As recently as early 1997, computer giant Unisys seemed ready to go the way of the dinosaurs: its stock had become as unfashionable as the mainframe computers in which it specialised.
But over the past two years it has enjoyed a dramatic improvement in its fortunes. The company has managed a sixth, straight profitable quarter - largely credited to the arrival of a new chairman and chief executive, and the subsequent radical rethink of its proposed target markets. With a successful shift of focus - like Digital before it - towards services rather than hardware, and a continuing drive to shed divisions which hinder company momentum, Unisys has evolved into a leaner and livelier life form.
"It's a new Unisys," says chairman and chief executive, Mr Larry Weinbach, the former head of Andersen Consulting, who is widely credited with the rejuvenation.
The problem is that despite successes such as doubled profits last quarter, and even though its powerful mainframes and servers run many airports, stock exchanges and newspapers, the company still has little name recognition outside corporate circles.
Mr Weinbach concedes that while the average consumer recognises computer hardware companies such as Dell and Apple, and computer services competitors such as Digital, the Unisys name is still largely unknown. "It's been the bane of our existence," sighs Unisys director of media relations, Mr Marty Krempasky. "Our prior CEO didn't realise the benefits of advertising."
But the new one does. "Of course, we'd like to change that," says Mr Weinbach. "That's why we've launched a $20 million (£13.4 million) advertising campaign." Following a US trend towards informality in selling technology brands, the advertisements feature the slogan: "We eat, drink and sleep this stuff".
Unisys has spent $20 million on a single campaign before but the time span was much greater. As Mr Krempasky notes, "That's $20 million for a single quarter, whereas the previous campaign was $20 million for the entire year."
The adverts may heighten brand recognition for Unisys, but they do not clarify what, exactly, the company does: services and servers. About 65 per cent of revenue for Unisys comes from services, a sector it entered in the mid-1990s. Mr Weinbach would like to make that figure closer to 75 per cent. Yet the bulk of the company's profit still comes from its Clearpath servers, which supplied 44 per cent of Unisys's gross profit last year, even though the division accounts for only $1 billion of Unisys's total revenues of $6.64 billion.
While some analysts question throwing more resources into the less-profitable services end of the business, Mr Krempasky disagrees.
"Each year that goes by, the price of hardware declines. You're not going to increase hardware sales by 30 per cent," he says. "If you look at industry trends, hardware is growing at single digits and services at double digits, as high as 35 per cent for some companies."
That's a trend Digital judged well. The company's main focus, and its chief attraction for Compaq when it acquired the company this year, was not its expertise in hardware or other technologies, but in services.
It was strongly rumoured that Unisys itself was a potential partner for Compaq, and is now considered to be attractive to Dell, which remains the only large computer company without a services division. Mr Weinbach, however, discounted rumours of such as deal. The company's future success is likely linked to the yet-to-be-launched Microsoft Windows 2000, targeted primarily at business customers. A year ago, with many analysts discounting the reliability of the operating system for corporate users, Unisys chose to climb into bed with Microsoft.
If Windows 2000 fails to make its expected inroads, Dell just might start looking like an attractive marriage partner.
