Unisys
Encyclopedia
Unisys Corporation headquartered in Blue Bell
, Pennsylvania
, United States
, and incorporated in Delaware
, is a long established business whose core products now involves computing and networking.
, at the University of Pennsylvania
.
In September 1986 Unisys was formed through the merger of the mainframe
corporations Sperry
and Burroughs, with Burroughs buying Sperry for $4.8 billion. The name was chosen in an internal competition when an intern, Charles Ayoub, came up with the UNISYS acronym from United Information Systems. The merger was the largest in the computer industry at the time and made Unisys the second largest computer company with annual revenue of $10.5 billion. At the time of the merger, Unisys had approximately 120,000 employees.
In addition to hardware, both Burroughs and Sperry had a history of working on U.S. government contracts. Unisys continues to provide hardware, software, and services to various government agencies.
Soon after the merger, the market for proprietary mainframe-class systems—the mainstream product of Unisys and its competitors such as IBM
—began a long-term decline that continues, at a lesser rate, today. In response, Unisys made the strategic decision to shift into high end servers (e.g., 32 processor Windows Servers), as well as information technology (IT) services such as systems integration, outsourcing, and related technical services, while holding onto the profitable revenue stream from maintaining its installed base of proprietary mainframe hardware and applications.
Important events in the company's history include the development of the 2200 series
in 1986, including the UNISYS 2200/500 CMOS
mainframe, and the Micro A in 1989, the first desktop mainframe, the UNISYS ES7000
servers in 2000, and the Unisys blueprinting method
of visualizing business rules and workflow in 2004.
In 1988 the company acquired Convergent Technologies
, makers of CTOS
.
On October 7, 2008, J. Edward Coleman replaced J. McGrath as CEO and Chairman.
On November 11, 2008, the company was removed from the Standard & Poor's 500 index as the market capitalization of the company had fallen below the S&P 500 minimum of $4 billion.
, the New York Clearinghouse, Dell
, Lufthansa Systems
, Lloyds TSB
, EMC
, SWIFT
, various state governments (for services such as unemployment insurance, licensing, etc.), various branches of the U.S. military, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), numerous airports, the General Services Administration
, U.S. Transportation Security Administration
, Internal Revenue Service
, Nextel, and Telefonica
of Spain.
Technical innovation is a central tenet of the Unisys business. The company maintains a portfolio of over 1500 U.S. and non-U.S. patents.
Unisys systems are used for many industrial and government purposes, including banking, check processing, income tax processing, airline passenger reservations, biometric identification, newspaper content management and shipping port management, as well as providing weather data services.Unisys developed the software for NEXRAD, the original doppler weather radar, and has since provided weather data consisting of radar, satellite, lightning, etc. Unisys operates the world's largest RFID network for the U.S. military, tracking 9 million containers yearly to 1,500 nodes in 25 countries. It also created the universal identification card for citizens of South Africa
.
The company engages in consulting, one-time contract jobs, and contracts for ongoing outsourced IT services. Services include building and integrating hardware and software systems, providing ongoing hosting and management of data, Business Processing Outsourcing, outsourced help desks and End User Services, Secure Cloud, planning operational processes and changes, and providing security services.
Its equipment line includes the ES7000 server family, which uses Intel processors such as Xeon
or Itanium
chips. The servers run Microsoft
's Windows Datacenter and other Windows operating systems, and/or open source
Linux
operating systems from Novell
or Red Hat
. The ES7000 is also certified by the Guinness Book of World Records for hosting the largest number of concurrent gamers ever recorded on a single game server.
The company's mainframe line, Clearpath, is capable of running not only mainframe software, but both the Java
platform and the JBoss
Java EE Application Server concurrently. The Clearpath system is available in either a UNISYS 2200-based system (Sperry) or an MCP
-based system (Burroughs).
In March 2011, the company launched Unisys Hybrid Enterprise Framework, a methodology and set of services which manage multiple IT delivery models – both traditional and cloud-based – within a consistent computing environment managed as a single entity. A key part of the framework includes a portfolio of cloud building services, which focus on the planning, designing and implementation of mission-critical cloud solutions within an integrated enterprise environment.
Secure Partitioning (s-Par), a Unisys solution is a virtualization technology for Intel processor-based ClearPath servers. The s-Par technology divides a high-performance system into 4 secure partitions, accommodating the central processing complex and 3 specialty engines, which perform specific application functions, such as web services and Java application deployment. This allows ClearPath users to make use of special-purpose processors called specialty engines to streamline resource management.
Unisys launched the Hosted Secure Private Cloud in December 2010. It provides all the benefits of a private cloud, which is fast access to IT resources without the need for purchasing additional infrastructure as well as control over shared business assets with better capabilities for complying with regulations. The solution dedicates a specific set of IT resources – computing, storage, network and middleware – to each customer and allows for adding IT resources to the private cloud within a matter of minutes, through automation.
Consumerization of IT: A study sponsored by Unisys and conducted by IDC , which revealed the gap between the activities and expectations of new generation of “iWorkers” and the ability of organizations to support their needs. The results showed that organizations continue to work with standardized command and control IT models of the past and are not able to profit from the widespread use of newer networked technologies.
Security Index: A biannual global study that provides statistically relevant insights into the attitudes of consumers on a wide range of security related issues, including:
National security - including concerns related to terrorism and health epidemics.
Financial security - regarding financial fraud and ability to meet personal financial obligations.
Internet security - related to spam, virus, and online financial transactions.
Personal security - concerning physical safety and identity theft.
Cloud 20/20: Unisys Corporation launched Cloud 20/20, an annual technical paper contest for tertiary students from India, in October 2009. The contest allows students to explore the possibilities and complexities of cloud computing in areas such as automation, virtualization, application development, security, consumerization of IT and airports. The contest has drawn participation from universities across India two years in a row -- with over 570 institutes taking part in 2009 and more than a thousand in 2010.
Cloud 20/20 is open to research students and post-graduates as well as pre-final and final year engineering students in Computer Science, Information Technology and other related areas. The contest culminates in an event where five finalists present their papers before a panel of judges that comprise academicians and technologists. Prizes include the latest technology gadgets, internship projects and career opportunities with Unisys. The latest version of the contest is currently underway.
Clean air program: Provides employees with the option of setting up home based offices and reduce the need for daily work related travel. In 2010, this travel reduction resulted in the elimination of over 8500 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
Community projects: Unisys was recognized by the City of San Diego as the ‘Recycler of the Year’ from 2002–2005 and was given the Integrated Waste Management award by the State of California in 2002-2005. Unisys was honored at the 2008 Computerworld Green IT Symposium in Washington D.C. In 2009, Unisys was named in the Black Book of Outsourcing as one of the top 50 “green” outsourcing providers in the world.
Pollution prevention: Since 1996, Unisys has reduced hazardous waste generation by approximately 95%. Unisys has collected over 35 million pounds of used electronic products internally and from customers since 1997. Many parts were refurbished for future use or sold while the remaining materials were delivered to end of life electronic equipment recyclers.
ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems: The Unisys manufacturing site in Irvine, California received ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) certification. Through on-going EMS implementation, the company continues to formulate and implement policy and objectives that take into account legislative requirements, environment-friendly technological approaches and information about significant environmental impacts.
data compression
algorithm, which is used in the common GIF image file format. For a more complete discussion of this issue, see Graphics Interchange Format#Unisys and LZW patent enforcement.
Unisys was the target of "Operation Ill Wind
", a major corruption investigation in the mid-to-late-1980s. As part of the settlement, all Unisys employees were required to receive ethics training each year, a practice that continues today.
In 2003 and 2004, Unisys retained the influential lobbyist Jack Abramoff
, paying his firm $640,000 for his services in those two years. In January 2006, Abramoff pleaded guilty to five felony
counts for various crimes related to his federal lobbying activities, though none of his crimes involved work on behalf of Unisys. The lobbying activities of Abramoff and his associates are now the subject of a large federal investigation.
In October 2005, the Washington Post reported that the company had allegedly overbilled on the $1-to-3-billion Transportation Security Administration contract for almost 171,000 hours of labor and overtime at up to the maximum rate of $131.13 per hour including 24,983 hours not allowed by the contract. Unisys denied wrongdoing.
In 2006, the Washington Post reported that the FBI was investigating Unisys for alleged cybersecurity lapses under the company's contract with the United States Department of Homeland Security. A number of security lapses supposedly occurred during the contract, including incidents in which data was transmitted to Chinese
servers. Unisys denies all charges and said it has documentation disproving the allegations.
In 2008 Joe McGrath stepped down after a no confidence vote from the board, and was replaced by J. Edward Coleman, former CEO of Gateway, Inc. The president of the Federal sector Greg Baroni was also fired. Unisys announced on June 30, 2008 that the Transportation Security Administration
(TSA) had not selected the company for Phase 2 of procurement for the Information Technology Infrastructure Program. In July Unisys announced its plans to file a formal protest of the TSA decision with the Government Accountability Office
(GAO). On August 20 the TSA announced it was allowing bidding from all competitors including Unisys and Northrop Grumman, who both filed formal protests with the GAO and protested TSA's decision to the Federal Aviation Administration
's Office of Dispute Resolution, after not initially being selected.
2009: Unisys Boasts about firing American workers; "We were able to eliminate a whole bunch of actually U.S.-based jobs and kind of replace them with two folks out of India" (Richard Marcello, president of technology, consulting, and integration solutions) The company completed a one-for-ten reverse stock split in October 2009 in an attempt to prop up stock prices and fend off delisting.
2010: Unisys jettisons Medicare processing Health Information Management service to Molina Healthcare for $135 million.
Blue Bell, Pennsylvania
Blue Bell is a census-designated place in Whitpain Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 6,067....
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and incorporated in Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
, is a long established business whose core products now involves computing and networking.
History
Unisys has a long history in the technology industry. The company traces its roots back to the founding of American Arithmometer Company (later Burroughs Corporation) in 1886 and the Sperry Gyroscope Company in 1910. Unisys predecessor companies also include the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation, which invented the world's first large-scale digital computer, the ENIACENIAC
ENIAC was the first general-purpose electronic computer. It was a Turing-complete digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems....
, at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
.
In September 1986 Unisys was formed through the merger of the mainframe
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
corporations Sperry
Sperry Corporation
Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the twentieth century...
and Burroughs, with Burroughs buying Sperry for $4.8 billion. The name was chosen in an internal competition when an intern, Charles Ayoub, came up with the UNISYS acronym from United Information Systems. The merger was the largest in the computer industry at the time and made Unisys the second largest computer company with annual revenue of $10.5 billion. At the time of the merger, Unisys had approximately 120,000 employees.
In addition to hardware, both Burroughs and Sperry had a history of working on U.S. government contracts. Unisys continues to provide hardware, software, and services to various government agencies.
Soon after the merger, the market for proprietary mainframe-class systems—the mainstream product of Unisys and its competitors such as IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
—began a long-term decline that continues, at a lesser rate, today. In response, Unisys made the strategic decision to shift into high end servers (e.g., 32 processor Windows Servers), as well as information technology (IT) services such as systems integration, outsourcing, and related technical services, while holding onto the profitable revenue stream from maintaining its installed base of proprietary mainframe hardware and applications.
Important events in the company's history include the development of the 2200 series
UNIVAC 1100/2200 series
The UNIVAC 1100/2200 series is a series of compatible 36-bit computer systems, beginning with the UNIVAC 1107 in 1962, initially made by Sperry Rand...
in 1986, including the UNISYS 2200/500 CMOS
CMOS
Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor is a technology for constructing integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, static RAM, and other digital logic circuits...
mainframe, and the Micro A in 1989, the first desktop mainframe, the UNISYS ES7000
ES7000
The ES7000 is Unisys's x86/Windows, Linux and Solaris-based server product line. The "ES7000" brand has been used since 1999, although variants and models within the family support various processor and bus architectures. The server is marketed and positioned as a scale-up platform where scale-out...
servers in 2000, and the Unisys blueprinting method
3DVE
3DVE or 3D-VE was created by Unisys to provide visibility within existing enterprise organizations into how proposed changes will affect their business operations...
of visualizing business rules and workflow in 2004.
In 1988 the company acquired Convergent Technologies
Convergent Technologies (Unisys)
Convergent Technologies was an American computer company formed by a small group of people who left Intel Corporation and Xerox PARC in 1979....
, makers of CTOS
Convergent Technologies Operating System
The Convergent Technologies Operating System, also known variously as CTOS, BTOS and STARSYS, was a modular, message-passing, multiprocess-based operating system.-Overview:...
.
On October 7, 2008, J. Edward Coleman replaced J. McGrath as CEO and Chairman.
On November 11, 2008, the company was removed from the Standard & Poor's 500 index as the market capitalization of the company had fallen below the S&P 500 minimum of $4 billion.
Products, services, and customers
Paralleling larger trends in the U.S. information technology industry, an increasing amount of Unisys revenue comes from services rather than equipment sales. In 2008, the ratio was 88% for services, up from 65% in 1997. Unisys clients are typically large corporations or government agencies, and have included Washington MutualWashington Mutual
Washington Mutual, Inc. , abbreviated to WaMu, was a savings bank holding company and the former owner of Washington Mutual Bank, which was the United States' largest savings and loan association until its collapse in 2008....
, the New York Clearinghouse, Dell
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
, Lufthansa Systems
Lufthansa Systems
Lufthansa Systems AG is an IT service provider for the aviation industry. It has around 3,000 employees in several locations in Germany and offices in 14 other countries and is headquartered in Kelsterbach near Frankfurt....
, Lloyds TSB
Lloyds TSB
Lloyds TSB Bank Plc is a retail bank in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1995 by the merger of Lloyds Bank, established in Birmingham, England in 1765 and traditionally considered one of the Big Four clearing banks, with the TSB Group which traces its origins to 1810...
, EMC
EMC Corporation
EMC Corporation , a Financial Times Global 500, Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, develops, delivers and supports information infrastructure and virtual infrastructure hardware, software, and services. EMC is headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA.Former Intel executive Richard Egan and his...
, SWIFT
Swift
The swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows, but are actually not closely related to passerine species at all; swifts are in the separate order Apodiformes, which they share with hummingbirds...
, various state governments (for services such as unemployment insurance, licensing, etc.), various branches of the U.S. military, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), numerous airports, the General Services Administration
General Services Administration
The General Services Administration is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. The GSA supplies products and communications for U.S...
, U.S. Transportation Security Administration
Transportation Security Administration
The Transportation Security Administration is an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that exercises authority over the safety and security of the traveling public in the United States....
, Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
, Nextel, and Telefonica
Telefónica
Telefónica, S.A. is a Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider in Europe and Latin America. Operating globally, it is the third largest provider in the world...
of Spain.
Technical innovation is a central tenet of the Unisys business. The company maintains a portfolio of over 1500 U.S. and non-U.S. patents.
Unisys systems are used for many industrial and government purposes, including banking, check processing, income tax processing, airline passenger reservations, biometric identification, newspaper content management and shipping port management, as well as providing weather data services.Unisys developed the software for NEXRAD, the original doppler weather radar, and has since provided weather data consisting of radar, satellite, lightning, etc. Unisys operates the world's largest RFID network for the U.S. military, tracking 9 million containers yearly to 1,500 nodes in 25 countries. It also created the universal identification card for citizens of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
The company engages in consulting, one-time contract jobs, and contracts for ongoing outsourced IT services. Services include building and integrating hardware and software systems, providing ongoing hosting and management of data, Business Processing Outsourcing, outsourced help desks and End User Services, Secure Cloud, planning operational processes and changes, and providing security services.
Its equipment line includes the ES7000 server family, which uses Intel processors such as Xeon
Xeon
The Xeon is a brand of multiprocessing- or multi-socket-capable x86 microprocessors from Intel Corporation targeted at the non-consumer server, workstation and embedded system markets.-Overview:...
or Itanium
Itanium
Itanium is a family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture . Intel markets the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance computing systems...
chips. The servers run Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's Windows Datacenter and other Windows operating systems, and/or open source
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
operating systems from Novell
Novell
Novell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise...
or Red Hat
Red Hat
Red Hat, Inc. is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide....
. The ES7000 is also certified by the Guinness Book of World Records for hosting the largest number of concurrent gamers ever recorded on a single game server.
The company's mainframe line, Clearpath, is capable of running not only mainframe software, but both the Java
Java Virtual Machine
A Java virtual machine is a virtual machine capable of executing Java bytecode. It is the code execution component of the Java software platform. Sun Microsystems stated that there are over 4.5 billion JVM-enabled devices.-Overview:...
platform and the JBoss
JBoss
JBoss Application Server is an open-source Java EE-based application server. An important distinction for this class of software is that it not only implements a server that runs on Java, but it actually implements the Java EE part of Java...
Java EE Application Server concurrently. The Clearpath system is available in either a UNISYS 2200-based system (Sperry) or an MCP
MCP (Burroughs Large Systems)
The MCP is the proprietary operating system of the Burroughs large systems including the Unisys Clearpath/MCP systems....
-based system (Burroughs).
In March 2011, the company launched Unisys Hybrid Enterprise Framework, a methodology and set of services which manage multiple IT delivery models – both traditional and cloud-based – within a consistent computing environment managed as a single entity. A key part of the framework includes a portfolio of cloud building services, which focus on the planning, designing and implementation of mission-critical cloud solutions within an integrated enterprise environment.
Secure Partitioning (s-Par), a Unisys solution is a virtualization technology for Intel processor-based ClearPath servers. The s-Par technology divides a high-performance system into 4 secure partitions, accommodating the central processing complex and 3 specialty engines, which perform specific application functions, such as web services and Java application deployment. This allows ClearPath users to make use of special-purpose processors called specialty engines to streamline resource management.
Unisys launched the Hosted Secure Private Cloud in December 2010. It provides all the benefits of a private cloud, which is fast access to IT resources without the need for purchasing additional infrastructure as well as control over shared business assets with better capabilities for complying with regulations. The solution dedicates a specific set of IT resources – computing, storage, network and middleware – to each customer and allows for adding IT resources to the private cloud within a matter of minutes, through automation.
Selected current projects
The company launched a new set of initiatives which includeConsumerization of IT: A study sponsored by Unisys and conducted by IDC , which revealed the gap between the activities and expectations of new generation of “iWorkers” and the ability of organizations to support their needs. The results showed that organizations continue to work with standardized command and control IT models of the past and are not able to profit from the widespread use of newer networked technologies.
Security Index: A biannual global study that provides statistically relevant insights into the attitudes of consumers on a wide range of security related issues, including:
National security - including concerns related to terrorism and health epidemics.
Financial security - regarding financial fraud and ability to meet personal financial obligations.
Internet security - related to spam, virus, and online financial transactions.
Personal security - concerning physical safety and identity theft.
Cloud 20/20: Unisys Corporation launched Cloud 20/20, an annual technical paper contest for tertiary students from India, in October 2009. The contest allows students to explore the possibilities and complexities of cloud computing in areas such as automation, virtualization, application development, security, consumerization of IT and airports. The contest has drawn participation from universities across India two years in a row -- with over 570 institutes taking part in 2009 and more than a thousand in 2010.
Cloud 20/20 is open to research students and post-graduates as well as pre-final and final year engineering students in Computer Science, Information Technology and other related areas. The contest culminates in an event where five finalists present their papers before a panel of judges that comprise academicians and technologists. Prizes include the latest technology gadgets, internship projects and career opportunities with Unisys. The latest version of the contest is currently underway.
Service Quality
Unisys operates data centers around the world that are certified on global standards for service quality and excellence. Those certifications include ISO 9001:2008, ISO 20000-1:2005, and ISO 27001 standards. Unisys data centers follow Global Process Standards (GPS) for ITIL processes. In addition, Unisys supports and manages data centers at client-owned facilities.| Location | Country | ISO 9001 | ISO 20000 | ISO 27001 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eagan-Minnesota | North America | N/A | Certified | Certified |
| Reston-Virginia | North America | N/A | N/A | Certified |
| Salt Lake City-Utah | North America | N/A | Certified | Certified |
| Rio de Janeiro | Brazil | Certified | Certified | Certified |
| Sao Paulo | Brazil | Certified | Certified | Certified |
| Milton Keynes/ Fox Milne/St. Just | United Kingdom | Certified | Certified | Certified |
| Alingsas | Sweden | Certified | 2011 | Certified |
| Sydney | Australia | Certified | Certified | Certified |
| Auckland | New Zealand | Certified | N/A | Certified |
| Kapiti | New Zealand | Certified | Certified | Certified |
Environmental record
Unisys creates environmentally responsible products and services. The company has corporate policies to encourage employees to conserve energy and to conduct recycling and energy conservation programs within its facilities and data centers.Clean air program: Provides employees with the option of setting up home based offices and reduce the need for daily work related travel. In 2010, this travel reduction resulted in the elimination of over 8500 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
Community projects: Unisys was recognized by the City of San Diego as the ‘Recycler of the Year’ from 2002–2005 and was given the Integrated Waste Management award by the State of California in 2002-2005. Unisys was honored at the 2008 Computerworld Green IT Symposium in Washington D.C. In 2009, Unisys was named in the Black Book of Outsourcing as one of the top 50 “green” outsourcing providers in the world.
Pollution prevention: Since 1996, Unisys has reduced hazardous waste generation by approximately 95%. Unisys has collected over 35 million pounds of used electronic products internally and from customers since 1997. Many parts were refurbished for future use or sold while the remaining materials were delivered to end of life electronic equipment recyclers.
ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems: The Unisys manufacturing site in Irvine, California received ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) certification. Through on-going EMS implementation, the company continues to formulate and implement policy and objectives that take into account legislative requirements, environment-friendly technological approaches and information about significant environmental impacts.
Controversies
Unisys attracted attention in 1994 after announcing its patent on the LZWLZW
Lempel–Ziv–Welch is a universal lossless data compression algorithm created by Abraham Lempel, Jacob Ziv, and Terry Welch. It was published by Welch in 1984 as an improved implementation of the LZ78 algorithm published by Lempel and Ziv in 1978...
data compression
Lossless data compression
Lossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. The term lossless is in contrast to lossy data compression, which only allows an approximation of the original data to be reconstructed, in exchange...
algorithm, which is used in the common GIF image file format. For a more complete discussion of this issue, see Graphics Interchange Format#Unisys and LZW patent enforcement.
Unisys was the target of "Operation Ill Wind
Operation Ill Wind
Operation Ill Wind was a three-year investigation launched in 1986 by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation into corruption by U.S. government and military officials and defense contractors....
", a major corruption investigation in the mid-to-late-1980s. As part of the settlement, all Unisys employees were required to receive ethics training each year, a practice that continues today.
In 2003 and 2004, Unisys retained the influential lobbyist Jack Abramoff
Jack Abramoff
Jack Abramoff is an American former lobbyist and businessman. Convicted in 2006 of mail fraud and conspiracy, he was at the heart of an extensive corruption investigation that led to the conviction of White House officials J. Steven Griles and David Safavian, U.S. Representative Bob Ney, and nine...
, paying his firm $640,000 for his services in those two years. In January 2006, Abramoff pleaded guilty to five felony
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
counts for various crimes related to his federal lobbying activities, though none of his crimes involved work on behalf of Unisys. The lobbying activities of Abramoff and his associates are now the subject of a large federal investigation.
In October 2005, the Washington Post reported that the company had allegedly overbilled on the $1-to-3-billion Transportation Security Administration contract for almost 171,000 hours of labor and overtime at up to the maximum rate of $131.13 per hour including 24,983 hours not allowed by the contract. Unisys denied wrongdoing.
In 2006, the Washington Post reported that the FBI was investigating Unisys for alleged cybersecurity lapses under the company's contract with the United States Department of Homeland Security. A number of security lapses supposedly occurred during the contract, including incidents in which data was transmitted to Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
servers. Unisys denies all charges and said it has documentation disproving the allegations.
In 2008 Joe McGrath stepped down after a no confidence vote from the board, and was replaced by J. Edward Coleman, former CEO of Gateway, Inc. The president of the Federal sector Greg Baroni was also fired. Unisys announced on June 30, 2008 that the Transportation Security Administration
Transportation Security Administration
The Transportation Security Administration is an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that exercises authority over the safety and security of the traveling public in the United States....
(TSA) had not selected the company for Phase 2 of procurement for the Information Technology Infrastructure Program. In July Unisys announced its plans to file a formal protest of the TSA decision with the Government Accountability Office
Government Accountability Office
The Government Accountability Office is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress. It is located in the legislative branch of the United States government.-History:...
(GAO). On August 20 the TSA announced it was allowing bidding from all competitors including Unisys and Northrop Grumman, who both filed formal protests with the GAO and protested TSA's decision to the Federal Aviation Administration
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
's Office of Dispute Resolution, after not initially being selected.
2009: Unisys Boasts about firing American workers; "We were able to eliminate a whole bunch of actually U.S.-based jobs and kind of replace them with two folks out of India" (Richard Marcello, president of technology, consulting, and integration solutions) The company completed a one-for-ten reverse stock split in October 2009 in an attempt to prop up stock prices and fend off delisting.
2010: Unisys jettisons Medicare processing Health Information Management service to Molina Healthcare for $135 million.