Procurement Outsourcing Drives Strategic Value

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - December 12, 2007) - Organizations seeking to improve corporate performance often look to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services to streamline business processes and improve operational performance. Procurement is not immune from this pressure and outsourcing is becoming more accepted as a viable strategy for procurement performance improvement. It is reaching a tipping point, facilitated by the fact that procurement outsourcing is being leveraged to achieve strategic value beyond the cost-cutting, tactical benefits traditionally realized, according to a new study published by Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks company (NYSE: HHS).

The benchmark report, "Procurement Outsourcing: A Strategic Imperative," leverages the insights of procurement executives from over 260 enterprises. Findings indicated that 40% of enterprises are expected to engage in procurement outsourcing in the next two years.

"Our research has discovered that top performing enterprises are more likely to leverage third-party expertise in the form of outsourcing," said Bill Browning, research analyst, Aberdeen. "Top performing companies realize strategic benefits such as gaining supplier and market intelligence and streamlining operations, while also delivering cost and process savings."

Best-in-Class enterprises are excelling in many performance metrics, demonstrating:

--  8.3% savings due to sourcing efforts from outsourcing operational and
    strategic sourcing
--  30% lower costs to process a requisitions than all other companies
--  55% rate of compliance to contractual agreements
    

The Procurement Outsourcing benchmark report recommends that enterprises should start by carefully evaluating current process and technology capabilities to establish a baseline and identify outsourcing needs, and then focus on strategic advantages that can be gained in addition to tactical, cost-cutting results.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: SourceOne and TPI. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4197

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
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www.aberdeen.com

Contact Information: Media Contact: Bill Browning Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5229 bill.browning@aberdeen.com