Tidemark, Unisys widen e-gov reach

Tidemark Computer Systems Inc. on Monday announced a strategic partnership

with Unisys Corp. in a move designed to increase both companies' market

share in the public sector by leveraging Tidemark's city and county customer

base with Unisys' extensive state and federal coverage.

Tidemark, a provider of electronic government licensing and permitting

solutions, has an extensive list of government customers at the city and

county levels. The company is planning to use the deal with Unisys to pursue

larger government contracts, specifically at the state level, said Mark

Parry, director of strategic alliances at Seattle-based Tidemark.

"Unisys is very well regarded in the state and federal markets, and

we hope to leverage a lot of that contact to help us move up into that arena,"

Parry said. "Rather having to build technologies, they can take our technology

and implement it with a known result, knowing that it's a complete solution

being installed."

Under terms of the agreement, Unisys, a provider of technology infrastructure

including servers, workstations and networks, will make Tidemark products

and services available to its existing government clients — which include

many state, local and federal agencies — while Tidemark will introduce Unisys'

equipment to its customer base at the city and county levels.

"Through our alliance with Tidemark, we gain access to best-of-class

e-government technology that adds breadth to our existing suite of offerings,"

said Kevin Curry, vice president and general manager of Blue Bell, Pa.-based

Unisys North America Public Sector. "The agreement also creates a stronger

sales opportunity for us with more than 4,000 city and county governments

nationwide."