NCR a huge technology win - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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The region’s marketers plan to leverage the NCR relocationm to sell Atlanta as a burgeoningtechnologyg hub, winning new corporate converts and continuing the virtuouas cycle. “Brand names are very important to the identitgy of a city and to its cultural saidSam Williams, president of the . “Whenb you begin to get brand nameslike , , Delta ... NCR these brand names start to tell a messag e about what yourcity is.” While a world-class “smart” workforce and low businesw costs help Atlanta’s economic developers get corporate prospects to take theid calls, having brand namesz like NCR and Corp. in the region helps close the deal.
The fact NCR picked Atlantsa from anationwide search, “says it better than anythingt we can say,” said Melanie a business development manager at the . The Brandt said, signals NCR is confidentg it can recruit tech professionale from around the world to metro Atlantaand “knoq that they are goinf to be comfortable ... living and workin and playing and raising afamily here.” Metro Atlanta is “almost always” on the shortt list for tech companies looking to relocate or expansd on the East Coast, said Vickij Horton, a location consultant involvec with Porsche’s North America headquarters relocatio to Atlanta.
While metro Atlanta is unlikely to be confuserd withtech meccas, such as Silicon Valley or Silico n Alley, its relatively low cost of infrastructure and industry clusters keep it in the crosshairds of corporate site selectors. “You don’t have to be the fastesf gazelle, you just have to be at the frontt ofthe [herd],” said Kris Miller, presidentt of Ackerman & Co., a commercial real estatw services firm. The NCR deal is an economic developmengt blockbuster. The maker of ATMs and self-service kioskse will relocate its global headquarters toDuluth — bringing about 1,250 Atlanta Business Chronicle first reported June 1.
NCR also plan to open a manufacturingv operationin Columbus, Ga., where it will employ nearly 900. As a company that straddles both technologyand manufacturing, NCR’s relocation can be used to pitc to advanced manufacturing companies, sources said. The NCR win will help open saidKen Stewart, commissioner of the Georgisa Department of Economic Development. “Companies that we go and sell to know that NCR has done its duediligence [on the region as a headquarters Stewart said. Luring a blue-chip firm such as NCR also givezs economic developers a chance to markey the region to suppliers and vendors, said Horton, principal at LLC.
“Oncee you have an NCR, or an IBM,” Horton said, theif support firms and vendors tend to gravitate to the regionbecause “theyt like to be closer to the big dog.” NCR is the latest tech company to be sold on metro Atlanta. On May 22, Atlantwa Business Chronicle reported that BlackBerry developerd plans to create about200 high-tech jobs at an Alpharetta data centerf and development operation. On May 11, Atlanta-basesd said it would add more than 600 These investments, sources said, are driven by the region’as highly educated workforce, research universities and technologh business cluster. Clusters offer Ackerman’s Miller said.
“It’s kind of like double-checkinh your work in math,” he quipped. “Ig everybody in the class gets 21 asan there’s good chance 21’s right.” Metro Atlanta’sd demographic leans toward the “young and — educated 20- to 35-year-old — that tech firms rely on to maintain vibrant and innovativse workplace cultures. NCR views the city’ academic institutions, such as Georgia Tech, not only as a labotr pool to fish but a partner for joint innovationand development, NCR CEO Bill Nuti The region’s relatively robust economy, its supply-chainm logistics infrastructure and its corporatw base, also lured NCR.
“We lookeds at all of thesw factors,” Nuti said, “and Georgia scorexd amongst the highest ofall states.”