Top Product Innovation Strategies Identified

Best-in-Class Companies Implement Enterprise-Wide Innovation and PLM to Stay Ahead of the Competition Through 2010


BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - January 9, 2008) - Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), announced the latest benchmark report "Product Innovation Agenda 2010: Profiting from Innovation Today and Tomorrow." This report looks at how companies are driving profitable growth by introducing new innovation, product development and engineering techniques and technologies. The capabilities differentiating top performers today will not be enough in 2010. For example, the report reveals that 70% of all respondents will have a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) implementation in place within the next two years, making it a common practice and basic requirement to compete in product-centric markets.

"As today's leading innovation practices become standard operating practices of the future, the Best-in-Class will need to extend their leadership by adopting emerging best practices like Open Innovation, Lean Product Development and a continued expansion of engineer's visibility to the impact their decisions make on the supply chain and product profitability," says Jim Brown, VP of Product Innovation & Engineering Research. "We have identified the top strategies, along with the top 20 innovation technology investments, that Best-in-Class companies will use to compete in 2008 and beyond."

In a December 2005 study on the same topic, Aberdeen Group investigated how companies leverage product innovation for profitability. The "Product Innovation Agenda 2010" report reassesses the old product innovation agenda and looks at its relationship to the corporate agenda today and into the future. Aberdeen reports that top performing companies are looking outside the four walls of engineering to other organizations across the enterprise and beyond, leveraging these new technologies to increase visibility and minimize the downstream impact of design decisions on the product development lifecycle.

The report offers the following recommendations:

--  Implement PLM to centrally and securely manage data
--  Stay abreast of new innovation processes, and establish ownership of
    innovation as a discipline
--  Formalize processes to understand downstream impacts of engineering
    and product development decisions.
    

The report is made available through the underwriting of I.H.S, Invention Machine and Siemens PLM Software. To download a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4170.

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
260 Franklin Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02110-3112
Telephone: (617) 723-7890
Fax: (617) 723-7897
www.aberdeen.com

Contact Information: Media Contact: Jim Brown Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (610) 565-6302 Jim.brown@aberdeen.com

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