Among Chief Procurement Officers, There Is No Debate: The CPO Summit Is Their Must-Attend Event of the Year

Market Wire, October, 2008

As debate season pushes forward, Global Chief Procurement Officers stand united in their view that The Chief Procurement Officer's (CPO) Summit has become the definitive conference for global procurement executives to learn, network, and discuss the strategies needed to extend the broad transformation of their organizations. Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), will host its 4th Annual CPO Summit this November 13 and 14 in San Francisco, CA.

"In flush economic times but particularly in tougher ones, CPOs must continually prove their worth by rising to meet the challenges in front of them and driving value across the entire enterprise," notes Andrew Bartolini, Vice President of Global Supply Management research at Aberdeen. "CPOs from around the globe recognize the impact that networking with and learning from their true peers can have on both their perspective and their job performance."

This year's CPO Summit will leverage Aberdeen's leading global supply management research and offer compelling best practice presentations from prominent procurement leaders including:

--  Peter Connelly, CPO, Leggett & Platt
--  Greg Tennyson, CPO, Salesforce.com
--  Jim Polak, CPO, PPG Industries
--  Kirk Eberhart, Global Director of Supply Chain, TMK-IPSCO
--  Farley Blackman, Vice President, Indirect Procurement & Six Sigma, BP
--  Ken Syme, CPO, Xerox
--  Jacques Beaussart, CPO, National City
--  Scott Singer, CPO, Rio Tinto.
--  Russell Toney, GM, Sourcing, GE Energy
--  Olivier Dumas, SVP & CPO, EADS Defense and Security
    

"As a past attendee and long-time reader of Aberdeen research, I can attest that the CPO Summit is that rare event designed specifically for global leaders in procurement," states Scott Singer, Global Head of Procurement at Rio Tinto who will travel 7,077 miles from Brisbane, Australia to attend the Summit.

As in years past, the CPO Summit will leverage Aberdeen's leading global supply management research and offer compelling best practice presentations from prominent procurement leaders. "I am really delighted to be able to attend such a high-profile event designed for CPOs and to have the opportunity to benchmark with colleagues coming from all countries and various industries. The Summit promises to be very fruitful and a fantastic place to learn and network," notes Olivier Dumas, Senior Vice President & Chief Procurement Officer EADS Defense & Security, who will travel 5,849 miles from Unterschleissheim, Germany to attend the Summit.

Aberdeen has partnered with leading publications, "Supply & Demand Chain Executive" and "CPO Agenda" to provide a meeting place for global supply management executives as well as chief operating officers, and VPs of procurement, supply chain, finance, and manufacturing. "Aberdeen's CPO Summit is an excellent venue to knowledge-share concepts and ideas with Best-in-Class organizations under the oversight of an industry thought-leader," said Greg Tennyson, Vice President, Procurement/Sourcing at Salesforce.com, located in downtown San Francisco who will travel less than 1 mile to attend the Summit.

This year's CPO Summit is underwritten by the following sponsors who will be in attendance:

--  Softtek
--  American Express
--  Apex Analytix
--  SAP
--  GT Nexus
--  Visa Commercial
--  Genpact
--  Bank of Montreal Financial Group
--  ICG Commerce
--  Infosys
    

For registration and additional CPO Summit information, please visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/events/live/CPO08

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen Group 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(TM) 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 AberdeenGroup, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
451 D Street, Suite 710
Boston, Massachusetts  02210-1928
Telephone: (617) 854-5200
Fax: (617) 723-7897
 www.aberdeen.com 

Media Contact: Andrew Bartolini, Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5310 andrew.bartolini@aberdeen.com