NCR Voyix: Американдық бағдарламалық компанияның тарихы

American software company

NCR Voyix Corporation, previously known as NCR Corporation and National Cash Register, is an American software, consulting and technology company providing several professional services and electronic products. It manufactured self service kiosks, point of sale terminals, automated teller machines, check processing systems, and barcode scanners. NCR was founded in Dayton, Ohio, in 1884 and acquired by AT&T in 1991. A restructuring of AT&T in 1996 led to NCR's re establishment on 1 January 1997, as a separate company and involved the spin off of Lucent Technologies from AT&T. In June 2009, the company sold most of the Dayton properties and moved its headquarters to the Atlanta metropolitan area in unincorporated Gwinnett County, Georgia, near Duluth. In early January 2018, the new NCR Global Headquarters opened in Midtown Atlanta near Technology Square (adjacent to the Georgia Institute of Technology). After the strategic business review, NCR Corporation was split into two independent public companies. NCR Voyix legally succeeded NCR Corporation, and NCR Atleos was spun off.

The company began as the National Manufacturing Company of Dayton, Ohio, and was established to manufacture and sell the first mechanical cash register invented in 1879 by James Ritty. In 1884, the company and patents were bought by John Henry Patterson and his brother Frank Jefferson Patterson, and the firm was renamed the National Cash Register Company. Patterson formed NCR into one of the first modern American companies by introducing new, aggressive sales methods and business techniques. He established the first sales training school in 1893 and introduced a comprehensive social welfare program for his factory workers. Other significant figures in the early history of the company were Thomas J. Watson, Sr., Charles F. Kettering and Edward A. Deeds. Watson—later fired by Patterson in 1914—eventually worked his way up to general sales manager. At an uninspiring sales meeting, Watson interrupted, saying "The trouble with every one of us is that we don't think enough. We don't get paid for working with our feet — we get paid for working with our heads". Watson then wrote THINK on the easel. Signs with this motto were later erected in NCR factory buildings, sales offices and club rooms during the mid 1890s. "THINK" later became a widely known symbol of IBM, which was created by Watson after he joined the Computing Tabulating Recording Company (CTR). Kettering designed the first cash register powered by an electric motor in 1906. Within a few years he developed the Class 1000 register which was in production for 40 years, and the O. K. Telephone Credit Authorization system for verifying credit in department stores. Deeds and Kettering went on to found Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company which later became the Delco Electronics Division of General Motors. In 1913, the company's market share was dominant and it was successfully prosecuted under the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The ruling was appealed and executives avoided at least some of the court's strictures.

When John H. Patterson and his brother took over the company, cash registers were expensive (US$50) and only about a dozen of "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier" machines were in use. There was little demand for the expensive device, but Patterson believed the product would sell once shopkeepers understood it would drastically decrease theft by salesclerks. He created a sales team known as the "American Selling Force" which worked on commissions and followed a standard sales script, the "N. C. R. Primer." This was the first known sales training manual in existence. The philosophy was to sell a business function rather than just a piece of machinery. Sales demonstrations were set up in hotels (away from the distractions of the buyer's business) depicting a store interior complete with real merchandise and real cash. The sale prospect was described as the "P. P." or "Probable Purchaser." Once initial objections were swept aside and the P. P. admitted to internal theft losses, the product was demonstrated along with large business charts and diagrams. The deal was sealed with a 25 cent cigar. Patterson also invented the formal sales training academy, a summer event first set up in canvas tents and called “Sugar Camp.” The first known form of direct mail advertising also came courtesy of Patterson, who sent mail pieces to a predetermined list of addresses about his products. Patterson's “Get a Receipt” campaign was one of the world's first advertising campaigns.

NCR undertook extensive welfare work and was referred to as "America's model factory." Some historians have referred to company owner John Patterson as the "father of industrial welfare." The company had its own welfare department and is considered a pioneer in America for this work. Some of the company's welfare initiatives include safety devices, drinking fountains, baths, lockers, chairs and back support for machine operators, indoor bathrooms and a ventilation system to provide clean air. There were special provisions for female employees including restrooms, shorter work hours, high back chairs, a women's dining room, and lessons in domestic science. In 1893, NCR constructed the first "daylight factory" buildings with floor to ceiling glass windows that let in light and could be opened to let in fresh air as well.

NCR expanded quickly and became multi national in 1888. Between 1893 and 1906 it acquired a number of smaller cash register companies. By 1911 it had sold one million machines and had grown to almost 6,000 employees. Combined with rigorous legal attacks, Patterson's methods enabled the company to fight off bankruptcy, buy out over 80 of its early competitors, and achieve control of 95% of the U. S. market. In 1912 the company was found guilty of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. Patterson, Deeds, Watson and 25 other NCR executives and managers were convicted of illegal anti competitive sales practices and were sentenced to one year of imprisonment. Their convictions were unpopular with the public due to the efforts of Patterson and Watson to help those affected by the Dayton, Ohio, floods of 1913, but efforts to have them pardoned by President Woodrow Wilson were unsuccessful. However, their convictions were overturned on appeal in 1915 on the grounds that important defense evidence should have been admitted. In 1918, the company signed a contract with the US Army to produce 100,000 M1911 pistols for use in World War I. The contract was canceled a few months later after the war ended, with no pistols having been delivered. Two million units were sold by 1922, the year John Patterson died. In January, 1926, NCR went public with an issue of $55 million in stock, at that time the largest public offering in United States history. During the first World War, NCR manufactured fuses and aircraft instrumentation, and during World War II built aero engines, bomb sights and code breaking machines, including the American bombe designed by Joseph Desch.

The US Navy Bombe was built by NCR for the United States Naval Computing Machine Laboratory to decrypt the Enigma machine that encrypted German military messages. The NCR made American bombes (decryption machines) were faster, and soon more available, than the British bombes at Bletchley Park and its outstations. The American bombe was essentially the same as the English bombe, though it functioned better as they were not handicapped by having to make it, as Keen was forced to do owing to production difficulties, on the framework of a 3 wheel machine. By late autumn 1943 new American machines were coming into action at the rate of about 2 a week, the ultimate total being in the region of 125.

Building on its wartime experience with secret communication systems, high speed counters and cryptanalytic equipment, NCR became a major post war force in developing new computing and communications technology. In 1953, chemists Barrett K. Green and Lowell Schleicher of NCR in Dayton submitted a patent "Pressure responsive record materials" for a carbon less copy paper. This became US Patent 2,730,457 and was commercialized as "NCR Paper." In February 1953, the company acquired the Computer Research Corporation (CRC), after which it created a specialized electronics division. In 1956, NCR introduced its first electronic device, the Class 29 Post Tronic, a bank machine using magnetic stripe technology. With the General Electric Company (now known as GE), the company manufactured its first transistor based computer in 1957, the NCR 304. Also in the 1950s NCR introduced MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) and the NCR 3100 accounting machines. In 1962, NCR introduced the NCR 315 Electronic Data Processing System which included the CRAM storage device, the first automated mass storage alternative to magnetic tape libraries accessed manually by computer operators. The NCR 390 and 500 computers were also offered to customers who did not need the full power of the 315. The NCR 390 accepted four types of input: magnetic ledger cards, punched cards, punched tape, and keyboard entry, with a tape read speed of 400 characters a second. The Century series was followed by the Criterion series in 1976, NCR's first virtual machine system. During this period, NCR also produced the 605 minicomputer for in house use. It was the compute engine for the 399 and 499 accounting machines, several generations of in store and in bank controllers, and the 82xx/90xx IMOS COBOL systems. The 605 also powered peripheral controllers, including the 658 disk subsystem and the 721 communications processor. In 1974, scanners and computers developed by NCR marked the first occasion where items with the Universal Product Code (UPC) was scanned at the checkout of a supermarket, Troy's Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, a few miles away from NCR's Dayton Headquarters. It was treated as a ceremonial occasion and involved a little bit of ritual. The night before, a team of Marsh's supermarket staff had moved in to put bar codes on hundreds of items in the store while NCR installed their scanners and computers. In 1982, NCR's Peripheral Products Division in Wichita, Kansas, together with peripheral manufacturer, Shugart Associates, helped propel the computer industry into a new era of intelligent standardized peripheral communications with the development the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI). The SCSI standard enabled such diverse devices as disks, tapes, printers, and scanners to share a common interface to one or more computer systems in a way that was never before possible and a model for subsequent interfaces to follow. NCR developed the world's first SCSI interface chip, the NCR 5380, based on the SCSI interface standard collaboratively developed. In the third quarter of 1982, NCR announced the release of a 32 bit VLSI processor architecture and chipset called NCR/32. to 6 (IBM and the "BUNCH") and further reduced to 4 (IBM, Unisys, NCR, and Control Data Corporation). The adoption of the name NCR Corporation occurred in 1974.

NCR's 6th generation of ATMs have been noted for the further move towards intelligent deposit and the expansion of secondary functions such as barcode reading. 667x series marketed under the Personas M Series brand were introduced in 2005 to the present. These models consist of the 6676 (interior lobby multifunction) and 6674 (through the wall multifunction). The outlook design is very different from the Personas model; on the front access 6676s the front cover is opened upwards which claim to be saving the services area.

NCR's latest ATM services, introduced in 2008. This series is a complete redesign of both outlook and technological contents. It is also a cost down product. Self Serv 20 series are single function (e. g. cash out) ATMs, while Self Serv 30 series are full function (cash out and intelligent deposit) machines.

Teradata partnered with NCR in 1990 and was purchased by NCR in 1991. Mark Hurd took over the company's Teradata division in 1999 and is credited with expanding NCR's Teradata business. Hurd streamlined operations and invested in research. The Teradata division at NCR became profitable in 2002.

NCR was acquired by AT&T Corporation on September 19, 1991 for $7.4 billion and was joined with Teradata Corporation on February 28, 1992. As an AT&T subsidiary, its 1992 year end headcount was 53,800 employees and contractors. By 1993, the subsidiary produced a year end $1.287 billion net loss on $7.265 billion in revenue. The net losses continued in 1994 and 1995, losses that required repeated subsidies from the parent company and resulted in a 1995 year end headcount of 41,100. In November 1997, NCR purchased Dataworks Inc., a 60 person privately held company in San Antonio, Texas. The Montgomery County Historical Society and NCR Corporation joined in 1998 into a partnership committed to preserving the historic and voluminous NCR Archive. In 1999, NCR moved an estimated three million items from NCR's Building 28 into the Historical Society's Research Center. In 1998, NCR sold its computer hardware manufacturing assets to Solectron and ceased to produce general purpose computer systems, focusing instead on the retail and financial industries. In 2000, NCR acquired customer relationship management provider Ceres Integrated Solutions and services company 4Front Technologies. Recent acquisitions include self service companies Kinetics, InfoAmerica and Galvanon, and software company DecisionPoint. In April 2003, NCR purchased Copient Technologies, an Indiana based retail marketing software company. CEO Lars Nyberg announced his resignation from the company in February 2003 in order to address family matters. NCR promoted Mark Hurd to replace Nyberg as CEO in March 2003. Early on in his new role, Hurd made changes in order to cut costs, including layoffs and converting an executive parking lot into an ATM training center. Within his first year as CEO, the company's stock doubled and NCR became a market leader in ultra high end data warehousing software.

In 2006, NCR acquired software company IDVelocity and the ATM manufacturing division of Tidel, a cash security equipment manufacturer specializing in retail markets. On January 8, 2007, NCR announced its intention to separate into two independent companies by spinning off Teradata to shareholders. Bill Nuti would continue his role as president and CEO of NCR, while Teradata Senior VP Mike Koehler would assume leadership of Teradata. On October 1, 2007, NCR Corporation and Teradata jointly announced the Teradata business unit spin off was complete, with Michael Koehler as the first CEO of Teradata. On January 11, 2007, NCR announced plans to restructure its entire ATM manufacturing operations, with 650 jobs at its Dundee plant being cut. A further 450 jobs were cut in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. In 2009, the Dundee manufacturing facility was closed, along with plants in São Paulo and Budapest, citing global economic conditions. NCR extended its self service portfolio into the digital media market with the January 2007 announcement of NCR Xpress Entertainment, a multichannel entertainment kiosk. NCR's acquisition of Touch Automation LLC was announced on December 31, 2007. On October 15, 2008, NCR announced a global reseller partnership with Experticity, a Seattle based software company. In 2009, NCR relocated its corporate headquarters from Dayton, Ohio to near Duluth, Georgia; Dayton had served as NCR's home for 125 years. In 2009, NCR became the second largest DVD Kiosk operator in North America with the acquisitions of The New Release and DVD Play. In 2010, NCR completed the acquisition of digital signage company, Netkey. In August 2011, NCR purchased Radiant Systems, a hospitality and retail systems company, for US$1.2 billion. Radiant's hospitality division turned into a new Hospitality Line of Business within NCR. Radiant's petroleum and convenience retail business became part of its retail line of business. Several Radiant executives remained on board, including Scott Kingsfield, who was a general manager of NCR's Retail Line of Business and left NCR in 2014, and Andy Heyman, who became general manager of NCR's Financial Services line of business. In August 2012, the company was hit with charges of avoiding U. S. economic sanctions against Syria, greatly affecting its stock price. In February 2013, NCR completed its acquisition of Retalix (NASDAQ: RTLX), a provider of retail software and services, for approximately $650 million in cash. In January 2014, NCR completed its acquisition of Digital Insight Corporation, a provider of online and mobile banking to mid market financial institutions, from equity firm Thoma Bravo, LLC for $1.65 billion in cash. In September 2016, Mark Benjamin was named president and chief operating officer of NCR. Benjamin is a 24 year veteran of human resources management and will report directly to Bill Nuti.

In January 2018, NCR relocated its corporate headquarters from near Duluth, Georgia to a new office in Midtown Atlanta. NCR's mailing address is 864 Spring St NW, Atlanta, GA 30308. In April 2018, Mike Hayford was named CEO. He led the company's strategic shift from hardware provider to software and services led enterprise technology provider. In October 2018, NCR announced an agreement to purchase payment processor JetPay. This has allowed NCR to offer unified POS and payment packages to SMBs. In 2019, NCR announced plans to start building a campus in Belgrade, Serbia. In January 2021, NCR reached an agreement to acquire ATM operator Cardtronics in a deal valued at $2.5 billion. In October 2021, NCR's largest IT center and campus in Europe was opened in New Belgrade, Serbia. On September 16, 2022, NCR announced it would split its Digital Commerce and ATM businesses in two separate companies. The split was completed on October 16, 2023. Their names were unveiled on July 24, 2023, with Digital Commerce business being named NCR Voyix and ATM business being named NCR Atleos.

NCR's R&D activity is split between its three major centers in Atlanta (retail); Dundee, Scotland (financial industry); and Waterloo, Ontario. It also has R&D centers in Beijing; Cebu, Philippines; Belgrade, Serbia; Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Puducherry Chengalpattu and Hyderabad, India. NCR also has manufacturing facilities in Beijing, Budapest, and the Indian territory of Puducherry and Chengalpattu which is a regional manufacturing and export hub.

NCR's Self Service subsidiary develops self service software and hardware travel technology. Solutions for hardware include the TouchPort II C for airline check in and ResortPort for hospitality self service. Common Use Self Service technology simplifies the check in process by allowing passengers one common point of access for check in. NCR Self Service, LLC, was founded as Kinetics in Lake Mary, Florida. NCR acquired the company in 2004.