Unisys (UIS) To Offer Cloud Services For Record Management

Information technology firm, Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS) recently announced that it has been selected by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration to provide Google G Suite Enterprise to its 5,300 federal employees and contractors across the country. Google G Suite Enterprise is the premium suite of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) services and offers a cloud-based email and collaboration solution to users. This would facilitate the independent agency to preserve and safeguard government and historical records with easy public access to those documents.

The federal contract with a base year and four one-year options is worth $10 million and is a repeat order for Unisys. Earlier in 2012, it had offered similar cloud-based services to the independent agency. The new contract expands the scope of services offered by Unisys. These include unlimited storage options and other novel features in Google G Suite Enterprise along with support services for records management and mobile device management.

Unisys has consistently collaborated with the federal government to enhance the security features of its various websites and reduce operating costs. Early this year, the company launched a new family of IT services and software titled Digital Government Accelerators to help government agencies speed up their transitions toward digital services. In October 2017, Unisys was selected to provide support services to transfer the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's high-performance computing operations to the cloud. It also collaborated with the Department of the Interior to move its financial management system and helped the transition of the U.S. General Services Administration’s email and collaboration system to the cloud. With such federal contracts, Unisys aims to improve its falling revenues that have lately been hit hard by macroeconomic woes.

The strategic partnerships seem to be the call of the hour for this beleaguered Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) stock. The company has been a laggard in the recent times, with an average year-to-date loss of 44.5% against a gain of 39% for the industry.

Unisys is facing stiff competition in the information services and technology marketplace from consulting and other professional services firms, systems integrators, outsourcing providers, infrastructure services providers, computer hardware manufacturers and software providers. The company has to continually invest in new technologies which act as value drivers that could provide a hedge against stiff competition. These incremental investments increase operating expenses, thus squeezing margins and negatively impacting profitability.

Better-ranked stocks in the industry include Sphere 3D Corp. (NASDAQ:ANY) and Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO) , both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Sphere 3D has topped estimates in each of the trailing four quarters with an average positive earnings surprise of 73.3%.

Fair Isaac Corporation has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 10%. It topped estimates once in the trailing four quarters with an average positive earnings surprise of 12.5%.

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