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The big picture of government contracting reveals an increasing number of economic for forces affecting all US citizens. It is the driving force in the Nation's Capital economy, propelling the greater Baltimore Washington to number one in the United States for entrepreneurship as ranked by Inc Magazine. We get the big picture of government business from Donna Morea of IT giant, CGI, and Lani Hay Founder and CEO of LMT. Ms Hay started LMT a few years ago and has grown to over 150 employees providing sophisticated IT solutions to meet DOD warfare intelligence needs. We will also update you on some of the best stories of 2007.

LMT 

The war on terrorism waged on a global battlefield has engaged new kinds of weapons and threats, ranging from electronic warfare to suicide bombers, and I-E-Ds-those lethal explosive devices, which have captured the headlines. What you may not hear is how the DOD is collaborating with private with measurable success to fight with new and classified tools. How is this success measured? What are the new tools? Find out in this segment about a highly recognized government contractor, LMT of Fairfax VA. Lani Hay, Founder and CEO of LMT, won the prestigious Small Business of the Year award from both the DOD and the SBA in 2007.
Case: Public-Private sector partnership success.

ITMONEY 

When Google Earth opened our eyes to the marvels of space imagery of earth, the devastation of Katrina, and the North Korea's nuclear development site, Wall Street didn't miss a beat. Learn about how one company BusinessNOW explored last year is doing now. Wall Street seems to like them too.  

Welocalize 

On the way to being one of the top three in their industry
Localization is widely considered the translation of web sites and software programming into different languages for companies doing global business. The Internet has changed are lives in some many ways. Perhaps the most significant change to the world economy is global trade. Increased access via the Internet has skyrocketed commerce. That's touches us all personally. That no secret. So, global business is booming. The business of localization has exploded too. In a story about IT and globalization, we visited one of the fastest growing private companies in the localization industry today. And, if they have their way, one of the largest. A case study in rapid organic revenue growth combined with strong acquisition execution of seven companies for 404% revenue growth over 3 years. Look out Wall Street?

DDOS Cyber Crime 

A malicious cyber tool that can easily shut down critical Interoperability systems.
DDOS Attacks. DDOD is latest and potentially most lethal in the series of cyber attack acronyms used for malicious assaults on our computers. Forget about SPAM, WORMs, and Viruses. These are small annoyances compared to the potential threat of a DDOS cyber attacks. With the increased quantity and sophistication of DDOS, this brand of attack is now hitting a computer near you. According to InformationWeek and Wired Magazines, DDOS attacks are now taking down whole commercial and government IT enterprise global network computer systems costing billions of dollars. Most names of these enterprises remain anonymous.
High profile names such Amazon, Yahoo, and Akamai were down for hours and an enterprise computer network for a big four consulting firm was down for three hours costing them millions of dollars. Find out what DDOS is, and what the brightest minds are doing to thwart this threat. 

Biometrics 

What's involved in identity management? Everything from more sophisticated drivers' licenses, to new access credentialing cards, new passports, and biometrics like fingerprinting, iris scans, digital face recognition, and some other fascinating technologies. All of this is aimed at real ID, while attempting to safeguard individual privacy. The Biometrics Consortium recently held a conference in Baltimore a few days ago and gave us the chance to look at new technologies.
The latest on biometrics.

IT Risk and Compliance 

Take a close examination of how the Federal government is taking stronger measures to not only keep our personal information secure, but to implement Sarbanes Oxley compliance regulations throughout federal agencies. SOX is now by the Office of Management and Budget as part of the law for federal agencies to improve their overall financial reporting, compliance and management of IT risk.
IT Risk and Compliance
Case: Brabeion   

Protecting US Borders from Space 

The government's leadership in remote sensing satellites or picture taking satellites has led to creation of still another new industry---one that captures terabytes of geospatial images of earth on a daily basis for commercial, homeland security, national defense and intelligence uses. Spy satellite-like images of the earth are now finding their way into everyday life.  And what you can see through Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth now pales in comparison to what you will see in a year. BusinessNow looks at the present and future of imaging from space.

Processing Pedabytes in one second with software

Rudy Ernst, CEO: "We've had a number of high-ranking U.S. officials say that their problem was not having massive amounts of data. It's extracting useful information from the massive amounts of data that is the critical thing.  We do think we fit into that perfectly. We have a solution, a software solution for accessing that data very quickly, storing it efficiently, managing it so it can be disseminated every quickly-be that to someone in a conference room, a control center or to boots on the ground somewhere out in the field." 

IT Disaster Recovery 

The price of disasters such as 911, Katrina and to lesser extent electrical outages is evident in terms of human life and property loss. However there is a perhaps a much greater cost below the radar screen.  With the ubiquitous nature and real dependence from enterprise IT systems to desktop personal computers, a disruption caused by a disaster or anything is immeasurable.
Business Now's Len Deibert reports on a comprehensive disaster recovery plan that could mean the difference between survival and catastrophic failure for business and government:
(Case Lesson: Recovery Point Systems)

Tracking and Stopping Terrorism in the Homeland

Imagine if the US government were able to track terrorists almost real time by the use of counterfeit or stolen licenses, financial transactions, use of deceased people's social security numbers and other suspicious activities that can be linked.
Well they can and they do. But consider this. To actually find this critical information and develop patterns to track suspects requires drawing knowledge from millions of pieces of data from hundreds of information sources.  Not so easy. Now with the help of some innovative private businesses it is possible for the government to quickly sort through terabytes of information in seconds to watch the patterns of terrorists financial transactions and other activities. Also visually analyze this information geographically which could enable the ability to determine the most likely points of homeland terrorism.
Now imagine when Real ID's become extensively deployed how it might help to even more accurately identify potentially harmful terrorist activities in less time.
(Case Lesson: Smart Innovative Solutions)

 

Previously on BusinessNow!


Federal grant money getting into the right hands

Federal Grant programs are huge. They dispense about 400 billion dollars annually, through more than one-thousand programs, administered by 26 different agencies in 21 different categories. It's all over the map, from environmental quality, to aid to families with dependent children, job training and programs such as Head Start.
 How does the government keep track of all that and ensure that federal dollars are spent properly?

 How to manage MILLIONS of complaints and EEO violations.


 If you fly, no doubt you've experienced the tighter security---and perhaps been frustrated by the screening process. And with 14 million airline passengers a week come complaints and lawsuits. Every day, TSA's Claims Management Center receives hundreds of claims or complaints about airport screening. Whether an organization is in transportation or education they need track complaints as to avoid litigation and meet government regulations. Helping organizations manage grievances and report on their EEO requirements successfully has catapulted a Northern Virginia based company into the Inc 500 list of fastest growing companies in the US for a rare four years in a row. This is a company has grown over 300% with about 10 million in sales. It started with some high visibility federal government agencies and now has successfully moved into the commercial market.  Another rare feat.

 

Going Global


Globalization has been the buzz word in business now for the last two decades. Due to technology advances, people throughout the world now collaborate without regard for geography or distance, and true globalization of the economy is a reality. Today, almost all commercial, non-profit and government organizations require localization of their software and web components to conduct commerce around the world. A company based in Frederick, Maryland provides localization services for major companies has managed to grow over 400% and make the INC. 500 for the last two years.  During that time, it has successfully acquired four companies, two of which were headquartered in Ireland and China, and is projected to grow to 100 million in annual revenue by 2010.  

 

Largest Orbital Imaging Company in the World


From man's earliest days, people have been mesmerized by Earth, and fascinated in viewing it from space. Spy satellite-like images of the earth are now finding their way into the fabric of our society. The most powerful commercial image satellite in the world, GeoEye1, will be launched this Spring. The imagery from GeoEye1 will be used by our government, businesses and available through web sites like Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth. We will see Earth like never before.

 

Catching Terrorist = Following The Money


There's a new tool in the fight against terror. It's not a missile or helicopter, rather, its software. A new generation of software can search millions of data files for patterns in names, social security numbers, financial transactions including geospatial data, and thousands of other elements. Using visual interpretation tools, users can quickly spot trends and abnormalities. The software creators say it can tap into huge volumes of data, even across multiple federal agencies. It has been credited for identifying some of the terrorists we have seen in the media captured at home and abroad. (Visual Analytics)
 

From flat, to topographically correct in seconds.


The Pentagon has used what are called sand tables to model the terrain of where are our military troops are or will be. This concept of preparing in war time and has been used as recently as the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Caesar's Legions used them in the spread of the Roman empire. And there's even speculation a prehistoric warrior might have kicked sand and rocks to form a crude shape of his battleground. Very effective, but inherently inaccurate and slow to create In the movie the X Men, there's a scene where there's a table that has an almost mercury-like pool covering it and what happens--that table transforms suddenly into New York City. And so the idea came-perhaps we could have a dynamic physical model. Maybe we could create a model that would let us look anywhere in the world and we could reset and create it again. It's here. (Xenotran).
 

Airborne picture imagery


The images of earth with the highest resolution are actually taken by aircraft with digital cameras. Very expensive cameras, which cost one million dollars each Their pictures are taken from 30,000-40,000 feet with a ground resolution of 3-6 inches. These aircraft are mission specific and take pictures for the government, utilities and other commercial requirements. The greatest milestone in airborne imagery is a new camera or sensor that can take x-ray like images though tree leaves, and other foliage. The sensor on this plane, which cost 75 million dollars each to develop, is providing truly new and revolutionary information. (EarthData)
 

Geospatial and cargo tracking.


The tracking of cargo containers has been in the spotlight due to recent events related to port security. However, there's another side of the equation regarding cargo tracking that may be the driving force behind a solution. Satellites, radar, sensors and other geospatial technologies are being combined to monitor and track intermodal containers, to secure our ports and decrease shipping costs by improving supply chain visibility and efficiency. (GlobalTrak)
 

AAI


Right now all Army brigade commanders have their own unmanned, low-flying aircraft with a computer-driven remote control system to give them eyes in the sky to see the battle space and to see behind enemy lines. BusinessNOW looks at the role of unmanned aircraft vehicles. A rapidly increasing part of the Defense Department's long-war strategy. Go on location to Hunt Valley, MD and see the company which develops and manufactures these UAV's, AAI Corporation
 

What is an Integrated Custom Software Solution???"


Imagine taking your first DOS PC from the late 70's and attempting to network and have it function properly with the applications on your current PC. That only scratches the surface of the big challenge to integrate our government's varied IT systems. And it's a big business opportunity, too. So while business is booming and we are in the heartland of new business success stories, the competition is fierce. This is the story of a company that is digging deep and solving the IT problems that face our government with modern technology and good old fashion hard work. Very hard work.
 

Port Security


Satellite communications are part of a highly-sophisticated global container security system to address the concerns of both U.S. and international port security management. Here's a closer look at that problem and efforts to safeguard and track millions of seaborne containers entering the United States and the solution a 35 year old Arlington business, SPC, is deploying worldwide.
 

HyperProcesing of Geo-Spatial Image Data


Imagine the pedabytes and terabytes of data similar to millions phone books of information. This is describes precisely the massive amounts of geo-spatial data that must be processed for secret military intelligence images gathered by spy satellites, weather satellites and planes. Until recently a few days were required to process this all this data for use. BusinessNOW explores how top developers form Disney and DreamWorks have formed a team at Pixia, Inc in Dulles, VA to apply their background in image processing. Their technology had made possible the processing of these huge amounts of information into real time knowledge for the war on terrorism, natural disasters and other purposes. The enormous value for actual use of this critical information in real time rather than days is, well, hard to process.
 

LMI


This company's founding mission: "To solve the government's most complex management issues." These "issues" have changed dramatically for our government and private sector in the last 45 years since LMI's inception. In 1960 logistics meant getting much needed basic war munitions to the right place around the world. Today those complex logistics issues are "extreme." Watch and see!
 

System Planning Corporation


Paul Nitze and Admiral Zumwalt credited this company with providing the crucial intelligence that ended the Cold War. They celebrated 35 years in business this year and in response to 911 have reorganized their considerable brain trust to help solve the new war on terrorism. and are doing it. You saw it here!
 

Pyramid Systems


A little known fact. The Greater Washington area is home to the highest number of private high growth companies in America, which are driving our local economy . The U.S. is spending billions annually on outsourced IT-much of it in the greater Washington area. This company is another example of the federal partnership with those companies who are the best of our local private sector in providing IT solutions. And proof the American dream is alive and well.
 

Video Streaming


The first videos streamed over the web were small and choppy, but they held the promise of nearly endless possibilities. Today, video over the internet is in full swing for both entertainment and business applications.
 

Pixim


This company's digital imaging technology is making inroads in the fast-growing and increasingly important security industry.

 

IMLogic

Logicube