NCR Invests in Merchandising Solutions for Data Warehousing to Enable Retailers to Forecast Consumer Demand by Store
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In an aggressive move to further expand its data warehouse solutions for retailers, NCR Corporation today announced it is buying 50 percent of Stirling Douglas Group, Inc. (SDG), a privately-held software firm based near Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Terms of the cash transaction were not disclosed.

SDG's Profit Series is a best-in-class suite of applications for high performance merchandise forecasting, planning and automated replenishment, designed to maximize the value of a retailer's data warehouse. NCR, a world leader in retail data warehousing, offers a portfolio of strategic solutions that build on NCR and third-party software, business consulting services, and world class technology, especially NCR's Teradata database.

The agreement between NCR and SDG provides for an ongoing investment by both companies to optimize the SDG Profit Series on NCR's Teradata database platform. Tony Fano, senior vice president of NCR's Retail Solutions Group, said the industry-leading performance of Teradata uniquely complements SDG's merchandise management applications.

"Retailers--large and small--need to make thousands, even millions, of decisions daily to be certain they have the right inventory in the right store at the right time, to satisfy consumers' demands," Fano said. "The SDG Profit Series uses daily detailed data to effectively automate these processes, providing margin contribution at item level and maximizing store assortments and inventory levels throughout the supply chain. When SDG's applications are combined with Teradata, retailers will be able to interrogate and act on vast amounts of historical data not previously available, to make those decisions faster, more frequently, and with greater accuracy.

"Our strategic direction is to offer a complete portfolio of world-class retail data warehouse applications that leverage the industry-leading performance of NCR's Teradata database engine," Fano added. "This includes delivering 'active warehouse' solutions--such as SDG's solutions--that leverage the data warehouse and automate operational processes such as forecasting, ordering and replenishment."

SDG will continue to operate as an independent software provider to meet its clients' requirements for other hardware, database and operating systems.

"We're excited about this opportunity to leverage NCR's Teradata database technology and architecture to move the SDG Profit Series to even higher levels of performance and scalability," said Doug Cook, SDG president and chief executive officer. "More than ever before, businesses will have the opportunity to benefit from leading edge SDG applications such as our new INNOVATION3 module, which enables retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers to take action on their data warehouses."

The NCR direct sales organization will resell SDG's Profit Series to retailers worldwide as part of an integrated retail data warehouse solution that includes NCR's retail consulting and implementation services, Teradata database, WorldMark servers, and Enterprise Support Services. Cook added, "NCR's worldwide market coverage will enable rapid expansion of SDG's sales, services and support to retailers globally."

Teradata provides industry-leading performance, unlimited scalability from 10 gigabytes to more than 100 terabytes, seamless connectivity and the lowest administration requirements of any database on the market. It employs a patented, shared-nothing MPP (massively parallel processing) architecture that can be deployed on both SMP (symmetric multi-processing) and MPP hardware platforms. Teradata runs on UNIX, and will be available on Windows NT and Sun Solaris. Visit the NCR Teradata web site at http://www.ncr.com/teradata

Founded in 1985, Stirling Douglas Group Inc. also has offices in the U.S. and Europe. SDG is a leading provider of demand chain management solutions that enable retailers and wholesalers to improve their competitiveness in today's complex marketplace. The Profit Series, SDG's integrated enterprise merchandising solution, offers software for forecasting, automated replenishment, merchandise planning, category management and data warehousing. SDG provides software and performs consulting, customization and education services for clients in North America and Europe. For additional information on SDG, visit the company's Web site at http://www.stirlingdouglas.com

NCR's Retail Solutions Group, headquartered in the greater Atlanta area, is a leading provider of retail data warehousing and store automation solutions, including consulting and customer support services worldwide. NCR Corporation is a recognized world leader in scalable data warehousing, self-service and store automation solutions for the retail, financial and communications industries and other select markets. NCR's solutions are built on the foundation of the company's long-established industry knowledge and consulting expertise, value-adding software, world-leading hardware technology, global customer support services and a complete line of consumable and media products. More information about NCR can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.ncr.com