DAYTON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 8, 2006--Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR), announced a major upgrade to its Data Warehouse Maturity Assessment consulting service for executives seeking to maximize the value of data warehousing investments. This service is based on a patent-pending process that provides a report card which evaluates how well a company's data warehouse and business intelligence infrastructure supports its strategic business goals.

Supported by specialized software, Teradata professional consultants perform a rigorous analysis of a company's data warehouse environment in key categories: business continuity, architectural governance, decision support, workload demands, data governance, enterprise integration, user access, employee communication and training, and business governance. To provide the necessary detailed assessment, these key categories are further divided into a total of 33 dimensions of data warehouse effectiveness, which evaluate the relationship between IT and business initiatives.

"Because we look at the capability, integration of all data warehouse technology and their business processes, Teradata has discovered consistent issues that retard the profitability of companies. The Teradata assessment is coupled with a roadmap that offers guidance to the chief information officer in overcoming obstacles," said Helen Fowler, director of business development for Teradata Professional Services. "Technology alone will not achieve data warehousing success; it is data management that can make or break the investment. Executives rely on Teradata's experience to deliver constructive assessments, regardless of technology platform."

According to Mark Beyer, research director for Gartner, "One of the surest signs of a mature data warehouse program is the presence of a governance process that addresses the management of data models, data integration architecture and the service-level agreements with both users and dependent applications."

The consulting service is technology neutral and can be used to assess any data warehouse environment to identify gaps, under performance and misalignment of technology and business initiatives. The typical assessment looks at both current and future business objectives and takes five to eight weeks to complete.

Some of the enhanced capabilities of Teradata Data Warehouse Maturity Assessment include the ability to appraise:

Business continuity - Data Warehouse Maturity Assessment looks at whether a system is available to meet the needs of the business regardless of the situation. Can the business remain operational during scheduled downtime and unplanned temporary outages or in case of a disaster that destroys an entire data warehouse system? It's a question of value - and survival of the business. Many companies don't know where the weakest link is in their business continuity plans, or if plans have even been formalized. This is especially important because data warehouses have become a reliable foundation to run mission-critical business-intelligence applications. The information has to be readily available and consistently delivered while continually protecting the quality and integrity of the data.

Evolving business demands - Teradata consultants evaluate the data warehouse's capability to support bottom-line business results as the competitive landscape and needs of the business change. Data warehousing is evolving which has given rise to new demands from business users to push valuable business intelligence into the company's operations and to front-line decision-makers in a more timely manner. This intelligence drives better, faster decisions because it is supported by a combination of historical reporting and analysis, predictive analytics and near real-time customer or business activity. Added to this requirement is the need to add hundreds of concurrent users, multiple applications, in multiple time zones, with ever-increasing query traffic.

Business governance - It is common for chief information officers to have a long list of desirable projects, but only a limited budget. In addition, chief information officers are challenged by the management and the board of directors to determine the return on investment for spending in any particular project. The Teradata Professional Services team assists by establishing a formalized process to weigh the value of each project and highlight reusable assets which can be shared across projects. This prioritization is supported by a structured return on investment analysis. Long after the consulting process is complete, the chief information officer can use the formal process to govern IT spending.

Working with leading-edge companies, Teradata consulting teams have provided a plan for businesses to overcome the three commonly identified barriers:

    --  the inability of businesses to transform valuable operational,
        financial or customer data into usable business intelligence
        to support their company's decision-making;

    --  immature governance standards and practices for IT
        architecture and data, which impede the ability to build and
        sustain a cost-effective, integrated, cross-functional
        analytical environment;

    --  the costly proliferation of data marts and other external data
        repositories that has prevented easy user access, and
        contributed to data quality and integrity issues.

The Teradata Professional Services organization, solely dedicated to enterprise data warehousing, has distilled more than 20 years of experience into its software and consulting engagements. The team includes consultants with industry-specific expertise in data warehousing strategy and implementation, as well as analytic applications. Since it was established in 1984, Teradata Professional Services has offered thousands of consulting engagements to businesses, many of whom have been recognized throughout the industry for deploying world-class data warehouses.

About Teradata Division

Teradata (www.teradata.com), a division of NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR), is the global technology leader in enterprise data warehousing, analytic applications and data warehousing services. Organizations around the world rely on the power of Teradata's award-winning solutions to get a single, integrated view of their business to enhance decision-making, customer relationships and profitability.

About NCR Corporation

NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR) is a leading global technology company helping businesses build stronger relationships with their customers. NCR's Teradata(R) data warehouses, ATMs, retail systems, self-service solutions and IT services provide Relationship Technology(TM) that maximizes the value of customer interactions and helps organizations create a stronger competitive position. Based in Dayton, Ohio, NCR (www.ncr.com) employs approximately 29,300 people worldwide.

NCR and Teradata are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCR Corporation in the United States and other countries.

    CONTACT: NCR Corporation
             Teradata Division
             Dan Conway, 858-485-3029
             dan.conway@teradata-ncr.com

    SOURCE: NCR Corporation