Chicago extends Unisys managed services contract

Chicago has given Unisys Corp. a three-year contract extension, worth about $34 million, to provide a range of outsourcing services to manage the city's distributed information technology infrastructure.

The value of the contract could rise to $56 million if the city exercises two additional one-year options.

The original contract was awarded in January 1999 for a five-year project worth $75 million, according to Unisys spokesman Eric Van Zanten. The city and the company entered negotiations early to discuss changing the terms of the contract to include consulting services, he said, leading to the decision to exercise the three-year option ahead of schedule.

Under the terms of the contract, Unisys will support more than 16,000 employees in 43 agencies who provide services to city residents. Agencies include the police, fire, transportation, finance, revenue and health departments. The company also will support critical applications, including the city's 311 non-emergency call system, and its Web site and related applications, which has become a channel for delivering services to citizens, from initiating license applications to paying parking tickets and water bills.

The company 's management of Chicago's distributed IT infrastructure has enabled the city to reduce the time it takes to deliver services to citizens by 35 percent. In the first two years of the engagement, the city realized a 29 percent improvement in end-user satisfaction among workers. A case study published by Gartner on the Unisys contract with the city is available at www.gartner.com/reprints/unisys/106807.html.

"With Unisys as a partner, we have been able to transform our IT infrastructure, and that has enabled us to completely change the way the city of Chicago does business and demonstrably improve the way we serve our constituents," said Chris O'Brien, chief information officer of the city.

Unisys, based in Blue Bell, Pa., has more than 36,000 employees worldwide. The company reported 2002 revenue of more than $5.6 billion.