Aberdeen Group Announces Top 100 Most Influential Technology Vendors for 2008

Annual State of the Market Report, Spanning 5 Years, 550,000 Locations, and Over 2.5 Million Interviews, Identifies Technology Vendors Having the Greatest Impact


BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - May 13, 2008) - The Annual State of the Market Report out from the Aberdeen Group showcases the results of five years of research and up to date insight from 4,645 snap-shot survey respondents. New to the report this year is a compilation of the Top 100 organizations that excelled at providing value to the business community. The list included software, hardware, and service providers with Microsoft, Oracle and SAP rounding out the top three spots. Technology household names including IBM, Dell, HP, Cisco, Salesforce.com, EMC and Sun closed out the top 10. Other well established brands including Google (#11), RIM/Blackberry (#12), Apple (#16), Motorola (#22), Intel (#29), and Intuit (#46) were notably present.

Mobility, identified in last year's Aberdeen Report as the number one technology growth area, was well represented in the Top 100 by AT&T (#15), Verizon (#23), Sony Ericsson (#26), Sprint/Nextel (#42), and T-Mobile (#92). This year the results from the 2008 Aberdeen Report indicate that mobility will take a back seat to business intelligence and analytics as the technology capabilities having the greatest impact over the next 3-5 years. Representing best of breed vendors in this category were SAS (#30), Microstrategy (#61), QlikView (#67), and SPSS (#89), as well the broader enterprise suite solutions including Microsoft (#1), Oracle (#2), SAP (#3), Hewlett Packard (#6), Infor (#18), Lawson (#34), QAD (#37), and IFS (#60). Also making a strong appearance on the service side were Accenture (#25), EDS (#36), Tata Consulting (#43), Infosys (#56) and Capgemini (#79). One interesting omission was the lack of human capital management solutions representation in the Top 100, with only Kronos weighing in at #98, despite the fact that 31% of survey respondents identify a "shortage of talent" as being the second greatest challenge facing their organization this year.

The Report identifies that the top two criteria organizations use when selecting a technology solution include: total cost of ownership (43%), product functionality (42%), vendor stability (24%), market specific knowledge and experience (24%), domain or industry expertise (22%), and reputation (21%). It also identifies that the priorities of organizations as it relates to technology spend vary by company size (see table).

Survey respondents were given an "open-text" opportunity to identify the top three technology companies that had the most influence on their business performance over the course of the past year. The compete list of the Top 100 Most Influential Technology Companies from the Aberdeen Report are:

1. Microsoft          35. i2                    69. Xerox
2. Oracle             36. EDS                   70. Front Range
3. SAP                37. QAD                   71. Internec
4. IBM                38. Ariba                 72. Manugistics
5. Cisco              39. CA                    73. Palm
6. Hewlett Packard    40. Epicor                74. Unisys
7. Dell               41. Juniper               75. Yahoo!
8. Salesforce.com     42. Sprint/Nextel         76. 3com
9. EMC                43. Tata Consulting       77. ABB
10. Sun Microsystems  44. ADP                   78. CANON
11. Google            45. Fujitsu               79. Capgemini
12. RIM (Blackberry)  46. Intuit                80. Informatica
13. Siemens           47. Manhattan Associates  81. Interwoven
14. Adobe             48. Novell                82. McKesson
15. AT&T              49. Red Prairie           83. Mincom
16. Apple             50. SunGard               84. Mitel
17. Sage              51. Telstra               85. Netsuite
18. Infor             52. BMC                   86. Omniture
19. Nortel            53. BT                    87. Progress
20. Avaya             54. CSC                   88. Rackspace
21. Red Hat           55. Skype                 89. SPSS
22. Motorola          56. Infosys               90. Syntel
23. Verizon Wireless  57. NetApp                91. Teradata
24. Dassault          58. Symantec              92. T-Mobile
25. Accenture         59. Huawei                93. Toshiba
26. Sony Ericsson     60. IFS                   94. Websense
27. Alcatel - Lucent  61. Microstrategy         95. Servigistics
28. AutoDesk          62. Aruba                 96. Genesys
29. Intel             63. CDW                   97. Logility
30. SAS               64. Concur                98. Kronos
31. Citrix            65. Exact                 99. Rockwell Automation
32. Nokia             66. Hitachi              100. Checkpoint Systems
33. PTC               67. Qlikview
34. Lawson            68. Vonage

Additional information on the 2008 Aberdeen Report: State of the Market can be found at http://www.aberdeen.com/2-0/campaigns/14-aberdeen-report-2008-landing-page.asp

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS)

Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Its model of primary research reflects the actions and views of the end user community and utilizes the proven methodology of Aberdeen's proprietary PACE™ framework and Best-in-Class maturity grid. Aberdeen will conduct over 240 benchmark studies in 2008 uniquely positioning it to educate users to action. It's no wonder that 90% of the Fortune 500 and 75% of the Global 500 rely on Aberdeen's research.

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
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Boston, Massachusetts 02110-3112
Telephone: (617) 723-7890
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Contact Information: Media Contact: Stephen Gold Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (925) 264.1840 Stephen.gold@aberdeen.com