ERP Leads to Collaboration and Visibility in Best-in-Class Complex Manufacturing

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - January 13, 2009) - The most recent Aberdeen Group ERP benchmark report titled, "ERP in Complex Manufacturing: Improving Collaboration and Visibility," found collaboration the key to reducing costs and improving customer satisfaction. Seventy-five percent (75%) of Best-in-Class integrate manufacturing operations with front and back offices, and in 81%, manufacturing and corporate IT work collaboratively to implement technology. In this report, Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), elaborates on how Best-in-Class complex manufacturers use ERP to produce 98% inventory accuracy, 97% complete and on-time shipments, and are three times as likely to produce accurate bids. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5403.

To win repeat business and remain profitable, complex manufacturers are stressing collaboration and visibility into manufacturing operations. For example, "Actual cost to bid is a measurement that directly impacts a company's profitability. When the actual cost is lower than the bid proposed to the customer, companies run the risk of losing business to a lower priced competitor. If the actual cost is higher than the quote, the company loses money on the order," says Cindy Jutras, VP and Group Director, Aberdeen. "The Best-in-Class are over three times better at narrowing the gap between bid and actual costs. Even among the Best-in-Class, however, only 38% are able to predict costs at 97% to 102% accuracy, indicating room for improvement. Having better reporting and collaboration capabilities will improve accuracy over time. In addition, actual costing is a process that can be incredibly cumbersome if done manually. Best-in-Class companies are almost twice as likely as all others to fully automate actual costing, thereby protecting margins without sacrificing productivity."

The report makes specific recommendations to improve performance, including the following:

--  Encourage collaboration through cross-functional continuous
    improvement teams
--  Implement real-time visibility into operational performance, and
    progress from there to predictive exception alerting
--  Automate processes such as hand-offs between engineering and
    manufacturing, costing, and scheduling
--  Improve remote and/or mobile access to ERP data
    

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: IFS, Plex Systems, and Tectura. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5403.

For additional access to complimentary ERP Research, please visit http://research.aberdeen.com/index.php/-erp-and-finance

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: Cindy Jutras Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5247 cindy.jutras@aberdeen.com