Spend Analysis Lays the Foundation for Bottom-Line Results

Spend analysis (and the visibility it enables) provides the necessary foundation for procurement organizations seeking to make better, more informed sourcing decisions, resulting in more spend placed under management, significant cost savings and improvements in contract compliance, according to a new study published by Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks company (NYSE: HHS).

The benchmark report, "Spend Analysis: Working Too Hard for the Money," leveraging the insights of procurement executives from over 700 enterprises, found that data quality is the top challenge for spend analysis, limiting visibility into spend and leading enterprises to leave money on the table.

"Our research has discovered that top-performing enterprises are more likely to leverage automated tools to collect, cleanse, classify and develop reports on their organization's spend," said Andrew Bartolini, research director, Aberdeen. "They realize the benefits of spend visibility and utilize this insight to drive strategic sourcing efforts that result in significant bottom-line savings."

Best-in-Class enterprises are excelling in many performance metrics, demonstrating:

--  Incremental cost savings from sourcing efforts based on spend analysis
    that are 35% higher than their peers

--  Contract compliance rates 30% higher than other organizations after
    implementation of a spend analysis program

--  On average, 81% more spend under management than all others as a
    result of spend analysis programs and tools
    

The Spend Analysis benchmark report recommends that enterprises should start by gaining executive support for spend analysis initiatives, carefully evaluate current systems and capabilities to develop an effective spend analysis program and also utilize spend information to drive contract compliance in addition to focusing on delivering cost savings from sourcing.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: iasta, Procuri, SAP, Verticalnet, and Zycus. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4145

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(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 .

© 2007 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
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Boston, Massachusetts 02110-3112
Telephone: (617) 723-7890
Fax: (617) 723-7897
 www.aberdeen.com 

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