Best-in-Class Companies Are Better Able to Manage Total Cost of Ownership of Business Intelligence Deployments

Market Wire, March, 2008

Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), revealed today that Best-in-Class (BIC) companies -- those performing in the top 20% of all survey respondents -- have a greater capacity for managing the total cost of ownership of BI deployments. Sixty-four percent (64%) of Best-in-Class companies surveyed have achieved improvement of on-budget completion of BI projects in the past 12 months, versus 14% of Industry Average companies and just 3% of Laggards.

According to research presented in a new report, "Managing the TCO of Business Intelligence," Best-in-Class companies are able to provide BI capabilities to more end-users. This is the top business pressure driving all respondents to focus attention on managing total cost of ownership. Best-in-Class companies are also 40% more likely than all other companies to have improved resolution of end-user support issues with existing support staff. This capability assists in lowering the cost of headcount associated with BI implementations. 37% of Best-in-Class respondents achieved average BI project time-to-completion of seven days or less during the past 12 months. Finally, Best-in-Class companies are 43% more likely to have improved BI system up-time than Industry Average and Laggard companies combined. This reduces the overall cost of ownership and associated ongoing support and maintenance costs.

"As companies continue to prioritize Business Intelligence (BI) initiatives, they are also becoming more concerned about the associated costs, and the impact that these costs can have on the ultimate success or failure of BI projects," said David Hatch, Research Director of Aberdeen's Business Intelligence Practice. "Many executives have become wary of hidden costs based on prior experiences with data warehousing and other enterprise application initiatives, and are putting BI vendors to the test to disclose as much information as possible about expected costs associated with their solutions."

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: Blink Logic, Dimensional Insight, and Talend. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4647 .

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 .

© 2008 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
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Telephone: (617) 723-7890
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 www.aberdeen.com 

Media Contact: David Hatch Aberdeen Harte-Hanks 617-854-5329 david.hatch@aberdeen.com