Only just freed from Ma Bell’s apron strings, NCR Corp is wasting no time at all in flexing its muscles and launching new initiatives, typical being the NCR Computer Systems Group, which reckons that it could cut the cost of the iAPX-86-based servers it builds if only it could make a few more of the things. Simplest way to achieve that quickly is to start taking in other people’s washing and build a loyal base of OEM customers smaller manufacturers that no longer think that the board stuffing and assembly game is worth the candle. Accordingly, the company has formed a new unit dedicated to OEM sales of its servers and high availability software. NCR has received a lot of positive attention for key technologies we have developed, like our eight- processor OctaSCALE architecture and high availability software, says Mark Hurd, vice-president of marketing for the Computer Systems Group, noting that OEM sales will enable NCR to bring them to a wider market. The new unit includes sales, service, engineering, manufacturing, product management and legal support resources to enable it to serve the needs of OEM customers better. The OEM division will have the right to sell all NCR’s computer products including its WorldMark family of Pentium Pro- based enterprise servers, NCR LifeKeeper fail-over and clustering software and Top End transaction processing monitor, but will focus on the one- to eight-way WorldMark 4300 server.
