Microsoft and NCR Announce Agreement To Bring Integrated Data Warehousing, Electronic Commerce And Highly Available Solutions to the Enterprise
REDMOND, Wash., and DAYTON, Ohio, March 10, 1998 — Microsoft Corp. and NCR Corp. today announced an agreement that will enable businesses to dramatically improve the way they attract and retain customers through integrated data warehousing, electronic commerce, and high-availability technologies and applications.
NCR and Microsoft will focus on delivering highly scalable and available data warehousing solutions, as well as enterprise solutions that leverage and extend the central data warehouse. Based on the tight integration of the NCR Teradata relational database management system with Microsoft® SQL Server
™
technology, the two companies will develop solutions in a wide array of areas, including distributed data marts, Internet commerce, customer relationship management and highly available applications, such as enterprise resource planning and call centers.
This is the first in a series of joint announcements related to the NCR and Microsoft initiative; the companies are expected to unveil the next phase later this year.
To support this initiative, NCR will train and certify an additional 1,000 consultants as Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSEs), bolstering its status as a world-class service provider and Microsoft global Authorized Support Center. The companies will jointly fund and open an Enterprise Solution Center to develop and demonstrate integrated NCR and Microsoft technologies and solutions, and through joint efforts also plan to open 10 new client centers worldwide to showcase customer applications.
The companies will utilize NCR’s expertise in retail, financial and communications industries to co-develop industry electronic-commerce solutions and vertical applications based on Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition, Internet Information Server and other key enterprise products from Microsoft. In addition, the companies will collaborate on industry initiatives – such as Value Chain and ActiveStore
™
retail technology architecture – to deliver integrated, standardized electronic-commerce platforms and solutions.
“Businesses that thrive in the global marketplace are those that clearly understand their customers and can deliver targeted products and services to match their individual preferences,”
said Lars Nyberg, chairman and CEO of NCR.
“By delivering solutions that leverage the data warehouse, NCR and Microsoft will give businesses new and extremely powerful ways to understand and interact with customers.”
“Microsoft and NCR have worked closely on the development of Windows NT® Server since its inception in 1992, and this new agreement takes our relationship to the next level,”
said Bill Gates, chairman and CEO of Microsoft.
“Customers will clearly benefit as we bring to market solutions that leverage NCR’s strong leadership in data warehousing with its Teradata data warehouse engine and Microsoft’s strengths in data marts and enterprise electronic-commerce applications.”
The agreement takes advantage of each company’s core strengths in the enterprise, as well as their strong history in jointly meeting the needs of large organizations. NCR brings expertise in decision support data warehousing: It designed, implemented and supported more than 800 data warehouses worldwide for three-quarters of the world’s top banks, 20 of the world’s leading communications companies, and several of the world’s largest retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Kmart Corp. and Sears, Roebuck and Co. According to IDC, NCR is the worldwide market-share revenue leader in the data warehouse (strategic business analysis) market, with 40.9 percent; NCR also enjoys approximately 33 percent of revenue market share from systems based on the Windows NT Server operating system with values of more than $25,000.
Key objectives of the agreement include the following:
-
Achieving tight interoperability between Microsoft SQL Server and NCR Teradata. The companies plan to make Teradata and Microsoft SQL Server a great combination for enterprise data warehousing and data marts through the design and support of middleware standards that include replication, OLE DB, OLE DB for OLAP and a common metadata repository.
-
Accelerating the port of NCR’s Teradata relational database software to
Windows NT Server. Teradata on Windows NT Server is planned for availability in mid-1998. -
Tightly integrating key Microsoft and NCR technologies for highly scalable, available, manageable Windows NT Server-based environments. The joint NCR and Microsoft
investments will focus on integration of strategic Microsoft products – like Windows NT 5.0, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Windows® Terminal Server, Microsoft Transaction Server, Microsoft Cluster Server and Site Server – into NCR customer solutions.
-
Jointly identifying, integrating and developing applications that surround and enhance the business performance and application of data warehouses, including Internet commerce, customer relationship management, data marts and other enterprise applications. NCR and Microsoft will work to surround large Teradata data warehouses with enterprise-class solutions that take advantage of the Microsoft BackOffice® family of products and NCR’s high-availability computing capabilities.
“The Teradata relational database from NCR has an established, strong position in the enterprise data warehousing market,”
said Jim Ewel, group product manager for Microsoft SQL Server at Microsoft.
“By incorporating Microsoft SQL Server and BackOffice into its total data warehousing and applications solution offering, NCR can offer customers the ability to cost-effectively scale from business unit data marts to the largest data warehouses in the world.”
First-Out Programs to Benefit Enterprise Customers
One of the first offerings expected from the agreement is the NCR Customer Relationship Management (CRM) RightSTART Program. Its purpose is to allow a business to quickly identify and prove the business value of exploiting the data warehouse to realize true Customer Relationship Management. The program is planned for release in the first quarter of 1998.
Using proven methodologies for rapid data warehousing, NCR will work with a customer to quickly create a live application that blends decision support, customer relationship management and electronic commerce processes. The solution will use key products from NCR and Microsoft.
An NCR CRM RightSTART implementation will allow a business to know each customer better through all individual touch points, like the Internet, an ATM or a retail outlet. For example, the data warehouse will capture and store information about a customer who shops electronically on the Web, purchases products at a retail outlet and contacts a retailer’s customer service department.
Based on those customer interactions, this solution will deliver a tailored offer utilizing the most effective communication channel – based on the customer’s individual buying behavior – truly automating key areas of the marketing process. In turn, a profitability analysis based on the cumulative effect of that customer’s purchasing behavior can be performed.
The companies also plan to deliver a High Availability Internet Server (HAIS) to give enterprise customers a highly available Web commerce platform for business-critical applications over the Internet. This initiative combines all of the software building blocks, along with a suite of professional services, for enabling secure and reliable Internet-based electronic
commerce transactions. The technology platform for HAIS will comprise clustered Windows NT servers with the Internet Information Server and Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition.
During 1998, the two companies plan to work together to develop and introduce additional programs that are specially tailored for a wide range of vertical industry markets.
About NCR
NCR (NYSE: NCR) is the $7 billion world leader in delivering commercial, open computer systems for distributed application and decision-support solutions to customers in all industries. The company also develops industry-specific platforms and solutions for customers in the retail, financial and telecommunications industries. For further information on NCR products, access the NCR Web site at (http://www.ncr.com/) .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
Microsoft, ActiveStore, Windows NT, Windows and BackOffice are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.
