NEW YORK and REDMOND, Wash., Nov.
13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) and
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) today released details around a newly
developed, enterprise data solution that democratizes one of the
largest consumer data sets in the world. This strategic alliance
has been brought to life through Nielsen Connect, powered by
Microsoft Azure, the trusted and global-scale intelligent cloud
platform.
In today's rapidly changing marketplace, Microsoft and Nielsen
are together focused on helping fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG)
and retail companies find growth and accelerate innovation within
an open data environment.
Already, Nielsen Connect is inspiring companies to glean more
value from their data and sparking a movement for the industry to
reimagine its approach to data strategy. Through advanced analytics
and artificial intelligence services built on Azure, Nielsen
Connect is helping companies integrate data assets to more easily
spot emerging trends, diagnose performance gaps, and act faster on
opportunities to grow. Most notably, this platform enables clients
to use their data as an enterprise asset across all parts of their
organization.
"Nielsen's powerful data is as much of an enterprise asset as
people and products," said John
Tavolieri, President, U.S. FMCG and Retail and Chief
Technology and Operations Officer at Nielsen. "It's our priority to
make sure clients are maximizing their data assets, so Nielsen and
Microsoft are breaking down the silos of the status quo. We are
helping the retail industry reimagine its approach to data by
creating a truly open and global environment of collaboration,
encouraging companies to evolve beyond mere data management.
Adopting a holistic data strategy will be the only way to win in
FMCG and retail."
"The first critical step toward digital transformation,
especially among retailers, is breaking down the barriers between
customer and operational data to fuel insights for the business,"
said Judson Althoff, executive vice
president of Microsoft's Worldwide Commercial Business. "Because
retail happens wherever customers are and whenever they choose,
Nielsen Connect provides high reliability at a global scale 24/7.
Microsoft is a natural partner for Nielsen, trusted by global
enterprises to protect their data and power their critical business
solutions."
Grounded by the richest data available in the FMCG space,
Nielsen Connect brings clarity to what's happening in the market
from every angle. Nielsen's deep media and consumer measurement
(including retail point-of-sale data, consumer panel, e-commerce,
fresh food and cross-platform media data), is integrated with a
robust variety of data sources, including data provided directly
from clients as well as from Nielsen Connect Partners. Nielsen's
reference data, which provides structure to the world's most robust
retail and shopper information, powers this system to make
integration across data sources and countries simple. Within this
open and agile platform running on Microsoft Azure, customers can
easily access data sets via APIs and connectors, allowing them to
extract the data they need to fit their own technology
strategy.
The joint Microsoft and Nielsen solution is live today and will
serve as a one-stop-shop in creating scalable, high-performance
data environments that enable greater real-time collaboration for
faster results. Through this strategic alliance, the two companies
will continue to work toward a mutual vision of an open and
connected data universe, empowering a new generation of solutions
for the FMCG retail marketplace.
ABOUT MICROSOFT
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital
transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an
intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more.
ABOUT NIELSEN
Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global measurement and
data analytics company that provides the most complete and trusted
view available of consumers and markets worldwide. Our approach
marries proprietary Nielsen data with other data sources to help
clients around the world understand what's happening now, what's
happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge. For more
than 90 years Nielsen has provided data and analytics based on
scientific rigor and innovation, continually developing new ways to
answer the most important questions facing the media, advertising,
retail and fast-moving consumer goods industries. An S&P 500
company, Nielsen has operations in over 100 countries, covering
more than 90% of the world's population. For more information,
visit www.nielsen.com.
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SOURCE Nielsen