BOSTON, MA--(MARKET WIRE)--Aug 26, 2008 -- "Application Performance Management: The Lifecycle Approach Brings IT and Business Together," a new benchmark report by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (HHS - News), found that application performance issues are impacting overall corporate revenues by up to 9%. Additionally, end-user organizations reported that these issues are impacting some of the key business goals such as employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, brand recognition and employee productivity. The report also reveals that 58% of organizations surveyed are unsatisfied with the performance of applications currently in use. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30410182&cid=4906.

"A proactive approach to managing application performance is no longer optional," comments Bojan Simic, research analyst, Aberdeen. "Organizations may ignore their IT departments' discussions on improving application response times, availability, and Mean Time to Repair, but what can no longer be ignored is the impact that application performance has on some of the key business metrics. With organizations reporting that application performance issues could impact corporate revenues by an average of $117 million annually, creating a business case for application performance management projects is no longer a problem just for IT management. Rolling out new applications is the top IT investment for 2008, and issues with the performance of these applications are significantly impacting some of the metrics that CEOs and CFOs care about the most."

The report reveals that Best-in-Class organizations are nearly twice as likely to be "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the performance of business critical applications as compared to Laggards. Additionally, these organizations are five times more likely to report improvements in the quality of the end-user experience as compared to all others.

The report also shows that on an annual basis, Best-in-Class companies spend an average of $96,000 more on application performance management solutions as compared to Laggards while being able to mitigate the risk of losing $117 million annually due to application performance issues. The research findings revealed that what allowed Best-in-Class organizations to outperform the overwhelming majority of their peers was not the selection of a few capabilities that have the strongest impact on application performance, but instead selecting a mix of capabilities that allow organizations to manage the full lifecycle of application performance management. This approach includes the deployment of capabilities for predicting, monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing application performance.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: Fluke Networks, Gomez, INETCO Systems, Mazu Networks, Shunra Software, and Streamcore. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30410182&cid=4906.

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
http://www.aberdeen.com

     Media Contact:
     Bojan Simic
     Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
     (617) 854-5281
     bojan.simic@aberdeen.com