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News Index
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Software Startups Find Deals with Defense Dept. (High Tech News)
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By Dianne Claydon
Defense giants such as Raytheon Co. or BAE Systems might be more household names in the defense game, but software firms are also winning U.S. Department of Defense contracts — albeit with fewer zeros.
The keyword for these smaller companies is “interoperability.”
Many provide government agencies with “behind the scenes” software that enables Defense Department applications to securely and seamlessly handle a variety of projects and concepts — from weapons development to “operating rooms of the future” to securing battlefield communications.
The software may be in the background, but the applications are vital to the security of people and data.
The federal government as a whole is expected to contract for nearly $5 billion in software spending in 2006, according to Virginia-based analyst firm Input. Spending on software by the Defense Department specifically was not immediately available.
“In the last fiscal year, we did $85 million in revenue, and 16 percent was the government sector and the majority of that was DOD,” said Jim Frey, vice president of marketing for Westford-based NetScout Systems Inc.
Frey added that NetScout participated in the Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration — an initiative by the DOD to look at off-the-shelf commercial technologies for use in monitoring and protecting communications among troops and field operations. The company, which has 360 employees, recently received “interoperability certification” from the DOD.
NetScout sells off-the-shelf network-monitoring software to several government agencies, including the U.S. Air Force, the Marine Corps, and others. The systems are like “insurance policies” that monitor the health of the networks, Frey said.
“We are listening to the wire. We report problems, and they can be viewed or forwarded to an alarm-management system. We can send alerts,” Frey said. He added that most of the monitored communications are digital — the contents of IP packets — and can include Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) traffic.
Cambridge-based LiveData Inc. received Phase 1 and 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the U.S. Army last year to help it develop more efficient and safer operating rooms using the company’s computer-based patient-safety system, “OR-Dashboard.” The project involved creation of an “operating room of the future” at Massachusetts General Hospital, where LiveData’s flat screen sits on a wall above the surgical team to monitor the patient, surgeons, nurses and devices.
Jeffrey Robbins, CEO of LiveData, said that the Army is seeking ways to improve patient safety in the battlefield and in permanent hospitals.
“DOD’s idea was arrived at in parallel with ours — it would be great to have a flat screen on a wall that pulled together patient history, vital signs and team information, including who is in the room with active RFID badges,” Robbins said. “Today there are more and more gadgets in the room, and all are good. They are enhancing patient care. But the paradox of more and more technology is that things get more complicated, not simpler.
The company’s software monitors those gadgets and the staff. The technology has been serving the electric-power industry since 1991, Robbins said, where sensors pull data from around the grid to keep an eye on outages.
LiveData received about $1.3 million in SBIR grants, including the latest, which is pending budget approval. The company recently signed a deal to supply the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York with OR-Dashboards for 21 operating rooms —<
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