Full steam ahead

Unisys' new federal chief moves quickly to reinvigorate business.

I started with innovation. We have ahistory of innovation. The first thing is theability to come up with new solutions, and thesecond thing is our ability to really understandthe client's environment.We can look at a complex solution, definewhat it ought to be, and then operate andmaintain it. Our ability to look at the entirespectrum is relatively unique. The biggest thing we are trying todo as a company is continue to deliver worldclassservice to our clients. The next thing is[to] figure out how to make the businessmore successful. Success is defined as growthand profitability.But another thing [Coleman] wants fromme is to make sure we are integrated into therest of Unisys. We are a $1 billion federalbusiness but a $5.5 billion company. We needto build solutions that can be leveraged acrossfederal and outside of federal as well. We aredoing things that can be exported to governmentsaround the world and other parts ofthe company. I'm just getting myarms around TSA, but I cantell you two things: I've got adozen key managers on thisjob, and it is a great group.I'm really impressed withthe way these folks come athelping TSA meet its mission.They are mission focused and very focused ontheir people. Those are attributes I want.We are happy we are still in the game [atTSA]. We have the right people, and we aredelivering for our clients, so we have a goodchance at this. One thing is we named PV Puvvada,who was our chief technology officer, as managingpartner of solutions innovation. I'veintegrated all our horizontal services underneathhim.Unisys in general is vertically alignedaround three market segments: civilian agencies,homeland security and defense. We haveaccount leaders and segment leaders. Theirjob is to understand what is going on in theirmarket. [Puvvada's] role is to cut across allthose segments. For example, what are wedoing well at the General Services Administration,and how can we leverage that somewhereelse?We were evolving in this direction, but thistakes it to a new level.
Ted Davies, new president of Unisys
Federal Systems, hit the ground running
after being named in October
to replace Greg Baroni, long-time
leader of the unit. The
day after Davies became
president, Unisys Corp.
named Edward Coleman
chairman and chief executive
officer. In days, Davies was
briefing Coleman on his
strategy for the federal market.
In particular, Coleman
wanted an answer to one question: What
does Unisys Federal do best?
Davies spoke recently with Washington
Technology Editor Nick Wakeman.


Q: How did you answer the question about
what Unisys Federal does best?

DAVIES:











Q: What kind of direction did Coleman give
you?

DAVIES:

















Q: Although Unisys is the incumbent, it had
to file a protest to stay in the competition
for the Transportation Security
Administration's Information Technology
Infrastructure Program contract.
How are you preparing
for the recompete?

DAVIES:
















Q: How are you changing the structure of
Unisys Federal?

DAVIES:


















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