November 1, 1999

NCR Scales Back Computer Hardware Offerings
Vendor Keeps Worldmark servers; will focus on data warehousing, ATM, Point-of-sale Lines

By Rick Whiting

CR Corp. is sharply cutting back on computer hardware sales by eliminating its hardware-focused bank branch-automation business, the company said last week. Instead, NCR will focus its efforts on its data warehousing, automated teller machine, and retail point-of-sale product lines.

The company will continue to market its multiprocessor WorldMark computers, which are sold largely as platforms for its Teradata data warehousing software. These Intel-based systems are built for NCR by a contract manufacturer. "We will invest as little research and development as possible in the hardware platforms," says Mark Hurd, senior VP of the Teradata Solutions Group.

"They've been backing out of the hardware business for several years," says Mike Burwen, president of the Palo Alto Management Group market analysis firm, who says he wasn't surprised by NCR's moves. Gartner Group analyst John Enck says he's surprised that NCR will continue to sell the WorldMark line.

Some IT executives have already scratched NCR off their list of hardware providers. "We have been moving away from NCR," says one IT manager who asked that he and his company not be identified. "We felt that they had gone from a tier-one vendor to a tier-two vendor." The company had been running its land title database applications on two WorldMark 4300 servers, but it recently took one out of production and plans to do the same shortly with the second. "We now use Hewlett-Packard mostly," he says.

By shutting down the bank branch-automation operation, NCR will eliminate 1,500 employee positions and save about $75 million annually. Hurd says NCR will finish all installation projects now under way and fulfill all customer commitments.

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