Empowering Innovation to Get Results

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - February 11, 2009) - The ability to leverage innovation as a means of driving profitability remains a top concern on the executive agenda. The good news is that, according to "The Innovator's Toolbox: Empowering the Next Wave of Difference Makers," a recent report by the Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), companies that employ idea/innovation management tools to drive innovation meet product revenue targets 46% more often than their Industry Average peers and meet product launch dates 47% more often. Complimentary access to this report is available for a limited time at: http://www.aberdeen.com//summary/report/benchmark/5381-RA-empowering-difference-makers.asp.

More specifically, by leveraging ideas and knowledge more effectively, leading companies are able to improve their ability to develop a steady stream of new and profitable products. What differentiates these top performers is their ability to not only foster idea creation, but their ability to effectively rate and evaluate ideas and concepts, and to translate these into successful products. The Best-in-Class are, for example, nearly 1.5 times more likely than the Industry Average to have a standard process in place for selecting ideas or concepts for development, according to the research findings.

"What is perhaps most compelling is that we are beginning to see that leading companies not only recognize the value of idea / innovation management as a process but that they are beginning to look at ways to automate this process through the use of idea / innovation systems designed for this purpose," said Amy Rowell, Product Innovation and Engineering Research Analyst at Aberdeen.

Specifically, the report makes the following recommendations to companies seeking to achieve Best-in-Class status:

--  Employ idea / innovation management solutions to capture, track, and
    evaluate ideas and concepts
--  Tap into the ideas of employees as well as customers and other sources
    external to the organization to fuel ongoing innovation
--  Empower innovators with intelligent search and retrieval tools to
    access existing sources of knowledge and to augment expertise with virtual
    sources of knowledge / expertise
    

A complimentary copy of this report is made available thanks in part to the support of the following underwriters: Invention Machine, Innovation Framework Technologies, and PTC. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com//summary/report/benchmark/5381-RA-empowering-difference-makers.asp.

For additional access to complimentary Product Innovation and Engineering Research, please visit http://research.aberdeen.com/index.php/-product-innovation.

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.

© 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

Contact Information: Media Contact: Amy Rowell Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5398 amy.rowell@aberdeen.com