Fewer Than 20% of CFOs View Procurement Affecting Competitiveness

Less than 20% of CFOs consider the work of CPOs and their staff as
having a very positive impact on competitiveness, revealed a new
benchmark report by Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE:HHS), part
underwritten by Zycus. It also revealed that of the 11.9% of average
annual identified savings only 3.2% actually gets booked i.e. a fall
in 73% from identification to realization! The communication gap
between the procurement and finance departments has emerged as the
single most serious challenge in procurement´s ability to deliver
savings to the enterprise highlighted the report based on a survey of
over 500 finance professionals.

The findings of the survey underlines Zycus´ product vision that
the Finance department & Top Management should be a stakeholder in
every spend management initiative. The spend management approach
should also be in line with the company objectives in order to
establish executive support.

Zycus´ Spend Management solutions help procurement departments of
Global 2000 companies identify, manage and track savings opportunities
through an intuitive and objective driven process akin to a sales
funnel in CRM and highlight these to the enterprise leadership
(including the CFO) thus ensuring greater buy-in and greater chances
of realized savings.

Says Aatish Dedhia, CEO, Zycus Inc., "It has been a long
established fact for Zycus that no Enterprise Spend Management
initiative is complete without the partnership of the Finance
Department and executive support. Enterprise leadership is a very
important user for all our Spend Management solutions. Zycus helps
simplify procurement operating metrics into meaningful and actionable
information for the CFO".

"Finance and procurement are natural allies in the battle for
bottom-line growth," notes Andrew Bartolini, Vice President of Global
Supply Management research at Aberdeen, "Neither department can stake
claim to operational excellence without a relationship that promotes
open communication, visibility, and precise alignment on goals and
objectives."

Other Findings:

-- Procurement executives continue to have issues getting on the
Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) agenda, leaving procurement´s
expansive transformation incomplete.

-- On an average, only 46% of CFOs feel that the procurement team
has contributed to enterprise growth, while just 57% feel that
procurement contributes to enterprise profitability.

Aberdeen´s new research recommends that enterprises encourage
improved communication between finance and procurement, beginning with
the definition of a "common language" between the two groups. By
creating uniform metrics and aligning departmental performance
objectives, CFOs and CPOs can fill the communication gap and create
strategic alignment.

Zycus is pleased to make a complimentary copy of this must read
report for CFOs & CPOs available to the public at
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30410356&cid=4202

About Zycus

Zycus is the world´s leading provider of automated Spend Analysis
solutions to Global 1000 companies. With proven spend management
deployments across the globe, Zycus´ Actionable Spend Analysis
solution, comprising AutoClass and Actionable Analytics, combines
cutting-edge technology and domain expertise to enable superior
year-on-year savings and greater compliance through easy-to-use,
transparent, process-driven spend analysis. Zycus´ solutions integrate
with leading ERP and Datawarehouse applications and are available in
Behind-The-Firewall (BTF) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) modes.

For more information about Zycus and its solutions please write to
solutions@zycus.com or log onto http://www.zycus.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(TM) 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.