Microsoft Corporation
Company: Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA
Company Description: Microsoft was founded in 1975 with the vision of putting a personal computer on every desktop. Now, 30 years later, this vision is a reality. Microsoft makes business productivity and platform software, consumer software, Internet browsers and portals, and hardware, including keyboards, mice, mobile devices, and gaming platforms.
Nomination Category: Team Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Marketing Team
Nomination Title: Microsoft Corporate Market Research Team
1. Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
Many companies spend money on research, but find it challenging to figure out how to make that research actionable. Ideally, it inspires product groups to make real changes, but more often than not is ignored or poorly distributed. In contrast, the Corporate Marketing & Research Insight Group (CMRI) at Microsoft has a real impact on product development—it delivers information that inspires action. CMRI helps managers at all levels make research-based business decisions.
The clearest actionable data is voice of the customer research. CMRI conducts a semi-annual customer satisfaction study, which covers 14 audiences and 37 subsidiaries, and maps to every major business initiative (security, image, support, product, support, communications, licensing, etc.). It assesses the health of Microsoft’s relationships with its customers and partners.
Last year, CMRI quantified for the Licensing team that doing business with Microsoft was difficult by transforming 37,000 customer comments into an actionable set of recommendations and presenting it, along with the results of its satisfaction research, to a group of key stakeholders from the Licensing team. After a passionate discussion, the group brainstormed solutions to the customer satisfaction issues and decided to offer a self-service licensing configuration tool on Microsoft.com.
Following the meeting with CMRI, the Licensing team took action. It built and released the Microsoft Product Licensing Advisor. This wizard-driven tool provides advice to help customers better understand product, licensing, and pricing options. It also integrates with phone support to further assist with difficult scenarios and questions.
It’s rare for corporate research to appear in the mainstream press, but CNET reported on the release of the Licensing Advisor, which directly resulted from CMRI’s research insights. CNET noted, “The product is aimed for corporate customers who acquire Microsoft software through volume contracts. It presents customers with a list of questions to help make licensing decisions and can produce a report with an estimated price. A more full-featured edition of the tool is scheduled for release in the spring of 2006.”
This is a great example of CMRI’s excellence in market research positively affecting the relationship between Microsoft and its customers and partners.
CMRI also released the Dashboard in October, 2005. This online tool gives Microsoft’s 60,000+ employees easy and quick access via Intranet to customer satisfaction research data, so they can better understand customer needs/pains/opinions across product lines and make better product decisions. The Dashboard lets users make in-depth or ad hoc queries, customize their views of the data, look up customer verbatims, and compare different metrics (e.g., by region, audience, year, etc.). Built using off-the-shelf software and a familiar SharePoint front end, the Dashboard has enabled employees to make research-based business decisions.
The results from this tool are excellent. CMRI’s research managers now spend 40% less time answering questions and running specialized queries for other employees. Business groups are now able to obtain a clear picture of key satisfaction areas, customer needs and opinions, and causes of dissatisfaction. This has resulted in customer satisfaction improvements in products and services.
2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+releases+volume+license+tool/2110-
1012_3-5953297.html?tag=html.alert
http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/mplahome.mspx
3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:
Christopher Frank, the Director of the Corporate Research Team, has been at Microsoft for 7 years. As the Director, Chris leads a team that informs worldwide initiatives, including satisfaction, brand, naming, and communications research. Prior to joining Microsoft, Chris served as a consultant in the technology and consumer practices of Accenture and as the Associate Director at FIND/SVP. As a recipient of the Wall Street Journal Achievement Award, he has been recognized for his entrepreneurial drive. He holds a Master's in Technology Management and a Bachelor of Science from Stevens Institute of Technology.