France
Italy
Netherlands
United Kingdom
United States

GfK Group
MEMRB
Siebel Systems
TNS

In various European countries, Information Resources and GfK have a strategic alliance that complements and enhances the capabilities of each company. While Information Resources' core business is retail sales tracking, GfK specializes in research based on consumer panels (i.e. panels of households that record their daily purchases). In Germany and the Netherlands, GfK is a partner in the Information Resources business, having a minority ownership interest.

GfK was Germany's first market research organization and is now number one in Germany, number four in Europe and is ranked eighth in the world. The head office of the group is located in Nuremberg, Germany and GfK companies carry out consumer panel research in twenty European countries.

Together with TNS, GfK operates Europanel, a service that provides international branded goods manufacturers and retailers with weekly data from ongoing consumer surveys of over 70,000 representative households in more than 30 countries. This information is standardized for all the countries involved. Europanel leverages the consumer skills and expertise of both partner companies.

Information Resources formed a strategic alliance with MEMRB Retail Tracking Services to provide Retail Tracking Services in Central/Eastern Europe the Middle East and North Africa. This alliance includes minority ownership in MEMRB and gives Information Resources a foothold in markets where MEMRB has established offices and expert knowledge of local market conditions. In turn, MEMRB benefits from Information Resources' leading-edge technology and analytical tools capabilities, in order to supply clients with the information and analysis critical to their sales, marketing and supply chain initiatives.

Since 1971, MEMRB has been providing value-added products and services to companies engaged in the marketing, sales and distribution of consumer goods. Today these CPG intelligence tools include: Retail Tracking, Retail Outlet Census, Modeling and Analytics, Software Applications, Space Planning and Category Management consultancy.

MEMRB Retail Tracking Services and Information Resources offer services in the following countries:

For more information on services available in these markets, please see the MEMRB Web site (www.memrb.com) or contact:

Central/Eastern Europe
Daniel Chorbadjian
Tel: +48 22 6353240
dchorbadjian@memrb.com.pl

Middle East
Michael Elam-Rye
Tel: +35722 866311
melamrye@memrb.com.cy

MEMRB, MEMRB House, 21 Academias Avenue, Nicosia, Cyprus
Tel: +35722 866302
Fax: +35722 337306

More than ever, consumer goods companies are seeking to successfully manage relationships across all customer touch points via a comprehensive solution. Recognizing this, IRI formed a global alliance with Siebel Systems to help sales and marketing end users realize long-awaited productivity gains through the integration of IRI's decision-ready information and analytics with Siebel's powerful eBusiness applications.

Siebel Systems, Inc. is the world's leading provider of eBusiness applications software. Siebel Systems provides an integrated family of eBusiness applications software, enabling multichannel sales, marketing, and customer service systems to be deployed over the Web, call centers, field, reseller channels, retail, and dealer networks. Siebel Systems' sales and service facilities are located in more than 37 countries.

IRI and Siebel Systems formed this alliance to integrate IRI's business intelligence data and applications with Siebel Systems' customer-centric eBusiness applications for the consumer goods industry. The integration enables clients to directly access IRI's in-depth consumer goods market data-covering daily UPC scanner transactions from more than 30,000 U.S. retail outlets. The joint solution allows clients to easily access and interpret comprehensive, industry-specific data within Siebel Systems' solution, enabling increased responsiveness to market trends and faster decision-making.

A strategic alliance between Information Resources and TNS enables retail tracking information to be coordinated with consumer panel findings in many countries. This co-operation allows the two companies to create integrated databases and perform joint analyses and presentations which provide optimum insights for their clients.

TNS is one of the world's leading research groups with offices in 150 cities in 80 countries around the world. The company specializes in consumer based research. Consumer panels (very large panels of households that record their daily purchases) track consumer purchasing and usage of a wide range of goods, while customized groups undertake specific projects such as brand testing, advertising evaluation, packaging research and taste testing.

Together with the GfK group, TNS also operates Europanel, a service that provides international branded goods manufacturers and retailers with weekly data from ongoing consumer surveys of over 70,000 representative households in more than 30 countries. This information is standardized for all the countries involved. Europanel leverages the consumer skills and expertise of both partner companies.