Top Performing SMBs Drive Profit With Business Intelligence

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - November 9, 2010) -  In the newly released report, BI for the SMB 2010: Unlocking Hidden Business Insight to Drive Profit, Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS) found that SMBs are leveraging Business Intelligence (BI) to arm more business users with insight and drive double-digit improvement in profit and cash flow. The research discovered that leading SMBs were able to deliver business answers to 78% of their user base in a "self-service" capacity, facilitating a higher BI adoption rate and ultimately promoting a 39% improvement in sales pipeline efficiency.

Businesses of all sizes are continually challenged by growing data volume and complexity, as well as an increasing need to provide faster and more relevant access to that data. In the face of these two challenges, companies turn to BI technologies to grant access to a greater portion of their growing data in a way that allows for more meaningful analysis of their particular business function. SMB organizations (defined in this context as companies with fewer than 1,000 employees) are now seeing a greater need and desire to apply analytical methodology to their growing data through the use of BI technology.

"Research shows that driving performance improvement with BI is largely dependent upon an efficient collaboration between IT and business," said Michael Lock, senior research analyst, Aberdeen. "When the business users are able to create their own views of the data and measure the things that truly drive their business, and the IT group focuses on providing access to more data and strengthening the overall data infrastructure, SMBs are in a position to derive the maximum value from BI."

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: Birst, SAP, SAS, and Talend. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30410182&cid=6671&camp=2.

Visit Aberdeen.com for additional access to complimentary Business Intelligence 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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