Harte-Hanks Releases Quarterly Technology Purchase Index

SAN DIEGO, CA – Sept. 24, 2012 – Harte-Hanks, Inc. (NYSE:HHS), a worldwide direct and targeted marketing company, has released the September 2012 Technology Purchase Index (TPI), which indicates an overall 4.2% increase in technology purchase intentions in Q2 2012 (April – June 2012) across a broad spectrum of businesses, government and educational institutions in the United States and Canada, as compared to the previous quarter.

"What's significant about this quarter's increase in the TPI is that overall IT purchase intentions have continued to rise despite recent news suggesting a downturn in the technology sector," said Randy Ilas, general manager of Harte-Hanks Market Intelligence. "It seems that although we have seen recent layoffs in top-tier tech companies, many businesses are still aggressively pursuing and purchasing technology."

The 4.2% increase is more than double the 1.9% increase observed in the June 2012 TPI, which measured purchase intentions between January and March 2012. Despite the rise in the first two quarters of 2012, technology purchase intentions are down 0.5% for the same quarter a year ago, Harte-Hanks reported.

Purchase intentions for communications solutions led by voice-over IP and unified communications were up 16.9%, the largest increase of all technology categories tracked by the TPI.
Software and hardware purchase intentions showed moderate increase, 1.1% and 0.7%, respectively.
Planned investments in virtualization solutions (desktop, storage, and server) showed almost no change, continuing a trend of 5 straight quarters of flat or negative growth.

The Technology Purchase Index is released by Harte-Hanks quarterly. The TPI is a relative measure of technology purchase intentions based on surveys of approximately 10,000 technology purchase decision-makers conducted each month by Harte-Hanks. Purchase intentions may be tied to aging equipment, business process improvements, or investments in new business capabilities. As a result, changes in the TPI provide a possible indicator of future purchase levels and overall sector performance.

More information about the Harte-Hanks Technology Purchase Index is available at http://www.citdb.com/TPI/2Q2012.

About Harte-Hanks®

Harte-Hanks is a worldwide direct and targeted marketing company that provides marketing services and shopper advertising opportunities to local, regional, national and international consumer and business-to-business marketers. Visit the Harte-Hanks Web site at http://www.harte-hanks.com or call (800) 456-9748.

The Harte-Hanks Market Intelligence division monitors installed technology and spending plans at business, government and institutional sites in North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Latin America. This technology content is combined with the tracking of IT decision-makers and chief-level executives, allowing its customers to find the right opportunity with the right decision-maker and to act on it efficiently and effectively. Visit http://www.citdb.com/TPI or call (800) 854-8409.

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