X
Business

Unisys Phils. scores big in gov't infotech projects

Unisys Philippines posted a 536 percent growth in revenue in the first quarter of this year, driven by the new public sector IT projects.By Edu H.
Written by Edu H. Lopez, Contributor

Unisys Philippines posted a 536 percent growth in revenue in the first quarter of this year, driven by the new public sector IT projects.

By Edu H. Lopez

PHILIPPINES, 30 June 2000 (Manila Bulletin) - The strong growth was attributed by the relationships that had been created by Unisys with customers and business partners, according to Jack A. Blaine, Unisys president for worldwide sales. Unisys’ latest wins were the IT projects for the National Statistics Office (NSO) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

Blaine said the Unisys solution will provide NSO with a modern and effective computing platform to address many problem areas. Control of information is fundamental to the NSO in achieving its goals with the Unisys solution as the key.

The 12-year NSO project involves a multiphase build-transfer-operate (BOT) project. Unisys has met the requirements for an open system architecture built around relevant industry standards. The highly-rated Unisys Aquanta servers at the heart of its configuration are fully open systems compliant.

With the Unisys solution, the new Civil Registry System is expected to reduce the service time from three days to 30 minutes at the NSO’s central facility and five Metro Manila offices. NSO serves a daily average of 6,800 requests for certification and authentication of documents. And this huge volume of documents affects the effectiveness and efficiency of services to the public.

With Unisys solution, NSO is expected to address its vital statistics production backlog of three years due to the obsolete computer resources and outdated computer systems, wordkload overload from the many surveys and censuses which it undertakes, centralized processing and lack of manpower.

The CRS (Civil Registry System) is aimed at enhancing and improving public service delivery through expeditious processing of requests for copies, authentication of Civil Registry documents and certification of civil status and vital statistics.

NSO plans to establish four storage sites that will handle requests — central facility, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao mirror sites.

In the Asian region, Unisys posted a revenue growth of 27 percent in 1999. “We are seeing a resurgence of IT spending by the Asian airlines,” said Blaine. ="">He asserted that Unisys was not late in introducing ebusiness strategy for its clients. “We have just started to scratch the surface of what is electronic business is all about. What we are targeting are companies that can combine their fulfillment process with Internet technologies to provide an integrated solution.”

“The real opportunity is just beginning for us because what we can see now is just conducting inquiries and data transfer. We are just in time for the ebusiness arena,” Blaine added.

Gabriel Leiva, Unisys Philippines president and general manager said 1999 was fantastic year for Unisys business in the country.

“Last year, we closed new businesses, seven times more than we closed the previous year. The sales we closed in 1999 are now generating huge increase in revenue this year,” Leiva said.

He expects business for Unisys Philippines to grow by at least 100 percent this year compared to 1999.

“In the Asia South, we have been outperforming the competition three times.”

Unisys has estimated that about 17 to 18 percent of its revenue comes from electronic business-related projects worldwide. About 50 percent of its revenue would come from e-business projects over the next several years. That would represent about $5 billion in 2002. Unisys has made significant investments to make it an electronic business company. These are critical in Unisys’ ongoing transformation from a “bricks-and-mortar” manufacturer of computer systems into a “click-and-mortar” provider of e-business services and solutions.

Blaine said Unisys has been transformed into a services company from being a predominantly technology firm.

“Services account for about 65 percent of our total business worldwide, while technology is 35 percent. We expect that revenue from services would grow to 75 percent and 25 percent for technology.”

Blaine noted that Unisys is excited in bringing up new technology this year despite its small percentage in revenue generation compared to services.

“We decided a year ago that we will only bring such technology where we can really provide value,” he added.

www.zdnetasia.com
Unisys Philippines joins e-business race
Philippine Govt. plans US$24.24M development fund

Editorial standards