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also found that no significant degree of technical risk was present
in any of the various activities.
Mr. Teixeira reported that the Success system offered no new
or unique features to the banking industry, and that although
Success was an improvement from its predecessor, it did not provide
industry-leading capabilities. Mr. Teixeira noted that although
some functions, such as the use of e-mail and the ENFORM program to
generate reports, improved efficiency, NTS did not discover any new
or unique ways to exploit those functions. He concluded that
although no commercially available software could provide exactly
the functionality needed by Norwest, there was no doubt about the
ability to develop viable equipment leasing software in Norwest's
environment.
We agree with respondent that the development of the Success
system does not constitute qualified research. All three experts
noted the lack of documentary evidence for the Success project, and
we note that the record is specifically lacking with respect to the
technical risks involved. It appears that the only project
activity which may have involved technical risk was with respect to
the ability to develop Success on the TPF platform. However, Dr.
McDermott was vague about the nature of the technical risk in this
regard, and Mr. Teixeira reported that this was a small part of the
overall project. We also note the testimony of Dan Franker,
manager of the Success project, who indicated that he never
encountered insurmountable issues with the project and that he
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