dunnhumby Launches Model Lab on Azure

Tesco-owned customer data firm dunnhumby has launched a web-based app called the Model Lab on Microsoft's cloud platform Azure, in a move to enable data scientists to deliver customer insights faster.

dunnhumby analyses more than 395 million shopper baskets and nine billion data records every week, helping thousands of brands and suppliers in the grocery and drug sectors to understand how each of their individual products is performing with different types of shoppers. Earlier this year, the firm moved its customer insights products across to Microsoft Azure, in order to give more retailers and suppliers instant access to shopper and business insights.

The firm's new Model Lab is designed to solve retail challenges, such as understanding customer churn and predicting propensity to purchase, and in what channel - instore versus online. It automates data scientists' repetitive, time-consuming tasks, using machine learning technology to reduce run time and allow data scientists to explore algorithms. In addition, according to the firm, the Azure-based service gives users the benefit of always working with the latest software, with no need to worry about updates.

Kyle Fugere (pictured), Head of Innovation and Ventures, comments: 'dunnhumby Model Lab already empowers dunnhumby's data scientists, and it has been integral in enabling them to create millions of models for retailers and brands around the world rapidly and efficiently. We are democratizing customer data science for everyone and making Model Lab available on Microsoft Azure means that it is now accessible for retailers, brands, and businesses, large and small'.

Web site: www.dunnhumby.com .