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| NCEITA's
Homeland Security
Meeting Took
Companies to
the Top |
| By
Allan Maurer,
LocalTechWire |
|
RESEARCH
TRIANGLE--Seven
North Carolina
technology companies
got an unprecedented
chance to tell
top federal
officials how
their products
could help protect
homeland security
yesterday.
The meeting,
arranged by
the NC Electronics
and Information
Technologies
Association
(NCEITA), used
the organization's
strong connections
to both the
state's technology
companies and
with policy
makers very
effectively,
say executives
who attended.
A substantial
number of North
Carolina's congressional
delegation showed
up, including
Reps. Bob Etheridge,
Richard Burr,
and David Price,
Sen. Elizabeth
Dole, and senior
staff from Sen.
John Edward's
office and those
of other state
congressmen,
FBI agents,
and state officials.
MCNC hosted
the event.
Rep. Etheridge
told the group
that one of
the challenges
the government
faces is making
sense of the
mounds of data
it collects.
As one speaker
commented, "the
government is
sometimes described
as a big ear
with a little
brain."
Rep. Etheridge
said the government
needs data mining,
coordination,
and speed. "It's
about moving
information
quickly and
collating it
so that it's
useful and in
one place,"
he said. Rep.
Etheridge is
NC's only congressman
on the House
select committee
on homeland
security.
Executives from
attending companies
lauded NCEITA
for providing
access to such
top-level government
officials.
Doug Miskew,
chief executive
of Raleigh-based
Capital Technologies,
tells Local
Tech Wire, "It's
difficult to
get an audience
with those folks.
Huge numbers
of people are
showing in Washington
these days trying
to sell homeland
security products."
Bioterror
Detection
Alan Ying, MercuryMD
chief executive
officer, says
the meeting
"was singularly
productive.
I've never seen
one as productive
in creating
public-private
sector collaboration.
NCEITA has done
an unbelievable
job."
Ying's company
pitched its
automated bioterrorism
detection system.
"We have a fully
functioning
system that's
unique in the
country," says
Ying.
MercuryMD makes
mobile data
systems it sells
to hospitals
so doctors,
nurses and other
health professionals
can enter and
receive patient
records on hand
held PDAs. The
company employs
40 people and
was founded
in 2001 "right
in the middle
of the nuclear
meltdown," says
Ying, referring
to the economic
downturn.
Ying says the
company is pursuing
a pilot program
with its anti-bioterrorism
system, which
uses data from
the Center for
Disease Control
to automatically
alert health
care officials
to signs of
a bioterrorist
attack.
"All the congressional
people discussed
it afterward,"
says Ying. "They
committed to
a substantial
follow-up."
Ying says that
implementing
the system statewide
would be seven-figure
deal, and going
national would
be a nine-figure
endeavor.
Community
Communication
"I presented
on community
preparedness
and applied
methodologies,"
says Matt Carbone,
president of
Greenville-based
Ideations llc.
Ideations has
participated
in several disaster
training exercises,
coordinating
communications
between responders,
various software
programs, and
systems.
"Training exercises
are essential
in learning
how to get various
community groups,
first responders,
and security
forces to collaborate
in an effective
manner," Carbone
says. "Understanding
the value and
applicable resources
each group has
to offer increases
the effectiveness
of response
to any scale
emergency situation."
Carbone says
the company
received a positive
response at
the meeting.
"The task force
announced at
the meeting
will prove a
valuable asset
to the state
and NCEITA did
an incredible
job pulling
this group together
and providing
the stage on
which it was
formed."
Lee Bryan, Knowledge
Vector chairman
and CEO, says,
"We were doing
homeland security
before it was
cool." His Durham-based
company presented
its system for
"Awareness Fusion."
The threat alert
and awareness
management system
the company
makes coordinates
data from various
security and
surveillance
systems at airports,
port authorities,
and other facilities.
It then "alerts
the right people
at the right
time, quickly,"
the company
says.
Opportunity
for Smaller
Companies
Mary Musacchia
of SAS says
that while larger
firms such as
SAS, IBM, and
Cisco, all of
which had representation
at the meeting,
may benefit
less than the
smaller companies
from the connections
made at the
meeting and
through the
task force.
"Larger companies
like SAS may
get something
from it, but
it's a real
opportunity
for smaller
technology companies,"
she says.
NCEITA
www.nceita.org
Related story:
Homeland Security
Task Force Named
http://localtechwire.com/article.cfm?u=4980
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| Posted:
08/07/2003 07:49
AM |
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