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NCR Corporate Profile
What's new
o New software updates for NT, RAID, StarSENTRY, and POSIX
qualifications.
o New description of NCR's reseller program.
o Information comparing NCR and HP from VAR Business Review.
o New benchmark numbers.
o Updated information on NCR's transaction monitor for the System 3000
family, TOP END.
o Descriptions of NCR's business realignment.
Introduction
NCR corporation is an official subsidiary of AT&T. NCR management has
complete control over all computer operations and reports directly to
Richard Allen, AT&T's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
The AT&T/NCR merger, although an enormous challenge, combines
complementary market strengths. Both rely on Intel multiprocessing-
based systems running UNIX to provide solutions to commercial accounts.
Both are strong, fiscally conservative companies. NCR is strong in
retail distribution and branch banking, and has a presence in Europe and
the Pacific Rim. AT&T is strong selling to the Regional Bell Operating
Companies (RBOCs) and the U.S. Government, as well as to hotel chains.
Therefore, customer bases are both geographically and vertically
complementary. AT&T has given NCR control of all of its computing
operations and products.
NCR plans to migrate all of its installed base to the NCR Series 3000
family, including its proprietary mainframe customers and Tower
customers. Overall, given the poor success rate of computer industry
mergers, HP has an opportunity to increase our UNIX system market share
as customers and VABs are forced to upgrade to the NCR System 3000 or
seek another vendor. (The AT&T 3B2 and NCR Tower have over 100,000
installations alone. And the NCR I Series consists of over 12,000
accounts in the U.S. alone.)
Corporate overview
NCR, number 79 on the Fortune 500, is a $6.28 billion company with
55,000 employees worldwide. The NCR corporate headquarters is located
in Dayton, Ohio. NCR Corporation and its subsidiaries develop,
manufacture, market, install, and service business information
processing systems for use in various industries worldwide. It was
founded in 1884 by John H. Patterson, and was known as National Cash
Register until 1926, when it assumed its present corporate name NCR (now
known as "The Networked Computing Resource of AT&T"). NCR is the best-
known supplier of accounting and computing equipment to banks and
financial organizations. NCR offers a wide range of equipment -- from
check sorters to computer mainframes and related banking industry
software. NCR also has had a long and strong relationship with the
retail distribution industry, where it is well known for point-of-sale
and merchandising systems.
In October of 1992, NCR realigned to better meet the needs of both the
company's retail and financial customers. The new Self-Service and
Financial Division is now responsible for defining NCR's total approach
to the financial enterprise. One of the advantages of this new
organization is leveraging knowledge of customer requirements gained
through NCR's ATM experience to the financial community.
The restructured Transaction Terminals and Retail Systems Division is
responsible for defining enterprise-wide product solutions for the
retail industry. In addition, this division will develop and
manufacture terminals and peripherals for both the retail and financial
industries.
NCR announced that 250 employees may be affected by this realignment
and has committed $1.09 million for retraining workers for positions
within and outside of NCR.
Key executives
Gilbert P. Williamson Chief Executive Officer, NCR
R. Elton White President, NCR
Phillip M. Neches Senior Vice-President and Chief Scientist
R. Elton White (Acting) Executive Vice-President, Marketing
Thomas A. Mays Senior Vice-President, General Purpose Products
Darrell L. Clark Senior Vice-President, Integrated Systems Group
Sales organization
Although the United States remains NCR's largest single market, with
approximately 47 percent of sales during 1991, the company is actively
present in 120 countries. NCR has structured its global activities into
four major geographic regions: the domestic U.S. market; Europe; the
Pacific (Canada, Australia, and the Far East); and the Middle East,
Latin America, and Africa.
Target markets
o retail
o financial
o medical
o education
o government
o manufacturing
o telecom
AT&T/NCR sales organization
The sales force is specialized by product and industry/vertical market,
cover named account territories and have special focus on selected key
accounts. The sale force will primarily focus on selling into new
accounts. All new accounts will be sold the NCR System 3000 product
line.
Sales focus
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample Market
Systems Focus
------------------------------------------------------------------------
High-End 3600 Banking
3700 Retail/distribution
Large scale OLTP (i.e.
airline and hotel
reservations)
Telephone order entry
Customer service
Midrange 3400 Local government
3500 Retail/distribution
System 7000 Insurance
StarServer Banking
3B2 Health care
Telecom
Low-End 3300 Indirect channel
All markets
Networking StarSentry All markets
NCRNet Manager
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NCR sales teams are very professional and polished. They have great
presentation skills comparable to IBM.
If you are going into an installed NCR account, particularly banking
and/or retail/distribution, look for a fight. NCR will go to great
lengths to protect these installed accounts. They will:
o discount up to 45 percent on the total solution
o introduce high-level executives and factory experts to the account
o bring focused consultants into the account.
NCR is known to sell vaporware. Challenge NCR's solution, request
references, make them prove that they can provide the solutions, due to
the product transition that AT&T and NCR are experiencing.
Indirect sales channel
AT&T's acquisition of NCR has resulted in some major changes to NCR's
reseller program during the 1992 year. The Cooperative Marketing
Division has introduced the integration of marketing and financing
efforts and many new programs. In the U.S., there are more than 200
resellers that work directly with NCR and another 2000 resellers that
buy through distributors. These masters distributors include Applied
Technology Ventures, Arrow Electronics Inc., Avnet Computer, Costa
distributing, Digital /controls Corp., First Computer Corp., GTE Supply,
IPI/Grammtech, and Wyle Laboratories.
VAR's may sell NCR's entire System 3000 family of notebook/notepad
products, PCs, multiprocessor systems, networking products and
peripherals. Certain products require certification which NCR offers
training. Under special agreement, VAR's may sell retail and financial
products.
VAR programs fall into six key areas:
o Partners in Promotion deliver qualified prospects using direct mail,
telemarketing, seminars, trade shows and cooperative advertising.
Product Centers are also available as demonstration centers.
o Partner in Education provides certification training. VARs can tailor
NCR-based education for their customer, resell education on a
commission basis, perform on-site training or deliver their own
instruction.
o Partners in Service provide support. On a commission basis, VARs can
resell service contracts, operate a help desk , or service equipment
themselves.
o Partners in Communication includes reseller councils, on-line access
to marketing and technical information covering product releases,
proposals and order information.
o Partners in Technology provides presales technical support for
configuring and porting.
o Partners in Sales help with the direct sales and end-user financing.
Several programs are aimed at reducing cross-channel conflict. The VAR
council meets regularly with NCR management and industry seminars are
available.
The largest complaints voiced from NCR's VARs have to do with
grievances about channel conflict and the elimination of the Tower
product. The demise of Tower hurt VARs because NCR dropped support for
the Tower line.
VARBUSINESS 1992 Annual Report Card Review
The following reflects scores for multi-user platforms:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
HP NCR
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Products 7.87 6.79
Pricing 7.68 5.82
Support 7.16 5.90
Partnership 6.86 5.79
Overall Average 7.33 6.12
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Strategic goals
o Be a world leader in open, enterprise-wide information systems
o Be a leading supplier of enterprise-wide, general-purpose computing
solutions
o Continue strategic alliances with companies whose research and
development efforts closely parallel their own
o Address the needs of new markets, particularly those markets for very
large-scale systems
o Achieve the highest standards for quality products and most consistent
level of service
Major claims
o Worldwide leader in the retail and financial markets
o Leader in enterprise-wide solutions
o Technological leader
o Leader in open systems
o Leader in client/server computing
o Achieve up to 100,000 MIPS with the NCR 3000 line
Major product strategies
NCR product family overview
------------------------------------------------------------------------
System 3335 3345
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processor i486sx i486
Competition HP, IBM, HP, IBM,
DEC DEC
Applications Desktop, Office,
Office, work group
work group server,
server software
development
Pricing* 15,635 $15,375
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Minimum configuration
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
System 3445 3447 3450 3550 3600
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processor i486 i486 i486 i486 486
Competition HP, IBM, HP, IBM, HP, IBM, Sequent, Sequent,
DEC, DG DEC, DG DEC, Pyramid, Pyramid,
Sequent, HP HP
Pyramid
Applications Business Business Business Business Business
appl., appl., appl. appl., appl.,
server server OLTP, CASE dec support,
OLTP, CASE,
Developmnt->
Large Prod.
Pricing $20,495 $19,375 $35,590 $101,750 $855,000 -
$5.5M
------------------------------------------------------------------------
While AT&T and mature NCR products are not actively sold, specifications
on these products are available in the NCR appendix.
Competitive performance positioning
[Figure: Low-End Systems Performance Positioning, Caption: none]
[Figure: High-End Systems Performance Positioning, Caption: none]
In April of 1992 NCR announced its first TPC-A and TPC-B benchmark
results. The following table describes the configuration of the tests
and the results.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
System Processors Database Throughput Price/Performance
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3450 4 Intel 486 Oracle 7 152.40 TPC-A $ 7,280 per tpsA
3550 8 Intel 486 Informix 5.0 150.62 TPC-A $12,737 per tpsA
3550 8 Intel 486 Oracle 7 258.50 TPC-B $ 4,602 per tpsB
3550 c/s 8 Intel 486 Oracle 7 312.30 TPC-A $ 8,983 per tpsA
3447 1 Intel 486 Informix 5.0 311.85 TPC-A $ 7,855 per tpsA
3450 4 Intel 486 Informix 5.0 100.31 TPC-A $ 8,425 per tpsA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NCR System 3000
Hardware strategy
NCR is keeping pace with its aggressive move to consolidate its computer
lines into a UNIX system V.4, Intel-powered line while expanding its
breadth into higher-end systems. Following is an overview of the entire
NCR System 3000 product line and future expectations.
The NCR System 3000 is a seven-level family of general-purpose,
scalable, microprocessor-based computers that span a power range from
7.5 MIPS to more than 2000 MIPS (claimed) today, and are designed to
address any computing level or task in business applications. The
System 3000 is based on Intel microprocessors and supports industry-
standard operating systems. SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) is
the common device interface supporting magnetic and optical disks, CD-
ROMS, tapes, printers, and image drivers. The System 3000 supports an
open micro channel bus for additional add-in controllers.
Future
Expect new releases in each level of the NCR System 3000 family over the
next two years. NCR will ride the Intel 486/586/686 performance curve
over the next five years.
High-end product strategy
NCR and Teradata which merged in December of 1991 recently announced
their product plan. Teradata is a manufacturer of parallel processing
database servers. Teradata's customers include Walmart, K-Mart,
Mervyn's, Bank of America, Citibank, a few insurance companies, a stock
exchange, and at least one airline. These companies use mainframes for
online transaction processing and connect their Teradata machines to
host processors for use in decision-support applications, in which huge
volumes of data are analyzed. The merger brings advantages for both
companies. Teradata will have access to NCR's marketing and sales
organization and NCR will have an advantage when selling its high-end
systems since Teradata is installed in many IBM sites. The product plan
calls for the evolution of both NCR's and Teradata's strategic product
platforms for the near future. In the 1993 to 1995 timeframe Teradata's
DBC/1012 will phase out in favor of NCR's future 3700 product.
Series 3600
On May 13, 1991 NCR announced its 3600 product line, the first high-end
3000 massively parallel general-purpose computer. The 3600 is a result
of the joint development between NCR and Teradata. The system consists
of a combination of loosely and tightly coupled parallel processors, is
UNIX based and uses Intel's 80486 CPU chip.
The 3600 consists of loosely coupled application processors (APs) and
disk access processors called access module processors (AMPs). These
processors communicate across a dual-channel bus.
The system can be configured from one to eight application processors
and up to 32 access module processors.
AP: A 3600 system can have up to eight AP nodes, and each AP contains
up to eight 50 MHz 80486 CPU, each with cache memory support. An AP is
a symmetric multiprocessing system with the processing power of an NCR
3550.
AMP: The AMP is based on NCR's 3300. One AMP contains one 33 MHz
80486 CPU with internal on-chip memory management, math coprocessor, and
an 8 KB four-way set associative code and data cache memory.
The high-speed intelligent interconnect is the 3600 processor node
system bus. It utilizes two independent 6 MB/s channels. Processes
running on different processors communicate via message passing on this
bus.
Each AP has its own copy of UNIX. Only the base operating system is
required for each AP. Much of the software on individual APs operates as
if it were in a tightly coupled network, unaware of the presence of
other APs beyond standard UNIX networking facilities. The AMP software
is not configurable, it is considered firmware and is automatically
installed by the AP distribution procedure.
To take advantage of the 3600 or 3700 architecture, most applications
will have to be customized or rewritten. NCR's approach is nonstandard
and may be very risky to MIS management.
[Figure: Sample 3600 Configuration, Caption: none]
Open, Cooperative Computing Architecture (OCCA)
NCR's long-term product strategy is characterized as "Open, Cooperative
Computing Architecture" (OCCA). OCCA is a standards-based, layered,
distributed computing architecture designed to distribute functions and
data across the enterprise network. The NCR System 3000, Cooperation
and Open Network Environment (ONE) are all key components of OCCA.
Software strategy
In September of 1992, NCR announced the availability to Cooperation for
the System 3000 systems. NCR's Cooperation addresses the need to access
massive amounts of data, collect and manipulate data on the desktop and
share information across workgroups. It provides users with network and
systems capabilities and can co-exist with StarSENTRY products. Access
to Informix DB2, Oracle and SQLBase databases is also available.
Operating systems
NCR UNIX System V, Release 4.0 combines the features of System V, BSD,
and XENIX into a single operating system. Most of the BSD and XENIX
shell commands are now a part of NCR UNIX V.4. Most of the BSD and
XENIX APIs are included in NCR UNIX V.4. The benefit of combining BSD
and XENIX commands and APIs with NCR UNIX V.4 is that programs written
for BSD or XENIX may be easily ported to NCR UNIX V.4.
The NCR UNIX Operating System complies with the AT&T System V
Interface Definition (SVID) specification. Thus, the Operating System
maintains source-code compatibility with any implementation of UNIX
conforming to the SVID definition.
In July of 1992, NCR demonstrated Microsoft Windows NT running on its'
3450 and 3550 symmetric multiprocessing systems. Windows NT is designed
to provide high capacity and high-performance I/O, security, systems
administration, and built-in networking. Microsoft has been using the
NCR system as its primary Windows NCR development platform.
NCR also supports DOS, OS/2, Sun Microsystems' Solaris , Santa Cruz
Operations' SCO, VPix (allows users to run DOS applications under UNIX)
. The SMP servers are compatible with DOS, Windows, and Unix clients.
Standards
NCR UNIX is compliant with several important standards; XPG3, POSIX
1003.1, FIPS 151-1, X/Open portability, and ANSI C.
NCR announced in October of 1992 that its' StarSENTRY network and
systems management platform will comply with the Open Software
Foundation's emerging standards for a Distributed Management Environment
(DME). StarSENTRY will also support OMNIPoint, a worldwide industry
agreement on a single set of network management specifications.
Office
Cooperation is NCR's office solution. It is a distributed, object-
oriented software environment based on HP NewWave. NCR's main goal is
to use Cooperation to integrate its proprietary platforms with OS/2 and
UNIX system environments.
Networking
AT&T/NCR joint strategy for Networking products
Most of NCR's peer networking products were discarded in favor of
AT&T's. AT&T/NCR will now offer the following product line.
LAN operating systems--AT&T/NCR strategic LAN O/S is AT&T's LM/X, now
called StarGroupº. NCR's portable NetWare and LAN Manager for OS/2 will
be de-emphasized.
AT&T's StarGroup is a comprehensive suite of modular networking
services that are fully integrated with its PC LAN operating system.
The StarGroup LAN Manager Server, which supports DOS, OS/2, UNIX, and
Apple Macintosh clients, is the nucleus of the family.
In October of 1992, NCR announced a symmetric multiprocessing version
of StarGroup LAN Manager for the 3450, 3550, and Star Server E systems.
NCR claims that up to 8 processors and 1,000 users can be supported on a
single server.
NCR Open Networking Environment is a set of networking products that
provides end-to-end OSI networking solutions.
NCR StarSENTRY is a group of solutions for global managing of systems,
networks and operations.
In July of 1992, NCR enhanced their StarSENTRY Systems Manager . The
new version gives information managers control, from a single site, of
networks composed of multi-vendor devices. The new version consists of:
o Discovery, which periodically checks the network for new system and
inactive old systems.
o Alarm forwarding offers managers the ability to monitor and maintain
their networks with a full-featured management station.
o Management Gateway provides wide area access for managing resources on
remote LANs and provides a "protocol switch" that enables SNMP
information to be transported over OSI and SNA/LU6.2 protocols.
o SQL database interface enables users to export network information
from Systems Manager to industry standard SQL data base software and
generate spreadsheets based on the information.
Systems Manager is built on NetLabs, Inc., network management platform.
The price of Systems Manager 3.5 is $15,000 and Systems Manager/100, a
subset of the full offering with up to 100 nodes, is priced at $5,000.
One of StarSENTRY's System Manager solutions is StarSENTRY Software
Manager. This was announced in June of 1992, and enables network
administrators to electronically distribute, install and track
StarSENTRY's on remote UNIX systems, OS/2 and DOS computers from a
central site. This enables users to schedule software delivery for the
most appropriate time, such as after hours. Software Manger is built
around UNIX System V and StarSENTRY's software over TCP/IP, OSI and
SNA/LU6.2 StarSENTRY's Remote LANS are accessed over a wide area network
using gateways that reside on StarGROUP LAN Manager servers on each LAN.
These servers distribute the software to the appropriate clients on the
LAN. Pricing for a total configuration including a management station
and management gateway for 50 LANS is approximately $320,000.
Also announced in June of 1992, was StarSENTRY Client Manager. This
software application automates performance monitoring, configuration
management and fault reporting for local and remote OS/2 and DOS
workstations. Client Manager is based on the manager/agent concept and
is priced for a total configuration including a management station and
management gateway for 50 LANS is approximately $164,000.
CASE tools
In the area of CASE, NCR and Synthesis Computer Technologies Inc. have
announced a joint marketing agreement to provide UNIX system software
development tools with NCR's System 3000 family of computers to the
corporate, education, and government marketplaces. This is only for the
midrange systems. Under the agreement, NCR will pair the System 3000
with Synthesis' CASE/AP, a UNIX CASE System, to provide users with a
powerful application development environment.
The marketing relationship between NCR and Synthesis is based on
referral selling. Synthesis and NCR will be responsible for
representing, marketing, and supporting their company's respective
products to customers in a cooperative effort.
Languages
The NCR 3000 systems support the following high-level programming
languages:
o C++
o C Development Toolkit
o Ryan-McFarland COBOL (RM/COBOL)
o LPI COBOL 85
o LPI FORTRAN
o LPI PL/1
o LPI BASIC
o LPI Pascal
o LPI Codewatch
NCR's UNIX transaction-processing monitor
NCR's TOP END is a modular transaction-processing system based on a
client/server architecture. Applications written with NCR's proprietary
transaction monitor, MUTLI-TRAN (runs on 9800 family), will be easily
portable to TOP END on the 3000 Series.
In August of 1992, NCR Corp. and Independence Technologies Inc.
announced the availability of NCR's TOP END transaction monitor on the
HP 9000. Ports to Sun SPARCservers, IBM RS/6000's and Pyramid's
MIServers will not be available until first quarter of 1993. It was
originally expected that Sun would be the first to get the port but
HP's popularity lead Independence into rearranging the platform
priorities.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOP END Modules
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transaction Management coordinates each data transaction and protects
the database until the transaction is complete.
Terminal Management provides interface capabilities for a wide range of
VDTs and workstations and makes software accessible on the greatest
number of nodes.
Message Management passes information between near and distant nodes to
track, control, and log all system transactions.
Network Interface maintains traffic at the highest possible speeds and
moves data throughout the distributed environment.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Competitive sales strategies
HP 9000 versus NCR System 3000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NCR System 3000
Strengths
HP 9000 Strengths (HP's Perceived
Parity (NCR Weaknesses) Weaknesses)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Financially secure -Commercial -Presence in vertical
-Worldwide support/ enhancements to UNIX markets
services -Broad family -Integration services
-NewWave PC support -Service and support -Standard Intel CPUs
-UNIX track record -Quantity of commercial -Multiprocessing
solutions throughout the
-RISC architecture Series 3000 product
line
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The issues listed under parity reflect areas that may be important in a
sale situation but both vendors offer equivalent products or services.
The HP 9000 strengths or NCR 3000 weaknesses reflect areas that HP
should discuss and sell as being critical to the prospect's success.
Being in the account first and discussing the importance of these items
may set the criteria for an HP win.
NCR System 3000 perceived strengths reflect areas that NCR will
discuss. These may be HP's perceived weaknesses and HP can expect to be
challenged on these issues. The handling objections section discusses
tactics to discount or turn these issues into a Hewlett-Packard
strength.
HP 9000 strengths/criteria for HP win
Commercial UNIX
HP advantage:
HP is ahead of NCR in enhancing the standard UNIX operating system to
make it fit for the commercial customer.
Customer benefits:
When choosing HP-UX the customer can be assured of getting a robust,
user-friendly operating system. HP adds features like a print spooling
system, high OLTP performance, remote software maintenance tools,
remote system maintenance, user-friendly system management tools,
performance management tools, network monitoring tools, user-friendly
and fast backup tools, high-availability features, etc. Some of these
additions are options to the standard operating system. Also, because
of the popularity of the Series 800, HP has a long list of software
suppliers that offer data center management products for the Series 800.
Broader family
HP advantage:
Currently, HP's platform offering is broader than NCR's. Even with the
shipments of the 3450 and 3550, HP's product line still offers more
performance with the HP 9000 Model 890. The 3600 and 3700, which are
still not shipping, are not general purpose commercial systems, they are
designed to handle large data bases in a decision support environment.
Customer benefits:
HP protects the customer's investment in both hardware and software by
providing a greater growth path. HP's systems span the needs of most
customers' requirements. Within HP's product families, cost-effective
and easy upgrades are provided to enable accounts to grow with their
business needs. HP's systems are strong general-purpose systems
throughout the product line and can handle any commercial application.
Support and service
HP advantage:
HP ranks number 1 in support and service.
Customer benefits:
HP's record for support and service is second to none. To minimize
system problems, HP provides the best system support possible. This
benefits the customer by minimizing employees lost time and increasing
system usage. As companies become more reliant on their systems, the
cost of downtime in terms of revenues and profits has become
significant. Partnering with a company that is known for support and
service is a requirement.
Commercial solutions
HP advantage:
HP offers a larger number of commercial applications.
Customer benefits:
Because of HP's superior reputation and leadership in the commercial
UNIX markets, more software vendors have ported their software products
to HP's platform than NCR's. This provides more software alternatives
for customers to choose from.
RISC
HP advantage:
Unlike NCR's systems which use Intel 80486 CISC processors, HP uses
state-of-the-art RISC processors.
Customer benefits:
RISC technology has a proven benefit with regard to scalability,
price/performance, reliability and easy growth path. PA-RISC is
enabling HP to deliver systems that provide all these benefits. HP has
delivered CPU performance increases of over 60 percent per year compared
to Intel's 20--30 percent improvement per year. The benefits of RISC
technology have caused all the large systems vendors to move to RISC-
based systems.
NCR's 3000 perceived strengths versus HP 9000
Handling objections
NCR will lead with these sales tactics when competing against HP:
o NCR has a strong corporate image and has a large share of the market
in the banking, retail, and insurance industries.
According to the 1992 top ten UNIX companies (UNIXWorld, December 1992),
HP is a much larger systems supplier. Estimating the UNIX-based revenue
from NCR will approach only half of HP's UNIX system-based revenue.
HP is growing faster than NCR in the UNIX system market. While NCR
currently holds a strong presence in those industries, HP's share is
increasing. HP has displaced many NCR systems in these industries. HP's
solution is now a better alternative.
o NCR offers a broader family of compatible systems.
True, NCR does offer a broad range of compatible systems. These include
the notepad, desktop, midrange, and massively paralleled processors.
However, the notepad product does not offer software compatibility. The
massively paralleled processors will not be available until early 1993
and are not really binary compatible since applications have to be
ported to the special architecture of the MPP systems to take advantage
of their speed. HP's Model F10 offers an entry price and performance
that NCR does not have within their desktop family. On the high end, HP
believes that the Model I60 will offer more performance than NCR's 3600.
o NCR offers systems integration to customers requiring assistance in
multivendor environments, with focus in the retail, banking, and
government industries.
HP does not offer this service. HP partners with the best of breed
companies for system integration services. This provides the optimum
solution with the best-in-class hardware vendor and the best systems
integrator.
Sales strategy summary
HP's responses to NCR's major claims
Claim
A well-managed and financially strong company
Response
NCR's revenues and net earnings have been flat for the past four years.
While HP has consistently had increases in revenues and net earnings in
spite of an economic slowdown. NCR 1991 profits suffered due to NCR's
inability to ship the NCR System 3000 midrange (3450 and 3550) systems
and Cooperation software in 1991.
Claim
A leader in technology
Response
NCR is really a broker of innovative technologies from other companies,
Intel's CPUs, Teradata's 3600/3700 systems, AT&T's UNIX and HP's NewWave
are proof that NCR has not developed innovative technologies internally.
HP is the proven leader in technology with MOTIF, NewWave, DME, DCE, PA-
RISC, etc.
HP is the largest RISC system manufacturer. HP 9000 business servers
are all based on HP's leading-edge Precision Architecture RISC (PA-RISC)
architecture. PA-RISC is based on RISC technology, a design approach
that provides the highest performance and price/performance possible for
an integrated circuit technology. Specifically, the HP 9000 Model 8X7S
family significantly exceeds the performance capabilities of the NCR
offerings.
Claim
A leader in open systems
Response
HP's definition of open systems goes beyond a direction or strategy such
as NCR's Open, Cooperative Computing strategy. HP's definition of open
systems consists of components like operating system, networking,
database, languages, user interfaces, and application interoperability
and portability. HP's leadership in open systems is demonstrated by
UNIX systems, networking, and driving standards. NCR is transitioning
from the Tower UNIX systems, with moderate openness, to the NCR System
3000, which has yet to provide all the components of a truly open
system.
NCR lacks strong open systems application interoperability and
portability for the NCR System 3000 family. (See chart in quotes
section.)
NCR in specific sales situations
o NCR charges for the installation of hardware and software.
o All NCR equipment includes a one-year warranty.
o The configurations used in this guide reflect list prices. These
prices may not reflect NCR's bid prices.
o NCR VARs can receive up to a 45 percent discount on the hardware.
o NCR does not provide a trade-in program for hardware.
HP opportunities
o Target NCR's current proprietary (I and V Series) and Tower systems.
Customer are looking for alternative UNIX system platforms since they
must migrate from these systems to the System 3000. According to an
analyst, NCR proprietary systems will be discontinued after 1992.
o Target all UNIX system AT&T and NCR large VARs. This is a great
opportunity for HP to add new and selective VAR solution applications.
Many AT&T and NCR VARs are looking for alternative platforms.
Quotes
Transition due to buy-out
As a result of the AT&T and NCR merger, there is a tremendous amount of
product future and employment uncertainties.
"While AT&T and NCR are promising to support their existing customer
base, the handwriting is on the wall -- either AT&T customers move to
the 3000 series, or they give up the ability to upgrade to higher-
performance machines. The decision to migrate AT&T products to NCR
products has to have an unsettling affect on AT&T customers,
shareholders, and employees."
Dataquest, Computer Services
"AT&T Pieces Don't Seem to Fit Into NCR Puzzle"
Dataquest, Computer Services
June 13, 1991
Product delays
"NCR has been rolling out its System 3000 line, but troubles in the
development of symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) software have caused
delays in sales."
Carolyn Wong
UnixWorld
December 1992
"While we believe the 3450 and 3550 computers are ready for the market
of 1991, NCR has significant challenges in delivering the software
needed to power both the internals of the complex 3600 as well as the
open production systems `glue' embodied in the TOP END distributed
transaction processing products."
"Evaluating Options in Microprocessor Multiprocessing"
Aberdeen Group
1991 Report Series
Tower abandonment
Tower users are feeling abandoned. This creates a new opportunity for
HP.
"It seems like they're abandoning the Tower users and the Tower -
they're pretty much going away from small business in general, the way I
see it," said Carl Baron, technical support manager at Millstone Coffee,
Inc., which last year bought a Tower 32/825 and NCR personal computers."
"Tower shakes... NCR Corp.'s bold strategy has caused some nervousness
among the large installed base of Tower minicomputer users."
Michael Fitzgerald
"NCR promises Tower line lives"
COMPUTERWORLD
May 6, 1991
"NCR's Towers and I Series are dying faster than expected."
David Card
"NCR Q2: 3000 Transition Underway, But Not Fast Enough to Stem Tower, I
Series Erosion"
IDC
July 1991
3600 Uncertainties
NCR 3600 has no clear upgrade path and does not have a robust set of
application software especially in the area of RDBM.
"NCR announced its UNIX-based 3600 series. Based on Teradata's
parallel processing technology, it utilizes up to 288 Intel processors.
While NCR is making dramatic performance claims (e.g. MIPS and TPS),
these estimates are not audited benchmarks."
"...we believe that the 3600 will also have trouble competing against
Sequent, Pyramid, Stratus, and Tandem in transaction processing. Bottom
Line: ... NCR has underestimated the difficulty in implementing the
3600 as a high-end system."
"NCR: A Step Too Far?"
META Group
May 20, 1991
"The year 1991 was a watershed year for NCR ... reflect difficulties,
uncertainties and triumphs of managing the acquisition by AT&T, the
merging of AT&T and NCR's VAR programs and the move form the Tower
computer to the System 3000 line."
Joe Oppenberg
1992 Annual Report Card Review
VARBusiness
Lack of applications and target audience
"NCR must make the 3600 work if it is to succeed in its System 3000
strategy. But while analysts said they were optimistic about the
possibilities of success, the lack of applications for massive parallel
processing raises some doubts."
"NCR to show parallel processor"
COMPUTERWORLD
May 13, 1991
NCR 3600 market hunt
"Just how much demand exists is unknown. If there were zillions (of
companies) out there wanting to do this, one would imagine there would
be more competitors in the market," said David Card, an analyst at
International Data Corp. in Framington, Mass.
"NCR to show parallel processor"
COMPUTERWORLD
May 13, 1991
NCR 3600 performance
"Omri Serlin, editor and publisher of the FT Systems newsletter (fault-
tolerant), said the 3600 presented `a very interesting architectural
concept.' But NCR failed to provide any benchmarks, he added. `When I
start to see some performance benchmarks that are outstanding, then I
will become a true believer,' Serlin said." "Serlin also,
`questioned, however, whether the system actually achieves 2,000 MIPS.
They're simply counting every processor that can be put in and attaching
the peak theoretical performance,' Serlin said. `The big issue is, can
you put all these processors to effective use?' he said."
"NCR to roll out commercial OLTP parallel machine"
UNIX Today!
May 13, 1991
"Arix's Gene Manno, president and CEO of rival Arix, said that `NCR is
apparently planning to position the machine as a database platform.'
While the new NCR system might do well there, Manno contended that many
applications might not see that much improved performance, simply
because the workload on many applications can't be shared using the
configuration NCR appears to be using. `If you have Lotus on a number
of PCs, it probably won't run that much faster than it does on a single
processor,' he said."
"Manno said that it appeared that the NCR system devoted a huge
portion of its processing power to keeping one copy of the operating
system running on each processor. `This thing will look like 288 PCs on
a LAN,' Manno said. `If you took 288 486 PCs, it would run just as
fast. It just looks like a tightly coupled LAN, but all the processors
are in one big box.' He added a contention that the use of Micro
Channel Busses might create a data bottleneck."
"NCR to roll out commercial OLTP parallel machine"
UNIX Today!
May 13, 1991
"While the challenges presented by the hardware could stagger NCR, the
software is the true concern for users such as Karlson. NCR has to
develop a multiprocessing version of UNIX System V Version 4, and it is
unclear that it will succeed in doing this."
"Users wait for 3600 reality"
COMPUTERWORLD
June 17, 1991
HP outranks NCR
HP 9000 Series 800 outranked NCR Tower.
According to COMPUTER INTELLIGENCE's report on the "Top 50 General-
Purpose Computer Systems Based On Value Of Installed U.S. Systems--July
1991," the HP 9000 Series 800 ranked 5, while NCR's Tower ranked a
distant 16. The NCR System 3000 was not included in this data because
of the lack of a significant installed base.
"Top 50 General Purpose Computer Systems Based On Value Of Installed
U.S. Systems--July 1991"
COMPUTER INTELLIGENCE
July 1991
According to Carolyn Wong, UnixWorld, December 1992, Hewlett-Packard
ranked number one in the to ten UNIX companies. NCR ranked 4. Ranking
is based on projected UNIX-based hardware revenue figures for 1992 and
growth rates. NCR experienced troubles in the development of symmetric
multiprocessing (SMP) software suffered because of AT&T 's takeover of
NCR.
"While it was initially expected that the Sun platform would be the
first to get the port, the aggressive inroads being made by HP's UNIX
line prompted a change in the timetable"
Jeff Stern
VP Marketing
Independence Technologies, Inc.
August 1992
Technology RISC versus Intel CISC
"NCR's belief that the 80X86 family provided the best `systems-level
price/performance to the customer' is the primary reason for selecting
Intel architecture. NCR acknowledges that some RISC architectures will
yield 30 to 60 percent better hardware-level price/performance than
Intel."
Summit Strategies: Market Vision
"NCR's commitment to Intel"
November, 1990
Volume 2, Number 11
Weak migration plan
Migration of NCR Tower systems has to be done very carefully due to
incompatible architectures and lack of migration tools.
"The Motorola family of processors, which are the heart of every NCR
Tower system, represent data in a different way internally than the
Intel 80x86 family of processors. To be short and sweet about it, data
stored by an Intel CPU is backwards, so portable doesn't mean compatible
- never did, as a matter of fact."
"If you are using packaged applications, your applications vendor has
probably done all of this work except for your data conversion. In
fact, your software license probably prevents your moving any third-
party applications on your own. Your vendor may have already customized
the NCR transition tools for use in moving your programs and data files,
so it is a good idea to check all this out with the vendor before you
run off half- cocked and try to do it yourself."
Barry Gilmore
"Moving from the Tower to the System 3000"
The NCR Connection
September 1991
"They could have nurtured the Tower on its way down, but they dropped it
flat on its face. That hurts NCR and it hurts the VARs because now we
can't get support from NCR on it."
NCR reseller
1992 Annual Report Card Review
VARBusiness
[Figure: Open Systems Status, Caption: none]
From Selling Against the Competition Competitive Binder, 5091-6465E,
9301
Associated files: NCR02.gal, NCR02.hpg, NCR03.gal, NCR03.hpg,
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NCR Corporate Profile