BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - March 12, 2009) - In the newly released benchmark report, "
Collaborative Business
Intelligence: Three Steps Toward Superior Customer Responsiveness,"
Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (
NYSE:
HHS), found that Best-in-Class
organizations drove a weighted average 30% year over year improvement in
business process efficiency by combining collaborative techniques with
business intelligence (BI) tools and methodologies. This study collected
data from more than 220 end-user organizations and found that these
companies are working to build a collaborative culture around analytics in
order to achieve substantial improvements in employee productivity and
customer responsiveness. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report,
visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/benchmark/5723-RA-collaboration-business-intelligence.asp.
As the market continues to fluctuate and the economic downturn advances,
companies are increasingly looking inward in order to better manage and
leverage the expertise residing in the minds of the workforce. When it
comes to BI and analytics, there are numerous levels of expertise required
to extract the most value from an enterprise solution. IT and database
expertise drives efficiency in managing the growth in data volume and
complexity, and front-end experience with reporting, analysis, and
application of timely information really helps achieve heightened business
performance. Companies who have focused on leveraging this wide range of
expertise through collaborative techniques have seen substantial business
returns. Prior Aberdeen research justifies the value of collaboration as
it relates to financial planning and budgeting, as well strategic aspects
of business process improvement. As analytical data is shared among key
stakeholders in the organization, companies are starting to see a culture
shift in which more non-technical employees are truly recognizing the value
of relevant and timely data analysis. This growth and expansion of BI
capability has enabled more employees to have a positive effect on business
performance leading to an upswing in customer responsiveness and business
efficiency. By bolstering organizational maturity around process,
organization, knowledge management, and performance measurement,
Best-in-Class companies have been able to collaborate around their
analytical data, expand the reach of BI and analytical capability, and
ultimately realize substantial business performance improvements.
"The key to Best-in-Class performance is related to one main theme:
pervasiveness," explains Michael Lock, Research Analyst for Business
Intelligence at Aberdeen Group. "This pervasiveness exists not just in
their BI implementation (i.e. more non-technical BI users), but also as a
key underpinning of their collaborative strategy. Not only have they
enabled more analytical users, but they have also facilitated efficient
lines of communication between their key stakeholders in order to promote
greater collaboration."
The report is aimed at educating the end-user community as to how
Best-in-Class organizations are merging analytical and collaborative
capabilities along with an appropriate technological portfolio in order to
produce considerable improvements in customer responsiveness and employee
productivity. The report recommends clear actions for Industry Average and
Laggard SMBs to achieve these types of performance improvements and draw
closer to the Best-in-Class.
A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the
following underwriters: PivotLink and SAP. To obtain a complimentary copy
of the report, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/benchmark/5723-RA-collaboration-business-intelligence.asp.
For additional access to complimentary
Information Technology Research, please visit
http://research.aberdeen.com/index.php/-information-technology.
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.
© 2009 Aberdeen Group, 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
Contact Information: Media Contact:
Michael Lock
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(617) 854-5365
michael.lock@aberdeen.com