Indiantelevision.com Team

(13 September 2007 2:30 pm)

MUMBAI: TNS has acquired 15 per cent strategic stake in Eye Square, the Berlin-based usability research company.

Through this association, TNS will promote Eye Square solutions through its global network, while Eye Square will support servicing of TNS clients.

TNS has made this investment to help meet the fast-growing demand for usability advice and consultancy. TNS will integrate Eye Square solutions into TNS's Areas of Expertise to help address the business development and marketing needs of TNS clients, states an official release.

"Usability is a key discipline in market research and is seeing growing demand in the United States and a number of European countries," said TNS Global Interactive managing director Arno Hummerston.

"We want to position ourselves so that we benefit from that demand. We believe Eye Square's solutions and expertise provide exciting opportunities for a wide range of TNS clients worldwide because it is a tool that is all about delivering business insights. Our stake in Eye Square gives us immediate and significant opportunities to bring new value to our clients. We look forward to helping our clients benefit from the know-how of this innovative and successful business."

Usability can also be deployed in product development as well as evaluation of print and TV advertising. Eye Square's strong capabilities in all these fields complement many parts of TNS's operations.

Eye Square specializes in web, product, advertisement and shop usability. It uses its core visualizer technology for in-depth and complete analysis of mouse movements, mouse clicks and eye tracking data. The company was founded in 1999 and has built a client base drawn from a wide variety of industries, including Deutsche Bank, eBay, Yahoo!, Ford, P&G, Deutsche Telekom, Bosch Siemens, LG Electronics, OSRAM, Henkel, Nissan, Amway, Lastminute.com.

The business is run by two managing partners - Sabrina Duda, an expert in the fields of usability research, software ergonomics and human-computer interaction; and Michael Schiessl, an expert in the areas of attitude measurement, branding research and ad-effectiveness research.

Michael Schiessl said, "Investment in usability has many applications - including increased user satisfaction, reduced support costs, reduced training time and costs for new users, stronger customer loyalty, and lower development costs. We look forward to working with TNS to take our expertise across their global network."