BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - August 12, 2008) - Better integration and visibility across
internal and external partners, especially with key partners in the
warehouse, is helping today's Best-in-Class companies decrease shipping
costs and inventory carrying costs, according to the latest Transportation
Management report from Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (
NYSE:
HHS).
A global survey of transportation and logistics professionals reveals that
99% of Best-in-Class companies are hitting on-time performance of 95% or
more, while 83% of Laggard companies are under 90%. The new report
entitled "No Excuses! Why Optimizing Transportation Management is Within
the Reach of Every Company," uncovers the key pressures facing today's
transportation managers and the actions and capabilities they are putting
in place to deal with the rising cost of fuel and surcharges while trying
to provide better visibility to freight and cost status to internal and
external partners.
Many of today's Best-in-Class have moved beyond their Transportation
Management Solution (TMS) implementations and are now leveraging the data
and process automation and management capabilities. Their focus now is to
more effectively extend their collaboration lines (53%) and provide greater
insight to business partners in order to create more dynamic decision
making processes to find strategic alternatives to costly or stale shipping
practices.
While the Best-in-Class are focusing on optimizing their processes and
leveraging new technology, the Laggard companies are in the process of
investigating the technology available to them in order to improve their
transportation management and cut costs across their entire supply chain.
Only 15% of today's Laggard companies are leveraging TMS solutions despite
dealing with the same fuel and surcharge costs as the
Best-in-Class and the growing landscape of competitors. With the
deployment options and flexible solutions available in the market today,
Aberdeen uncovered that 55% of the Laggard companies plan on investing in a
TMS solution in the near future.
"The focus on collaboration and visibility across internal and external
departments has clearly provided the Best-in-Class transportation companies
with the flexibility and agility necessary to overcome the rising costs in
fuel and other shipping costs," said Brad Wyland, Sr. Research Analyst,
Aberdeen. "The automation of processes and visibility has enabled
transportation managers to better plan for and adjust their shipping
decisions on a daily basis, helping them find the most cost-effective
options for them and their customers."
A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the
following underwriters: CTSI, Infor, Manhattan Associates, MercuryGate,
and Sterling Commerce. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report,
visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5121
To access all of Aberdeen's complimentary research please visit
http://research.aberdeen.com.
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:
Brad Wyland
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(617) 854-5392
Brad.wyland@aberdeen.com