By Stephen Phillips
Computer services and hardware provider, Unisys Corp, announced late last week the final fruits of two years of internal soul searching designed to jump-start sluggish revenue and position the company to capture lucrative e-business contracts.
The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based outfit, ranked the number-five global supplier of IT consulting, systems integration and outsourcing services said it would sell and deliver its products and services across six units. One new departure is that the company’s hardware business will be integrated with its service offerings. The new structure, dubbed e-@ction Solutions, will takes immediate effect. It is designed to give customers a single point of contact with the company and as well as underpinning cross-selling of hardware and services to clients, a Unisys spokesperson told ComputerWire.
A new Global Industries group will bid for contracts in a range of vertical industries across the world, including financial services and public sector business. Meantime Unisys’ hardware business spanning production of its servers and mainframes, which accounts for one-third of the company’s revenue, has been corralled into a new group dubbed Systems and Technology. A new Global Outsourcing unit will bid for and service data center and business services outsourcing contracts; while Worldwide sales and Services will deal with global delivery of contracts, a spokesperson said. Network services contracts will be handled by a new Global Network Services division. As announced by the company last month, a new e-Business group will pitch for internet and e-commerce systems integration and consulting contracts. Unisys said at the time of the launch of its e- business strategy last month that the application service provider delivery mechanism, under which services providers remotely host software applications for customers, would feature prominently in its new market strategy.
Last month the company parted with the services of Lawrence Russell and Gerald Gagliari, respectively the executive vice presidents of its high-end corporate computer services and low- end customer desktop technical support businesses as it pressed ahead with plans to integrate the two units.
Joseph McGrath, a former Xerox Corp executive who joined Unisys in January will head the Global Industries unit; while ex-Compaq Corp vice president, Services Marketing and Sales, Janet Wallace, has been appointed to lead Global Network Services. Robert Evans, former vice president and general manager, Unisys Outsourcing North America, has been appointed to lead Global Outsourcing; and Jack Blaine, previously president, Unisys Pacific Asia Americas Africa Group, is to lead the Worldwide Sales and Services unit. Barbara Babcock leads the e-Business unit continuing her role heading Unisys’ electronic business group, which she was appointed to in January; while George Gazerwitz, stays on as leader of the hardware unit. The new executives will form an interdependent team, reporting directly to chief executive, Larry Weinbach, the company said.
The changes replace Unisys’ self-styled three businesses/one holding company structure. Under the old system, Unisys was composed of an information services unit, which carved up contracts on a vertical industry basis; general computer services, which delivered across the breadth of Unisys contracts; and a separate and distinct computer systems group housing production of the company’s hardware products.
A Unisys spokesperson said that the company had been prodded to make the changes by customers complaining that the company was hard to contract and ill-coordinated. Clients were extensively consulted during the two-year program, for which Unisys hired the services of two management consultancies, Bethesda, Maryland- based Oxford Associates, and Kaiser Associates.
Number-two service company, Electronic Data Systems Corp recently pulled off a similar realignment drive aimed at improving cross- selling of produ
cts, over a period of less than nine months. But the Unisys spokesperson said there was no direct comparison between the change programs mounted at either company because EDS did not have a hardware division to contend with.
Unisys reported net income of $136.5m, including $10m worth of one-time gains, on revenue of $1.87bn for its third quarter to September 30. At 6.7% revenue growth was 1.3% lower than analysts had expected and chief executive, Larry Weinbach, said revenue growth for the full year would only stand at 4% amid shortfalls in its network services and Windows NT systems integration services. The results reported in mid-October sent Unisys shares into a 37% tailspin. The company’s shares bottomed out at $20.94 recently, rallying to $29.06 at close of trading on Friday. The shares had been priced near $50 at the start of September.
