BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - November 13, 2008) - Meetings and events management expenses are significant within enterprises and continue to grow, forcing companies to devote more of their attention to how to best manage a multi-million dollar category of corporate spend. As a global economic slowdown looms, it is more important than ever to control meetings and events spend, which is the top pressure identified by 36% of the enterprises surveyed. According to a new study published by Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), Best-in-Class enterprises are leveraging key technologies and services in combination with developing critical organizational capabilities and strategies to improve compliance with corporate meetings and events management policies and drive savings. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5511

The importance of meetings and events management stems from the impact across multiple aspects of the enterprise, including marketing and branding, strategy development and communication, and revenue generation among others. Due to the wide spectrum of meetings and events organized by enterprises, it is critical that organizations approach their management efforts strategically by establishing a programmatic approach to managing meetings and events. Aberdeen's research found that Best-in-Class companies have achieved outstanding results, including:

--  66% incrementally higher rates of savings then their competitors on
    meetings and events spend
    
--  42% higher rates of compliance to corporate meetings and events
    management polices than all others
    

"Meetings and events are a necessity for any successful organization, whether they are trying to connect with their customers or with their employees," said Bill Browning, research analyst, Aberdeen. "The goal is to develop a truly strategic meetings and events management program whose principles can be applied in a programmatic fashion to all meetings and events instead of just strategically managing one meeting at a time. Technology and services support this development and enables organizations to take control of the millions of dollars of spend throughout the meetings management lifecycle."

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: BCD Meetings and Incentives, Starcite and Visa. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5511

For additional access to complimentary Global Supply Management Research, please visit http://research.aberdeen.com/index.php/Global-Supply-Management/

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.

© 2008 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: William Browning Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5229 Bill.browning@aberdeen.com