BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - October 4, 2007) - The integration of desktop tools with
enterprise applications is a two-way street that brings personal
productivity, which in turn translates to improved corporate productivity.
Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks company (NYSE: HHS), recently conducted a benchmark
report titled "Two Worlds Converge: Enterprise Applications Meet the
Desktop" and discovered that Best-in-Class (BIC) companies see a 20%
increase in gross margin and 21.3% increase in revenue year-over-year, with
a ratio of revenue growth to staff growth of 2.2. This compares with less
than 1% increase in gross margin, 1.6% increase in revenue and a ratio of
revenue to staff growth of .7 for Laggard organizations.
Driven by pressure to grow profitably with minimal investment in staff
growth, Best-in-Class companies distinguish themselves as follows:
-- 100% of executives (C-Level and VPs) in Best-in-Class companies have
direct access to data in enterprise applications
-- Best-in-Class companies are 3.6-times more likely than Laggards to be
able to complete process flows without switching between applications (both
desktop and enterprise)
-- Best-in-Class are 3-times more likely to coordinate business processes
between departments with fully automated workflows
Converging enterprise applications -- like ERP -- and desktop tools such as
those found in Microsoft's Office Suite make data needed for
decision-making more easily accessible. This is most effective when
enterprise applications become a natural extension of the desktop tool.
Ultimately, from the end user's perspective, the goal is to improve
personal productivity, in the hope that this will translate to corporate
productivity. From the enterprise application vendor's point of view, it's
about getting more workers in a company as ERP users. The convergence of
these goals is synergistic.
"The key to wider adoption of enterprise applications throughout the
enterprise is to make them easily accessible, intuitive to navigate and
perhaps even transparent to the users that they are using applications such
as ERP," says Cindy Jutras, Vice President and Group Director, Aberdeen
Group. Jutras adds, "By providing easy access, easy analysis in a familiar
setting, while keeping users captive within the secure ERP environment, we
get the best of both worlds."
A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the
following underwriters: Exact Software, Microsoft, and Tectura. To obtain
a complimentary copy of the report, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4316.
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.
© 2007 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:
Cindy Jutras
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(617) 854-5247
cindy.jutras@aberdeen.com