Demand BI Solve the Skill Set Shortage?," Best-in-Class companies are addressing the scarcity of skill sets through training, engaging 3rd-party consultants and solution providers, including On-Demand options such as SaaS (Software as a Service), Hosted-BI, and BI appliances. In fact, 16% of Best-in-Class organizations are currently using On-Demand solutions, and 33% plan to invest in On-Demand solutions.

Best-in-Class organizations showed significant performance improvements vs. industry average and laggard companies in several areas over the previous two years:

--  32% of BIC organizations report a direct impact on revenue through
    increasing the number of people in the organization with relevant IT/BI
    skill-sets. This is more than twice the rate of industry average companies
    (15%), and four times the rate of laggards (8%).

--  39% of BIC companies deliver actionable information to a majority of
    stakeholders via a self-service environment. This is almost twice the rate
    of average (22%) and three times the rate of laggard companies (13%).

--  16% of BIC companies currently use BI software applications accessed
    through a 3rd-party (Software as a Service, Hosted, On-Demand, hosted
    appliance, etc). This is twice the rate of industry average and laggard
    companies.

"Organizations are facing pressure to deliver actionable information to the enterprise that is timely and effective toward meeting business goals. This requires that companies have access to the information, the ability to combine, aggregate and integrate the information, and then deliver it to people when, where and how they need it. The BI (user) and IT (technical) skill sets that are required to meet this demand are in limited supply. This has resulted in projects that are delayed, over-budget, and are often lacking the data and information necessary to meet business goals. This has catalyzed the emergence of a variety of options from both new and entrenched vendors. Our research has tested how organizations are approaching the growing demand for BI across the enterprise. BI vendors and consulting firms are aligning themselves to address this opportunity," said David Hatch, Research Director of Aberdeen's Business Intelligence Practice.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: Dimensional Insight, Oco, OnDemandIQ, and SeaTab. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4278

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 .

© 2007 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
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Telephone: (617) 723-7890
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Media Contact: David Hatch Research Director 617-854-5329 david.hatch@aberdeen.com