NCR Corporation has opened a 140,000 sq ft R&D facility in Hyderabad, the largest for the consumer transaction technology firm outside of the US, amid a growing emphasis on investing more on software solutions to shape it into a profit engine.
The decision to invest more is intended to transform the software business into the “economic engine”, executive vice president of NCR Software Paul Langenbahn told mediapersons here on Tuesday.
The R&D centre, to house over 1,200 employees and consolidate operations in the city, has been established to strengthen the company’s leadership in omni-channel solutions. The facility, which has grown from 50 engineers in 2004, will develop and support innovative software and services deployed by institutions globally to empower consumers through self-service applications.
Headcount doubled
Director of Operations and head of Hyderabad Development Centre Ashok Nallam said the headcount of the facility has doubled, from 600, over the last three years.
Software development for the financial, retail, travel and hospitality industries is focus of the centre that has been responsible for a host of innovations.
The list includes the Interactive Teller ATM, EMV contactless ATM, mobile payments solutions, retail self-checkout lanes, CRM platforms, cinema and stadium systems management solutions, among others.
The company’s decision to boost investment on software comes in backdrop of NCR expecting the ATM pie in the overall business continuing to shrink in the foreseeable future.
A leader in consumer transaction technologies, NCR has a plant in Chennai that makes Automated Teller Machines.
Since its inception in 2014, the plant has manufactured 200,000 units with 70 % of them exported, he explained.
Noting that the profit engine was transforming from hardware into software , Mr. Langenbahn said further investments on hardware are to be focused on getting the smart edge technology. The company was looking to collaborate or acquire smaller companies that “contribute value around our platform.” At present, the share of software, hardware and services to the total revenue of NCR was almost equal.
CTO Eli Rosner said NCR is building software engineering infrastructure to address the “connected economy and our investment in this new R&D facility will play a significant role in our transformational journey.”
ATMs upgrade
On the impact of India’s stress on digital payments, a spokesperson of the company said it has been marginal. A splurge in ATM roll out, however, was expected in the next 2-3 months with several banks set to move many of the older facilities in major cities to tier-II and III locations.