BPM Convergence Drives Lower Cost and Improved ROI

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - October 12, 2007) - Traditional business automation applications focus either on business system integration or workflow. But, a new breed of BPM solution that combines both is driving lowered costs, better throughput, and increased ROI on BPM investments, according to a recent benchmark report from Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks company (NYSE: HHS). The report, "BPM Convergence: Workflow and Integration Meet in the Middle," is based on a survey of more than 160 companies worldwide.

"Organizations that already have a strong culture of business process management are turning to converged BPM software as a way to close the loop between their backend business systems and more human-centric processes," said Perry Donham, Aberdeen's Director of Enterprise Applications Research. "The driver for these companies is to increase the number of business transactions flowing through the enterprise, and their payoff is a significantly higher ROI on their BPM investments than seen by companies who only deploy workflow automation."

The research found that Best-in-Class organizations:

--  Are twice as likely as the Industry Average to have deployed converged
    BPM solutions
--  Use converged BPM to increase the throughput of business transactions
--  Report significant reductions in operational costs related to workflow
    as a result of their BPM projects
    

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: BEA and Vitria. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4135.

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
Fax: (617) 723-7897
www.aberdeen.com

Contact Information: Media Contact: Perry Donham Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5315 perry.donham@aberdeen.com