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Focus on information integration technology generated success for Modus Operandi

by Kathy Hagood
Brevard Technical Journal

Chuck Keauthan, vice president of finance and operations, Peter Dyson, president, Mark Heileman, vice president of sales and marketing, and Alan McCutchen, vice president of engineering lead the operations at Modus Operandi. Photo by Emily Barnes, © 2004.

Although hurricane damage closed the second floor of Modus Operandi's corporate offices in Indialantic last September, the information technology integration company has experienced strong growth in revenues in the months since.

By mid-September, the company had received a $100,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from the U.S. Air Force Laboratory as part of its Knowledge Management Initiative. The contract was just the latest in a series of SBIR contracts the company has received in recent years.

But the best news came when the company announced a $9.3 million U.S. Army SBIR contract in January. The follow-on phase III SBIR contract was awarded with the Army's Communications-Electronics Command in Ft. Monmouth, N.J.

"Modus Operandi will supply technology and services for improving the development, management and sustainment of complex software systems, such as the Guardrail Common Sensor intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance system. Targeted improvements will focus on three primary themes: maturing organizational capabilities, improving project oversight, and leveraging advanced tools and technologies," said Stewart Fenick, the Army's technical representative on the contract.

By early February company employees finally were able to move back into second floor offices. The offices' new ceiling tiles and carpet belie the damage the company faced only months ago.

"We were fortunate in that work we'd gotten going before the hurricanes came in. People asked if we were going to ask for help from FEMA because of our damage, but that's for people who really need it. We've prospered," said Peter Dyson, Modus Operandi president and chief executive officer.

Dyson was one of three Harris Corp. engineers who founded the precursor to the company, Software Productivity Solutions (SPS), in 1984.

SPS began as a science-for-hire company that took on diverse research and development projects. When Dyson and other company leaders saw the need for more product marketing expertise to expand markets for the products they'd developed, the company joined with Intec Systems in December 1997 to become Modus Operandi.

The new company was led by Intec's Jack Hight. Hight, now deceased, served as Ross Perot's boss at IBM, and was the co-founder and President of EDS Federal. As chairman of the Modus Operandi board of directors Hight helped foster the company's growth.

Hight served on the board of a number of successful technology companies before his death.

"Jack was a tremendous asset to the company, and we've really felt the loss," Dyson said.

But Modus Operandi has continued on its growth spurt, adding about six engineers and engineering managers in the past year. The company now employs 29 staff members at its 7,000-square-foot Indialantic headquar-ters and its branches in Atlanta, Tampa and Ft. Monmouth, N.J.

Customers include the Air Force, Army, FPL, L3 Communications and Jacobs Sverdrup. Dyson attributes Modus Operandi's success to its narrowing its focus in recent years to concentrate on information integration through advanced software and process improvement solutions.

"We're more than 20 years old. We have a closet full of different technologies we developed that fell by the wayside and were never marketed," Dyson said.

Focusing on information integration technology has generated a series of SBIR contracts that allowed MO to develop Wave, a sophisticated software product that allows for better information access and integration.

"So many companies have data silos with no way of bringing all the data together so they can make better decisions," Dyson said.

Data silos include various sets of information recorded and accessed through specific software and hardware systems that isn't centrally available. Oftentimes collating the data from the various silos is a manual process that can take hours or weeks.

"Leaders know the information is available to help them make better decisions but it is so time consuming and expensive to access that they rely on their gut to make important decisions," Dyson said.

One of Wave's strengths is that it allows users to work with software they are already familiar with rather than forcing them to learn new software and reenter data. Existing software is upgraded with various software plug-ins that greatly expands the existing software's capabilities.

The simple solution is possible because more software manufacturers are providing open software code vs. shielding it from modification.

"Software manufacturers like what we're doing because its sup-ports their product," Dyson said.

Modus Operandi worked with Patrick Air Force Base's 45th Space Wing to help integrate information needed to make better launch decisions at the Eastern Range. The space wing initially estimated a 178 percent return on their investment.

Now Wave has been perfected, Modus Operandi is seeking to market it to companies that provide information integration. Potential customers include large companies, such as Lockheed Martin, that provide information integration services.

"The SBIR contracts basically served as our venture capital to develop this product. Now we're ready to commercialize it," Dyson said.

For more information on Modus Operandi, visit www.modusoperandi.com