ACNielsen India Invests $2.5m in Handheld Terminals

ACNielsen is to provide its 750-strong MR field force in India with handheld terminals for data collection, representing an investment of INR 100 million ($2.5m). The company hopes the time saved collecting and processing data will speed up the delivery of market information from sixteen days to nine.

The hand-held terminals are personal digital assistants (PDAs) that contain software to help capture retail sales data and information. Until now, all such information has been captured on paper. Data from the 750 terminals will be transmitted from more than 200 locations to the company's processing hub at Baroda.

According to Sujit Das Munshi, Executive Director for Retail Measurement Services at ACNielsen South Asia, the terminals have built-in error-checking mechanisms: 'This is especially important when the information pertains to 150 varied product categories and 17,500 brands from 50,000+ shop shelves across the country.'

The implementation of the new technology marks the culmination of a two-year long plan, which has entailed training of the company's country-wide field force. Partha Rakshit, MD of ACNielsen South Asia, describes it as 'the single largest technological investment since the inception of market research in India with the launch of Operations Research Group in 1961'.

The company is online at www.acnielsen.com.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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