Unisys Corp had $3.6bn in unfilled orders at the end of 1997, according to a filing with Securities and Exchange Commission. Of the total, $2.9bn was in services and $0.7bn in computer equipment. Unisys claims that no single customer accounts for more than 10% of its total revenue. The company says unfunded US government orders are not included in the backlog amounts. Sales of commercial products to various agencies of the US government represented 12% of total consolidated revenue in 1997. Of the total backlog, approximately 65% is expected to be filled in 1998. Strangely, it was the first time that the company reported such information because, it says, it only began to gather the information necessary to report its backlog during 1997. There is still no word on who’s going to take over the manufacturing and assembly of PCs and low-end servers for Unisys when the company goes ahead with its outsourcing plans (CI No 3.320) for that part of the hardware business. In the SEC filing, Unisys said only that it took a charge of $127m directly related to the decision to exit that business and that it plans to meet customer needs for low-end systems through partnering arrangements.
