NCR to put research lab at new HQ

Innovation Lab to combine focus on mobile technologies, data analytics, ‘Internet of Things.’

NCR, the Fortune 500 financial technology company, plans a new global research and development hub at its future headquarters now under construction in Midtown Atlanta.

The NCR Innovation Lab will include “research, innovation and design-thinking,” the company said in a news release Tuesday, and will combine the company’s focus on mobile technologies, data analytics and “the Internet of Things.”

NCR, perhaps best known as a maker of ATMs, retail checkout systems and other kiosks, has migrated over the years into software and services and powering the Internet of Things, or IoT. The idea is to seamlessly connect the way merchants, banks and hospitality companies connect with customers on the web and in person.

The company also is part of a wave of big corporations moving headquarters or research functions near Georgia Tech and other in-town universities to tap faculty and student talent.

NCR announced plans last year to shift its headquarters from Gwinnett County to a new campus at Spring and Eighth streets near Technology Square where it would base about 3,600 workers. The complex remains on schedule to open in early 2018, spokesman Scott Sykes said.

Sykes declined to say how many jobs will be attached to the new innovation lab.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported earlier this month that the company and its development partner, Cousins Properties, plan a second tower on the site, and that NCR is considering shifting more than 1,000 additional workers — and perhaps as many as 1,800 — to the site as part of the possible second phase.

Sykes declined to comment on expansion plans beyond the innovation center announcement.

RENDERING BY COUSINS PROPERTIES, NCR, DUDA PAINE ARCHITECTS, HKS AND KIMLEY-HORN The new global research and development hub will be housed at the headquarters of financial technology firm NCR.