REDMOND, Wash. — Jan. 9, 2013 — Tesco, one of the world’s leading retailers, has chosen Microsoft Office 365 for its companywide collaboration and social platform. The U.K.-based retailer is committed to deploying Office 365 to its employees working at the company’s headquarters, in the field and in stores, across all its locations in Europe and Asia.

“We want to put technology in the hands of all our colleagues, whether in the store, distribution center or office, so they can create value for our customers,” said Mike McNamara, chief information officer, Tesco. “We see Office 365 as an important solution to help us continue to meet that goal.”

Office 365 enables a search functionality that quickly delivers access to experts, information and tools to help employees do their jobs, and it allows people to work more effectively together, regardless of geographic location. It also permits information to flow in a way that supports efficient decision-making by bringing relevant information directly to the user.

One of the challenges businesses face when they experience global growth is that it becomes difficult for staff to work together as a team, share knowledge, find the right person or answer, and consume increasingly unstructured information without feeling overwhelmed and disconnected from the organization as a whole.

“Office 365 will serve as the portal for all Tesco employees, suppliers and colleagues, encouraging a cultural shift to more flexible ways of working,” McNamara said. “This will allow our colleagues to engage with each other and deliver a great shopping experience on any channel, as well as encouraging colleagues to share, re-use, and reward ideas and expertise.”

Tesco also sought to put in place an internal collaboration platform that was more than just a repository for documents. Instead, the company wanted to find better ways of communicating ideas and news to its multinational workforce.

“Office 365 will enable us to be a fully connected organization that works closely together, proactively shares knowledge, motivates loyalty and retention of employees, and encourages better working practices to ensure that we create value for customers,” McNamara said.

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available in 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.

CES -- NVIDIA today announced that Audi's newest auto-infotainment system featuring NVIDIA® Tegra® technology will be rolled out globally in select vehicles this year.

We've finished the schedule for FOSDEM PGDay 2013 and PostgreSQL Developer Room at FOSDEM in Brussels in February, and published it at

http://fosdem2013.pgconf.eu/schedule/

http://fosdem2013.pgconf.eu/m/ (mobile version)

Of course, a schedule is never truly finished - we will update it if necessary as we get closer to the conference.

We have many great talks from well known speakers in the PostgreSQL community such as Heikki Linnakangas, Devrim Gunduz and Dimitri Fontaine, as well as a number of new speakers.

Please register as soon as possible for the FOSDEM PGDay 2013 on Friday at:

http://fosdem2013.pgconf.eu/registration/

We have only a limited number of seats on Friday. No registration is required for the PostgreSQL Developer Room at FOSDEM on Sunday. Just walk in and enjoy great talks.

We hope to see you all in Brussels next month!

REDMOND, Wash. — Jan . 8 , 201 3 — Scandinavian outdoor brand, Helly Hansen, best known for apparel that is the optimal combination of purposeful design, protection and style, has chosen Microsoft Office 365 as its communication and social platform. A globally recognized brand, Helly Hansen sells its products on five continents. In addition, Helly Hansen operates 39 retail outlets in Europe and North America. The company is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, and its 350 full-time employees collaborate across offices in Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, China, Canada and the United States.

As the retail industry evolves, the need to stay up to date and maintain a competitive edge is a matter of brand survival. Before Helly Hansen moved to Office 365, email, conferencing and phone systems were separate silos, and these systems were outdated and unreliable. Employees consistently felt the pain when trying to make conference and video calls, share large files, or communicate with an increasing workforce spread across countries and time zones. To stay at the top of its game, Helly Hansen knew it needed to help its teams work together and connect with one another at a moment’s notice.

“There was no instant messaging and no simple conferencing solutions. Several of our stores weren’t able to receive local phone service and depended on mobile phones for communications,” said Sandy Abrahams, IT director, Helly Hansen. “We weren’t connected to one another allowing us to make timely decisions and move our business forward.”

Almost immediately, Helly Hansen started seeing results. Employees were enjoying fast and familiar email, with enough storage so they no longer had to spend time managing the size of their mailboxes. Employees were able to share information easily with SharePoint Online team sites or Lync Online instant messaging and videoconferencing. The added flexibility provided by the Office 365 solutions now allows employees in Oslo to compare design samples with Hong Kong, and retail stores can provide headquarters feedback on visual displays via videoconference.

“For the IT team, which is spread over five countries, being able to have all of our meetings online has been an amazing transformation,” Abrahams said. “Now that we can see each other and share our desktops, we can lead more productive meetings and benefit from closer relationships.”

Now all managers are using Lync to help reduce their travel schedules and budgets. Helly Hansen expects travel costs will be reduced by 10 to 15 percent in 2013. With Office 365, Helly Hansen expects to cut costs while providing a connected experience that shifts the way employees think about connecting with one another.

To try Office 365 for yourself, visit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/what-is-office365.aspx. 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.

CES -- Six leading international cloud-gaming companies plan to use the NVIDIA® GRID™ Cloud Gaming Platform to deliver gaming services to global broadband companies, NVIDIA announced today.

CES -- NVIDIA today introduced NVIDIA® Tegra® 4, the world's fastest mobile processor, with record-setting performance and battery life to flawlessly power smartphones and tablets, gaming devices, auto infotainment and navigation systems, and PCs.

CES -- NVIDIA today announced Project SHIELD, a gaming portable for open platforms, designed for gamers who yearn to play when, where and how they want.

REDMOND , Wash. — Jan . 7 , 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the double-digit engagement results of the first NUads experience, interactive polling, which it rolled out earlier in the fall of 2012 on Xbox LIVE in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The first wave of NUads was provided by a lineup of top advertisers, including SUBWAY® Restaurants and Toyota, which on average saw the following results with their ads on Xbox LIVE:

• Thirty-seven percent of viewers engaged with NUads when prompted with the option to vote.
  

• Out of which seventy-one percent voted in the poll.
  

• Ninety-seven percent of those participants saw their vote included in the final tally of votes from the consumers who responded.(1)
  

“When we launched NUads, we redefined the 30-second spot,” said Ross Honey, general manager of Xbox LIVE Entertainment and Advertising. “These results show that NUads is a real breakthrough in TV advertising, and you can expect more investment from us when it comes to this new ad format and video advertising in general.”

Although TV has evolved over time, the traditional 30-second TV spot has largely stayed the same since the 1930s. NUads transforms TV advertising, delivering what is most scarce to advertisers today — consumer engagement.

This new ad format was built with the consumer and advertiser in mind. For consumers, through the power of Kinect for Xbox 360, NUads enable natural interactivity using the simplicity of a spoken word or the wave of a hand. For advertisers, implementation is easy. All they need is a standard TV spot, a question in mind and a few creative responses, and they can reach active Xbox LIVE members with their message in participating markets. In addition, the aggregated poll results provide insights that can help inform future product developments or ad campaigns.

As part of the initial group of NUads advertisers SUBWAY® Restaurants and Toyota had this to say about the results:

“Consumers want a relevant and engaging experience when watching TV,” said Dionne Colvin, national media manager, Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. “NUads was a new format for our advertising, but we saw an opportunity to try something new, and the results exceeded our expectations.”

“We’re thrilled with the results of our first NUads experience,” said Kathleen Bell, director of Marketing, SUBWAY® Restaurants in Canada. “We’re always looking for new ways to engage with our fans and deliver a customized experience to them. Taking part in this exciting program has given us the ability to further target our audience and get real-time feedback from them through a new and interactive platform.”

More information about how to advertise on Xbox LIVE is available at http://advertising.microsoft.com/gaming/xbox-live.

About Xbox

Xbox is Microsoft’s premier entertainment service for the TV, phone, PC and tablet. It’s home to the best and broadest games, as well as one of the world’s largest libraries of music, movies, TV and sports. With Kinect, Xbox 360 transformed gaming and entertainment in the living room with a whole new way to play games and find entertainment — no controller required. More information about Xbox can be found online at http://www.xbox.com.

About Microsoft

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

(1) Results based on average of campaigns that ran during beta period of Sept. 1–Nov. 15, 2012, Microsoft Internal Research

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.