BOSTON, MA--(MARKET WIRE)--Nov 18, 2008 -- Chief Procurement Officers and other executives from across the globe convened last week in San Francisco for the 4th Annual Chief Procurement Officer's Summit to discuss the Best-in-Class strategies that will drive procurement organizations and their leaders (Chief Procurement Officers) to new performance heights in 2009. Hosted by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE:HHS - News), in partnership with CPO Agenda, Supply and Demand Chain Magazine, and Enterprise Technology Management, the CPO Summit has become the global meeting place for procurement professionals eager to discuss strategy and learn first hand about methods that can transform their procurement operations and drive strategic value across the enterprise.

"The CPO Summit is designed to deliver thought-provoking content from leading industry executives and analysts, heighten the awareness of the pressing challenges facing today's CPO, and provide a world-class roster of procurement decision-makers the opportunity to learn and network in an intimate setting," said Andrew Bartolini, Vice President, Global Supply Management research, Aberdeen. "We'd like to thank the speakers, sponsors, partners, and attendees who helped make this year's summit our most successful one yet."

Thought Leadership

A series of executive-level presentations designed around the summit theme of "CPO Rising" were delivered during the one and a half day conference by a broad range of procurement leaders including:

 
--  Jean-Jacques Beaussart, CPO, National City
--  Farley Blackman, Vice President - Sustainable Cost Management, BP plc
--  Ron Carcamo, CPO, Yahoo!
--  Peter Connelly, CPO, Leggett & Platt
--  Olivier Dumas, SVP & CPO, EADS Defense and Security
--  Kirk Eberhart, Director of Purchasing, TMK-IPSCO
--  Linda Fusinati, Sr. Category Manager, Chevron
--  Geraint John, Editor-in-Chief, CPO Agenda
--  General William "Gus" Pagonis, Retired US Army General, Business
    Leadership Author, Lecturer, and World Renowned Supply Chain Expert
--  Mitch Plaat, CPO, Con-way
--  Jim Polak, Director, Purchasing PPG Industries
--  Scott Singer, Global Head of Procurement (CPO), Rio Tinto
--  Ken Syme, CPO, Xerox
--  Greg Tennyson, CPO, Salesforce.com
--  Russell Toney, General Manager, Global Sourcing, General Electric Co,
    Energy Services

A comprehensive look at the complete response base from the on site research will be reviewed on Thursday, December 11, 2008, at the "Voice of the CPO" webinar: research findings from the 2008 CPO Summit. To register for this free Webinar, please visit: https://e-meetings.verizonbusiness.com/emeet/rsvp/index.jsp?Conference_ID=1871674&pas scode=9776034

CONFERENCE NUMBER: 1871674 PASSCODE: 9776034

One participant had this to say about this year's conference: "This was my first time attending the CPO Summit. The speakers were very interesting and the content appropriate to our current business & financial environment. The perspectives that we heard were extremely diverse and unique. I was really pleased with the conference." - Tom Cichon, Assistant Vice President, Senior Director - Strategic Sourcing, Cigna.

2008 Aberdeen Achievement Awards

During the proceedings, Aberdeen presented five industry achievement awards for excellence in global supply management. The winners were drawn from a research pool of thousands of enterprises who participated in Aberdeen's Global Supply Management research efforts over the past twelve months. The winners are:

 
  (1)  JC Penney -- Innovation in Technology Award Winner -- granted to the
       enterprise that has maximized leveraged technology solutions to
       solve pressing business issues to positively impact company
       performance. The acknowledgement for the award goes to Bruce
       Kilkowski, Vice President of Strategic Sourcing.

  (2)  Verizon Service Corporation -- Process Excellence Award Winner --
       granted to the enterprise that has demonstrated process ingenuity,
       agility, flexibility and scalability to address evolving business
       requirements. Jim Gowen, Executive Director of Supply Chain
       Services, came up to retrieve the award for his organization and had
       this to say about the recognition: "Transformation has been our
       organization's primary objective over the past three years -- with a
       focus on leveraging our economies of scale to reduce operating
       costs, driving speed to market to serve our customers more
       efficiently and effectively, and overall enabling Verizon to be more
       competitive to drive greater shareholder value.  This award is a
       great honor in that it verifies we have been doing the right things
       and that our team is delivering best-in-class results. We are very
       proud of this recognition."

  (3)  Air Transat -- Business Evolution Award Winner -- granted to the
       enterprise that has demonstrated the ability to manage the flow of
       information across internal and external functional practices to
       achieve demonstrable business growth. Jean Cloutier, Sr. Director of
       Procurement graciously accepted the award on behalf of his
       colleagues at Air Transat.

  (4)  Con-way -- Executive Stewardship Award Winner -- granted to the
       enterprise that has overcome tremendous obstacles and achieved new
       performance heights as a result of direct involvement and leadership
       from exceptional executive management. Mitch Plaat, Vice President
       of Procurement accepted the award on behalf of Con-way.

  (5)  Cisco -- Performance Excellence Award Winner -- granted to the
       enterprise that has harnessed the performance impacts of value chain
       activities and mastered methodologies for financial, operational,
       and customer-centric performance excellence. The acknowledgement for
       the award goes to Lesley Gath, Vice President of Procurement

"Aberdeen is pleased to recognize the 2008 winners for their outstanding efforts and extraordinary results in achieving Best-in-Class performance," said Andrew Bartolini, Vice President, Global Supply Management research, Aberdeen.

Global Supply Management Research Looks Ahead to 2009

Aberdeen's industry-leading Global Supply Management practice focuses its research on the strategies, processes, and technologies that enable sourcing, procurement, finance, and supply management organizations achieve best-in-class performance. Research coverage includes: strategic sourcing, contact lifecycle management, procurement, e-payables, commercial cards and complex category management (including contract labor, travel & entertainment, print, and real estate and facilities). To view Aberdeen's complimentary GSM research Library, please visit http://research.aberdeen.com/index.php/Global-Supply-Management/

Summit Sponsors

Aberdeen acknowledges and appreciates the support of the 2008 CPO Summit sponsoring companies: American Express, Softtek, GT Nexus, ApexAnalytix, SAP, Genpact, Bank of Montreal, VISA Commercial, ICG Commerce, Infosys and Beeline.

"Voice of the CPO" Webinar - December 11

A summary of the CPO Summit proceedings, which will include the key findings from the onsite research conducted at the conference, will be presented on Thursday, December 11, 2008. To register for this free Webinar, please visit: https://e-meetings.verizonbusiness.com/emeet/rsvp/index.jsp?Conference_ID=1871674&pas scode=9776034

CONFERENCE NUMBER: 1871674 PASSCODE: 9776034

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen Group 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. 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 Aberdeen Group, 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:
     Andrew Bartolini
     Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
     (617) 854-5310
     andrew.bartolini@aberdeen.com