In the new benchmark report, "Workforce Collaboration and Web 2.0: Improving Productivity by Facilitating Knowledge Transfer," Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), found overwhelmingly that Best-in-Class organizations prioritize workforce collaboration and a majority of these organizations infuse the use of Web 2.0 technologies in those efforts to achieve impressive performance gains in areas such as problem resolution, project completion, and workforce productivity, including:

--  34% average reduction in project completion time
--  26.7% increase in revenue per employee
    

"The need to respond quickly to market changes and the proliferation of a geographically dispersed workforce are driving organizations to prioritize workforce collaboration," said Kevin Martin, research director, Human Capital Management at Aberdeen Group. "Our research found that while workforce collaboration continues to center primarily around project-based work, Best-in-Class organizations are targeting its use to address a much more strategic problem that has risen to the top of organizational talent management agendas -- how to capture and transfer knowledge before it leaves the company. And, we see Web 2.0 software tools playing an increasingly central role in this application."

This research provides a roadmap that all organizations can follow to improve workforce collaboration initiatives and advance towards Best-in-Class status. It also educates the market on the myriad collaboration and Web 2.0 software tools that Best-in-Class organizations use to share knowledge and information, connect workers to achieve common goals, and positively impact talent management efforts.

"Over the past year, our research has identified increasing interest and adoption of Web 2.0 technologies across all elements of the talent management life cycle," said Jayson Saba, research associate, Human Capital Management at Aberdeen and co-author of Aberdeen's Workforce Collaboration / Web 2.0 research study. "In this particular research, we identified a clear shift among organizations to look towards workforce collaboration and Web 2.0 tools to connect people, generate content, capture knowledge and make it easily accessible."

For organizations that achieved Aberdeen's Best-in-Class status (the top 20% of aggregate performance scorers) in workforce collaboration, the study shows that it starts with buy-in and support from the organization's senior executive leadership. With this buy-in, two more critical elements are institutionalized:

--  Availability of workforce collaboration and/or Web 2.0 software tools
    are communicated to the appropriate parties
--  Training on the use of these software tools is available to all
    applicable workers
    

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: Box.net, Mzinga, Oracle, and Saba. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4882.

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

Media Contact:
Kevin Martin
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(617) 854-5314
Kevin.martin@aberdeen.com