Web Analytics Attains Corporate Priority Status

BOSTON, MA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- May 9, 2007 -- Companies that invest in analytics platforms with the support of senior management have greater success in executing on their corporate goals. Currently 94% of Best-in-Class companies have executive level sponsorship or are in the process of gaining executive support to leverage analytics as a method to measure and manage business processes across their entire organizations, according to a new study "Web Analytics: The Crystal Ball of Customer Behavior?" by Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS).

"Eighty-nine percent of Best-in-Class companies currently apply or have initiated defined methods for evaluating analytics, such as established benchmarks and acceptable standards to align with their corporate goals," said John Lovett, research analyst, Aberdeen. "This level of top-down support reflects a corporate culture that promotes an understanding of marketing effectiveness and a unified goal of improving the online customer experience."

Early findings from the report showed that over half of the 1300+ senior executives surveyed reported that analytics would be one of the top two technology investments supporting their Sales and Marketing efforts in 2007. Businesses now realize that analytics hold the key to identifying customer behavior and will use this intelligence to convert more customers and elevate the customer experience across all facets of their businesses.

Survey results show that the firms enjoying Best-in-Class performance shared several common characteristics with respect to their Web Analytics implementation strategy, such as:

--  89% of Best-in-Class companies currently use or plan to use analytics
    as a method to measure corporate goals such as compliance with sales and
    marketing objectives and elevating customer experience. This majority group
    uses analytics data to influence decisions and impact change across
    multiple business units.
    
--  89% of Best-in-Class companies will make analytics data available to
    all levels of management within their organizations through dedicated
    analysts or self-service methods. Ninety-one percent of these firms will
    make analytics data available for export to other applications such as CRM
    systems, BI platforms or Excel spreadsheets.
    

This study is made available to the public through the underwriting of: Site Intelligence, Tealeaf, Unica, and The Web Analytics Association. Their sponsorship enables Aberdeen to make the report available at no charge through the following link:

http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=3975

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 AberdeenTM 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.

Contact Information: Media Contact: John Lovett Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5306 John.lovett@aberdeen.com