The FMCG industry’s first truly open, cloud-based and highly scalable technology platform was unveiled yesterday by Nielsen at their CoNEXTions Conference in Los Angeles.
The Nielsen Connected System is designed with and for decision-makers across FMCG and retail companies to foster collaboration and align organisations to achieve sustained, profitable growth in today’s ever-evolving industries. It encompasses the widest range of data, analytics and role-based applications from Nielsen and a rapidly expanding group of Connected Partners. In today’s challenging marketplace, the Connected System delivers actionable, coordinated decision making, aligning organisations around what’s happening with their business, pinpointing the drivers of performance, and identifying actions to drive growth.
“For more than 90 years, we’ve maintained our position as a global measurement leader by responding to market changes and client challenges with resolve and innovation,” said Steve Hasker, Global President and Chief Operating Officer at Nielsen. “Continuing that tradition, the Nielsen Connected System is the next generation of interconnectivity. This is a direct response to the changes and shifts happening in the FMCG and retail industry. Now more than ever, the industry needs new tools to help align businesses to the right resources to create forward momentum through data fueled decisions and analytics.”
Grounded by the most granular, richest data available in the FMCG space, the Nielsen Connected System will bring clarity to what’s happening in the market from every angle. Nielsen’s deep media and consumer measurement data (inclusive of retail point-of-sale data, consumer panel, e-commerce, fresh food and cross platform media data) is integrated with first- and third-party datasets, including data directly from clients and Nielsen’s Connected Partner Program. Nielsen’s reference data, 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, data sets can be easily accessed via APIs and connectors, allowing clients to extract the data they need to fit their own technology strategy.
Within the Nielsen Connected System, a new class of visual and intuitive applications will also be launched to the marketplace. The Connected System’s Business Intelligence apps, designed for decision makers across a number of functions within the organisation, will help companies diagnose what’s happening and why within their own business. These continuously updated and embedded apps, developed based on user-input to cater to the needs of different roles, will help retailers and manufacturers get a quick and accurate read on the state of the business, align on a common view and foster collaboration for growth.
Additionally, Planning, Simulation and Activation applications are a core component of the Nielsen Connected System to help answer the question, “what’s next?” Across innovation, assortment, price and promotion, media and beyond, Nielsen’s connected applications will help FMCG and retail companies plan, simulate and identify opportunities, business problems and power the right actions and solutions for everyday decisions, and long-term planning.
Hasker said, “The future is here, with the foundations of the Connected System already in practice. Today, Nielsen is powering the ability to spot emerging trends, provide a single view into what’s happening, diagnose performance gaps and act on opportunities to confidently move from what’s happening to why to what’s next. We will continue to build and evolve our system over time and look forward to announcing new features over the next year.”