Order to Delivery Excellence a Key Driver of Demand Management in Discrete Industries

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - December 6, 2007) - A recent benchmark report by Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), focused on the demand management practices of more than 260 companies identified that 70% of respondents indicate that they have a focused demand management program in place. In fact, 31% of companies indicate that they have had a program in place longer than 4 years.

These findings are significant because Aberdeen's research found that the companies surveyed need to refocus their attention towards order-to-delivery excellence as a driver for demand management rather than just concentrating on demand planning (statistical forecasting). Aspects that companies should focus on include external collaboration, customer level forecasting and integration with order management.

Aberdeen used three key performance criteria, namely finished goods inventory turns, average customer service level, and average forecast accuracy at the product family level to distinguish Best-in-Class companies from Industry Average and Laggard organizations. Results show that Best-in-Class companies are:

--  3 times more likely than all others to have a single view of demand
    with multiple views as inputs
    
--  2.5 times more likely than all others to integrate order management
    tightly with the demand planning process
    
--  2 times more likely than all others to segment demand forecasts based
    on key product-customer characteristics
    
--  3 times more likely than all others to allocate forecasts down to the
    SKU level
    

"The transformation to a global model is creating new supply chain challenges internally within OEMs and in their suppliers. Lead-time reduction and order to delivery excellence are key drivers for demand management in the discrete industries," notes Nari Viswanathan, research director of the supply chain and logistics practice for Aberdeen.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: JustEnough, Logility, WebConcepts, Infor, IBM and John Galt. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4213.

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.

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Contact Information: Media Contact: Nari Viswanathan Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5293 Nari.Viswanathan@aberdeen.com