Unisys Moves Alliance With Microsoft Beyond Windows Enterprise Servers; Increase Joint Development and Marketing Efforts Across Three Key Areas

Business Wire, Nov 2, 2005

LONDON -- Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS) today said that it will work together with Microsoft Corp., a longtime alliance partner in delivering enterprise servers on the Windows platform, to increase commitment and focus joint investments in marketing and technology alignment in areas where their alliance has leadership strength and presence. The tightened focus will center on the companies' strengths in enterprise database solutions, public sector presence and managed services expertise. The concentrated focus areas represent the alliance's largest revenue-generating areas.

Microsoft's technology platform is a core element in Unisys 3D Visible Enterprise strategy, which is designed to enable clients to see the links among business strategy, processes and IT requirements throughout their entire enterprise and gain unprecedented visibility into the impacts and costs of strategic decisions even before those decisions are made.

To support its newly announced plan to deliver solutions for secure business operations, Unisys is aligning with an exclusive list of the world's leading technology providers to deliver solutions that harness its partners' expertise with the power of 3D-VE.

The increased focus between Microsoft and Unisys includes the following elements:

--Unisys plans to develop a 2,500-consultant-strong practice unit dedicated to the strategic implementation, maintenance and management of the entire Microsoft enterprise technology stack, and specifically focusing on Business Intelligence, Analytical Processing, enterprise application migrations and other advanced SQL Server-based solutions.

--Unisys and Microsoft plan to focus development and sales teams to provide public sector customers with one-stop shopping for complex solutions including border control, access administration and identity management solutions. Unisys and Microsoft will offer innovative arrangements to provide customers the capability and deployment that best meets their needs, while optimizing licensing and support.

--Unisys and Microsoft are developing joint programs, including both technology and business engagement, to simplify the delivery and deployment of managed IT infrastructure and systems integration services based on the Microsoft platform, allowing customers to get the most value out of their IT investments.

--Unisys expects to triple the number of jointly funded and staffed Redmond Technology Center labs, adding two new facilities to complement the existing Systems and Technology Center lab.

One of the new labs will support enterprise-level qualification and integration of third-party solutions from other partners in the Microsoft ecosystem, enabling those solutions to become part of the Unisys and Microsoft enterprise data center, and simplifying deployment and support.

The second lab will support customers who require advanced proof of concept or integration verification on leading-edge technology from both Unisys and Microsoft. Customers are expected to benefit from deep access to domain experts and access to an even broader range of capabilities, while enjoying the security and flexibility of the Unisys 3D-VE strategy.

--Unisys plans to expand its 15 Microsoft Joint Development Centers around the world. This will provide the most current data center capability, enhanced by direct access to both technical and business specialists. The specialists can help simplify customer experience in selection, verification and deployment of even the most complex solutions.

--Unisys plans to more than double its on-site engineering and deployment capability in Redmond, with new facilities where development and delivery people from both companies will work together to assure that customers achieve the business benefits that 3D-VE and the Microsoft platform can provide.

--As part of Unisys and Microsoft's collaboration around 3D-VE, Unisys fully supports Visual Studio Team System as a key life-cycle tool for enterprise development. As a recognized leader in business modeling, Unisys is a strategic partner in the market adoption of industry-specific solutions in the Microsoft application development environment.

"When we talk with clients, they express a continued need for greater agility and visibility to meet rapidly changing demands on their operations," said Simon Witts, corporate vice president of the Enterprise and Partner Group at Microsoft. "The need to prove the value in technology investments hasn't abated. Microsoft gives clients the tools to do that through a broad range of offerings and a cost-effective software platform that empowers people to make a notable impact on their organization's success. Coupled with Unisys 3D Visible Enterprise strategy, we're able to provide a level of solutions integration that benefits our mutual clients."

Unisys has invested heavily in performance testing around Windows in the enterprise and has placed among the highest benchmarks for Windows and SQL Server database transaction processing in large-scale enterprise software environments such as SAP, Siebel and PeopleSoft. Having developed three of the largest SQL Server databases in the world, Unisys has proved the enterprise scalability of Microsoft technology in mission-critical applications requiring processing speed and availability. In providing managed computing environments for several U.S. federal government agencies where security is paramount, Unisys deployed Microsoft technology for core applications in areas such as identity and access management.