Smart Revenue Streams Boost Remote Product Service Adoption

Leading Firms Almost Two Times as Likely to Leverage Remote Product Service Applications


BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - May 5, 2009) - In an uncertain economy, leading organizations are turning to Remote Product Service solutions to drive efficiencies into their service organizations so as to maintain customer satisfaction levels while driving down service-related costs. More so, these firms are actively looking for new revenue opportunities that can be derived from data-enabled smart services, according to a recent research report titled "The Evolution of Remote Product Service and the Emergence of Smart Services," published by the Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS).

"Firms responding to our research indicate that 28% of their serviceable assets are currently being monitored remotely," said Sumair Dutta, senior research analyst, Aberdeen Group. "This is up from an average of 17% in 2008 and 12% in 2007 and respondents indicate a jump to 41% in 2010. These results are indicative of the value offered by these solutions in meeting the tri-fecta of cost containment, revenue generation and customer management pressures faced by today's service and manufacturing organizations."

Research findings in the Remote Product Service report indicate responding firms have seen the following average improvements in key service performance indicators since the adoption of remote product service solutions:

*  A 22% increase in first-time fix

*  A 28% reduction in mean time to repair

*  A 7% increase in total service revenues averaging out to nearly
   a million dollars in additional revenues

*  Approximately $500,000 in total service cost-related savings

The report also finds that leading service organizations are nearly two times as likely as all others to be leveraging Remote Product Service applications. In addition to supporting break-fix, preventive and predictive service strategies, nearly one-half of leading firms indicate that they are using these tools to unearth new revenue streams for their service and product businesses. Primarily these firms are driving additional revenues through higher service contract values, sales and renewals as well as through the sale of information-based services. As a result, these leading firms have seen a near 8% increase in service revenues over the last 12 months, when compared to a negligible increase for all other firms.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: Enfora and Axeda Corporation. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5795.

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

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is 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 or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748.

Contact Information: Media Contact: Sumair Dutta Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5298 sumair.dutta@aberdeen.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