Users of Managed Network Services Are Satisfied Only When Applications Are Performing Well

65% of Organizations Are Using Application Availability and Response Times to Evaluate Quality of Managed Network Services

BOSTON, MA–(EMWNews – August 20, 2008) – “Managed Network Services: Beyond Cost Savings

and Uptime,” a benchmark report by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

(NYSE: HHS), found that Best-in-Class organizations are three times more

likely to be satisfied with the level of managed network services they are

currently using compared to Laggards. Aberdeen’s research also revealed

that application availability, networking cost, and application response

times are the top three indicators that organizations are using when

evaluating the quality of managed network services.

The report shows that Best-in-Class organizations reported an 88% average

increase in application availability, a 30% average cost savings and all

improved application response times for business critical applications by

using managed network services.

“Aberdeen’s research shows that even though organizations are able to

achieve strong benefits from outsourcing network management to a third

party, almost a half of these organizations are not fully satisfied with

the quality of service that they are receiving,” said Bojan Simic, research

analyst, Aberdeen. “This is mostly due to the fact that organizational

goals for network management are rapidly changing and organizations are

expecting more than cost savings and network up-time, but are still

struggling to adjust SLAs to help them achieve these newly expanded goals.”

Ninety-four percent of Best-in-Class organizations are reporting that they

are satisfied with managed network services that they are using, which is

mostly due to the fact that these organizations have deployed a mix of

solutions that allow them to monitor, analyze and optimize network and

application performance.

Aberdeen’s research reveals that Best-in-Class organizations are two times

more likely to have services and tools for WAN acceleration as compared to

all others. The research also shows that Best-in-Class are 65% more likely

to use an integrated portal for visibility into all network services as

compared to Laggards. This contributed to Best-in-Class being four times

more likely to report an improvement in the level of SLA achievements as

compared to Laggards.

In this report, Aberdeen used three key performance criteria to distinguish

the Best-in-Class from Industry Average and Laggard organizations:

application availability, Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) issues with network

performance and application response times.

This report is derived from insights provided by 143 end-user organizations

worldwide. Findings of this report should serve as guidelines to other

end-user organizations that are looking to outsource network management to

third party service providers for enabling a seamless access to corporate

data while reducing operational cost and improving network up-time.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the

following underwriters: Nortel and Virtela Communications. To obtain a

complimentary copy of the report, visit:

http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4886

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 AberdeenGroup, 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