Strategic Supply Chain Planning

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - October 19, 2010) -  Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS) has just published a new study providing the Chief Supply Chain Officer (or VP of Supply Chain, Director of Supply Chain, etc.) a prioritized list of best practices within supply chain planning. The report, Strategic Supply Chain Planning: Three Key Priorities of the Chief Supply Chain Officer, found that 86% of respondents indicate that their management team has asked them to review the supply chain process in order to find opportunities to improve their company's supply chain planning processes, and 71% of respondents have indicated the same for supply chain technology improvement. 

Supply chain planning is the part of the end-to-end Supply Chain Management (SCM) with the potential to provide market differentiation for companies. The specific processes that will be studied as part of this report are: supply chain network design, demand forecasting, inventory optimization, supply planning, and Sales and Operations Planning.

"Time and speed are critical to today's planning processes. The reason for the increased frequency of planning is due to the increase in uncertainty and lack of visibility due to outsourcing. Outsourcing results in an increase in variability and increased lead-times. In order to manage these variables, companies are trying to perform constant planning and re-planning," explained Nari Viswanathan, Vice President and Principal Analyst of Supply Chain Management at Aberdeen.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: JDA Software and John Galt Solutions. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30410182&cid=6660&camp=2

Find out where your company's Strategic Supply Chain Planning capabilities rank among the top performing companies. Take our Supply Chain Planning Assessment Tool: http://assessment.aberdeen.com/ujTf8z1qec/index.aspx

Visit Research.Aberdeen.com for additional access to complimentary Supply Chain Research.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is 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 or call (617) 854-5200, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748.

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