90% of Companies Seeking to Take Advantage of Market Conditions to Lower Transportation Costs

BOSTON, MA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- March 6, 2007 -- Companies believe they can save an average of 8.8% on their overall freight budget with a more sophisticated procurement or payment/audit system, and this is backed up by Best-in-Class results. These are the findings of a study of 380 companies conducted by Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS). For an enterprise with $50 million in freight spend, this equates to $4.4 million in potential savings.

In 2007, with freight rates softening for some transportation modes after years of hefty increases, the majority of companies believe it's a great time to review their transportation procurement and freight audit & payment practices and technology. In fact, 90% of companies have recently enhanced or seek to improve these processes in 2007.

Companies pursuing improvement should take note of the report findings on today's best practices. "While the vast majority of companies have seen their transportation rates rise since 2004, a Best-in-Class segment has been able to negotiate lower rates," says Beth Enslow, SVP Enterprise Research and report author. "Our study results show these companies use a centralized procurement process, encourage more innovation in carrier bid responses, and use real applications rather than spreadsheets to manage the process."

This research report is underwritten in part by CombineNet, ControlPay, Data2Logistics, PowerTrack, and Precision Software. To download a complimentary copy of "Winning Strategies for Transportation Procurement & Payment" for a limited time please visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=3913

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.

Contact Information: Media Contact: Beth Enslow Aberdeen Harte-Hanks 519-883-1430 Beth.enslow@aberdeen.com