In November 2001, NCR’s Retail Solutions Division approached Georgia Southern University with a uniquernopportunity. One of NCR’s retail point-of-sale (POS) systems, NeighborhoodPOS, was in need of significantrnenhancements to remain competitive. Although this application was a valuable piece of intellectual property,rnNCR’s strategic plan called for focusing its own internal R&D efforts on the development of new systems inrnthe self-checkout market. Not wanting to let the NeighborhoodPOS system simply fade away, NCR consideredrnoutsourcing the development effort to offshore centers as well as selling the application to a smaller softwarerndevelopment company. Both of these options, however, proved less than desirable, leading NCR to considerrna third, innovative approach – donating the software (valued at $2.7 million) to a university, which in return,rnwould involve students in course projects and internships geared toward creating the next generation of thernNeighborhoodPOS system. Over the last year, NCR, Georgia Southern University, and the State of Georgiarnhave worked together to create a framework within which such a project could take place. This paper describesrnthat framework and the forces that brought it together. Future papers will detail the successes and challengesrnof this initiative.
展开▼
