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NATIONAL
CASH REGISTER CORP.
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Presence in over 130 countries around the globe
National Cash Register Corporation (NCR),
established in 1884 are the pioneer of automation at point of sale.
Today, they are also the leaders but product mix has changed over the
years. It has been able to maintain its leadership in certain areas
where it enjoy edge over others. The corporation has gone through the
rigerous process of transformation. The philosophy has been based on
the belief, "In Information Technology (IT), a company cannot
achieve excellence in all the areas, it should concentrate on those
areas only where it has an edge over others.
NCR is a leader in providing Relationship
Technology solutions to customers worldwide in the retail, financial,
communications, manufacturing, travel and transportation, and
insurance markets. NCR's Relationship Technology solutions include
privacy-enabled Teradata warehouses and customer relationship
management (CRM) applications, store automation and automated teller
machines (ATMs). The company's business solutions are built on the
foundation of its long-established industry knowledge and consulting
expertise, value-adding software, global customer support services, a
complete range of consumable and media products, and leading edge
hardware technology. NCR employs over 30,000 people and operates in
130 countries with 1200 offices.
NCR has been operating in Pakistan for more than
fifty years and has been at the forefront of many initiatives which
have been taken within the country. The first of such strategic moves
was in 1984 when NCR Pakistan introduced the first commercially
available UNIX systems, paving way for an open system environment.
This move was strongly resisted by the proponents of 'Proprietary'
systems, but as the 1990s moved in, almost all the major players of
the computing business sided with the NCR and adopted the open system
philosophy.
In the late 1980s, NCR introduced the concept of
'self service banking in Pakistan through ATMs. This has brought the
new concept of customer service and convenience in the country. Today
most of the banks operating in Pakistan offer this facility either
through their own machines or a sharing system. The ATM card holders,
cards issued in Pakistan, have the facility to use their cards over
hundreds and thousands of machines installed globally.
In the later half of 1990s, realizing the
importance and need for Data Warehousing, NCR Pakistan introduced the
concept and undertook awareness programme. These efforts are seemingly
bearing fruit, as a number of organizations in the private as well as
public sector are aiming to look at the data they have as their
critical asset, which can be strategically utilized to gain
competitive edge over others in the market.
In 1997, NCR Pakistan took a major step forward and
organized the first ever Information Technology weekin the country.
NCR Pakistan can rightly take the pride of organizing the single
largest series of activities ever planned and executed in Pakistan
till today. NCR has been working closely with Computer Society of
Pakistan in organizing all Pakistan software competition.
NCR Pakistan has recently started a University
propgramme in Data Warehousing, the first of its kind in Pakistan.
This has a potential to make Pakistan a leader in this emerging
technology. NCR has signed up agreements with six leading universities
of the country to introduce data warehousing courses at the
undergraduate level. These universities include: Lahore University of
Management Sciences (LUMS), NUTS and NUCES (previously FAST).
In year 2002, NCR Pakistan will hold the third IT
Excellence Awards in Karachi. The awards will be given in the
following categories: Software Development, Software Export,
Networking, IT Pioneer, IT Educationist, IT Research and Development,
IT Publication and IT Youth. The last two categories are the latest
addition. NCR follows a transparent process being verified by a
leading firm of chartered accountants.
More recently NCR Pakistan has been awarded the
status of a Center of Expertise for the Middle East Africa region by
the headquarters for Data Warehousing. Working at this Center, skilled
IT personnel from NCR Pakistan will work with various other NCR
offices in the region to implement Data Warehousing projects in
different countries. This will not only enable Pakistan to earn
foreign exchange but also establish the credentials of the country as
a leader in the field of Data Warehousing.
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