Charlotte, NC – October 3, 2008 – E-procurement initiatives continue to be a primary focus within procurement departments. Reducing requisition-to-pay transaction costs while improving compliance with existing contracts and processes are among the top pressures behind e-procurement initiatives.

Top Drivers of E-Procurement Initiatives

AberdeenGroup’s “E-Procurement Benchmark Report” evaluates the strategies, capabilities and procurement performance of over 400 enterprises illustrating the success that come from leveraging e-procurement technology.

According to AberdeenGroup’s research, e-procurement technology has helped best-in-class enterprises:

• Achieve 75% lower requisition-to-order cycle times

• Place 88% of spend under management, which is twice that placed by all other enterprises

• Experience 31% less maverick spending than other organizations

The research further revealed that e-procurement end-users are relying on this technology more often with each passing year.

Based on the research, in order to achieve best-in-class performance, it is suggested that enterprises:

• Leverage e-procurement solutions for complex spend categories such as T&E, contract labor, print and real estate

• Conduct periodic benchmarking of key procurement metrics against competitors in their industry

“Our customers validate AberdeenGroup’s research efforts,” said Verian Technologies CEO Tehseen Ali.” “The organizations we work with have seen dramatic improvement in procurement effectiveness since adopting Verian’s e-procurement solution.”

A complimentary copy of this report is available at

http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5152.

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For more information, contact:
Anita Tauber, Marketing Programs Manager
atauber@verian.com
1-704-602-3372

About Verian Technologies
Verian Technologies helps mid- and large-sized organizations reduce costs and increase efficiency with easy-to-use solutions that automate procurement, invoice processing, employee reimbursements and asset management – capturing all expense data in a single database for analysis. Verian was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Charlotte, NC. The company’s clients represent industries such as oil & gas, banking, insurance, healthcare, industrial services, construction, retail and the public sector. Clients include Recreational Equipment Inc (REI), Boeing, Allstate Insurance Company of Canada and GNC Corp. For more information on Verian Technologies, visit http://www.verian.com.

About AberdeenGroup, 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 AberdeenTM 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.