REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 13, 2012 — Harnessing the power of Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW) and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 business intelligence tools, CROSSMARK, a leading provider of sales and marketing services, recently launched a new self-service data portal that delivers actionable, real-time business insights to its manufacturer and retailer clients in the consumer goods industry. The portal provides sales and marketing channels with quick access to real-time market data, allowing them to analyze and capitalize on market trends quicker than before and make informed decisions about their retail growth strategies.

“As the consumer goods industry has grown, so have the ways to measure the effectiveness of sales and marketing campaigns, creating large, complex datasets that are hard to derive meaning from without the right tools,” said Jim Norred, executive vice president and chief information officer at CROSSMARK. “By extending our current SQL Server 2012 business intelligence implementation to include SQL Server PDW, we’ve enhanced our self-service data portal to accommodate these large data sets, as well as daily point-of-sale data, which provides on-demand results from our clients’ sales and marketing efforts.”

For CROSSMARK, one of the most critical needs behind implementing SQL Server PDW was scalability. Last year alone, the company’s 34,000 associates supported 26 million in-store activities for its consumer goods clients — including many of the world’s biggest brands — across more than 550,000 retail outlets in five countries. Such massive sales and marketing campaigns generate enormous amounts of point-of-sale (POS) data, ripe with extremely valuable insights into shopper-buying behaviors.

“The fast, on-demand data access that SQL Server PDW provides through our self-service portal will give our clients tremendous opportunities to leverage shopper insights into their strategic planning and tactical operations,” Norred said. “Using that data, they’re able to quickly adjust any number of variable factors associated with their sales strategy, such as pricing, promotion or placement, which can dramatically boost sales and profitability.”

In conjunction with its SQL Server PDW deployment, CROSSMARK also will implement a full business intelligence solution using Microsoft Corp.’s industry-leading analytics suite of solutions in SQL Server 2012 and SharePoint Server. SQL Server 2012 Power View and PowerPivot will provide scorecards and other data-rich visualizations, such as interactive dashboards, as well as powerful ad-hoc analytics.

Norred said the combination of SQL Server PDW and Microsoft’s business intelligence tools will eliminate a bottleneck caused by its legacy platform of data reporting, which wasn’t scalable. The new infrastructure elements will help CROSSMARK redeploy employees in more client-focused efforts, helping the company better support its customers and increase client satisfaction.

“Although we do want to strengthen our leadership position as a sales and marketing services provider in the consumer goods industry, we ultimately want to be able to better help our manufacturer and retailer clients extend their market leadership. Our vision is to provide manufacturers and retailers with technology solutions that drive growth and efficiencies in their businesses, and that is exactly why we collaborated with Microsoft on this solution,” Norred said.

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Nov . 12 , 2012 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Windows and Windows Live President Steven Sinofsky will be leaving the company and that Julie Larson-Green will be promoted to lead all Windows software and hardware engineering. Tami Reller retains her roles as chief financial officer and chief marketing officer and will assume responsibility for the business of Windows. Both executives will report directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

These changes are effective immediately.

“I am grateful for the many years of work that Steven has contributed to the company,” Ballmer said. “The products and services we have delivered to the market in the past few months mark the launch of a new era at Microsoft. We’ve built an incredible foundation with new releases of Microsoft Office, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Microsoft Surface, Windows Server 2012 and ‘Halo 4,’ and great integration of services such as Bing, Skype and Xbox across all our products. To continue this success it is imperative that we continue to drive alignment across all Microsoft teams, and have more integrated and rapid development cycles for our offerings.”

Julie Larson-Green

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“It is impossible to count the blessings I have received over my years at Microsoft. I am humbled by the professionalism and generosity of everyone I have had the good fortune to work with at this awesome company,” Sinofsky said.

Since 1993, Larson-Green has worked on and led some of the most successful products for Microsoft, including the user experiences for early versions of Internet Explorer, and helped drive the thinking behind the refresh of the user experience for Microsoft Office. For Windows 7 and Windows 8 she was responsible for program management, user interface design and research, as well as development of all international releases. She has a master's degree in software engineering from Seattle University and a bachelor's degree in business administration from Western Washington University. In her new role she will be responsible for all future Windows product development in addition to future hardware opportunities.

Tami Reller

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“Leading Windows engineering is an incredible challenge and opportunity, and as I looked at the technical and business skills required to continue our Windows trajectory — great communication skills, a proven ability to work across product groups, strong design, deep technical expertise, and a history of anticipating and meeting customer needs — it was clear to me that Julie is the best possible person for this job, and I’m excited to have her in this role,” Ballmer said.

Reller joined Windows in 2007 from the Microsoft Dynamics Division where she held a number of leadership positions. She began her career in technology at Great Plains Software in 1984 while still in college, and was the company’s chief financial officer at the time the company was acquired by Microsoft in 2001. She has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Minnesota State University Moorhead and an MBA from St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif. In her expanded role she will assume the lead in driving business and marketing strategy for Windows devices, including Surface and partner devices, in addition to her current marketing and finance responsibilities.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

For more information, press only:

Rapid Response Team, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, (503) 443-7070, rrt@waggeneredstrom.com

SC12 -- NVIDIA today unveiled the NVIDIA® Tesla® K20 family of GPU accelerators, the highest performance, most efficient accelerators ever built, and the technology powering Titan, the world's fastest supercomputer according to the TOP500 list released this morning at the SC12 supercomputing conference.

SC12 --NVIDIA today announced that 70 more widely used applications have added support for GPU acceleration so far this year, bringing the total number available to researchers, engineers and designers to more than 200.

LAS VEGAS — Nov. 12, 2012 — Today, at SharePoint Conference 2012, Microsoft Corp. demonstrated an exciting array of new product enhancements in SharePoint 2013 and highlighted significant investments in social, cloud and mobile capabilities.

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