Data warehousing specialist Teradata used its annual user
conference in Florence this week to announce a host of software
releases and reveal plans to move its platforms on to a 64-bit
architecture.The
company, part of retail and ATM systems giant NCR, confirmed it
would move its hardware platforms on to a 64-bit Intel Itanium II
based architecture, running both HP-UX and Windows (2000 and .net),
during 2004.
Teradata’s
data warehouse has, traditionally, been run on NCR’s Unix-based
platform, and some analysts have criticised the company for not
providing enough support for alternative environments.
NCR chief
executive officer Mark Hurd rebutted these claims. “Around 35% of
our data warehouse sales are now on Windows 2000 platforms,
compared with 10% two years ago. We could go on to Linux if we
wanted – there is nothing technical stopping us – but it is not a
priority for us at the moment.”
To
complement its move to 64-bit computing, Teradata will release
version 5.0 of its CRM application in August, promising
significantly faster lead management and increased personalisation
across all channels.
The
software, which will run on both Unix and NT4 based platforms, has
been enhanced for better identification of industry -specific
business opportunities.
“As well
as knowing what customers are doing - as traditional CRM allows you
to do - 5.0 will allow users to identify customers who are not
doing something, for example, customers who are not using their
bank’s ATM or customers who have signed up for an account but have
not activated it.” said Heather Anderson, vice president of
customer management at Teradata.
Anderson
added that version 5.0 has consolidated the amount of functionality
in previous Teradata CRM releases.
“There was
simply too much functionality in earlier version,” she admitted.
“We have consolidated the number of modules from 20 to 11, meaning
[the software] is more user focused, concentrating on business
processes.”
Teradata
will also release version 6.0 of its Financial Services Logical
Data Model (FS-LDM) software later this year, promising to maximise
the value of the data warehouse by structuring and organising
customer and business data.
The
software will ensure that cross-functional data is available
allowing financial services firms to determine who are the most
profitable banking or brokerage customers, said Jim Donovan, vice
president of financial services industry marketing at Teradata.
“With the
new FS-LDM, customers can quickly implement a best-in-class
enterprise data warehouse that embraces sales, marketing,
financial, customer, product, trading partner and clickstream
data,” he said.