Federal security market reaches maturity

Slowing growth in government spending hasintensified contractors' search for othergrowth areas, particularly those with high priority,within the budgets at all levels of government.Outlays directed at upgrading andimproving security meet this high-priority test.Security-oriented spending islikely to grow even in a slowgrowthspending environment. The events of the past five to 10years ? most recently inPakistan, North Korea and theMiddle East ? have raised theawareness of security in all itsfacets and forms across governmentand commercial markets.Government entities andmultinational companies haveemployees and facilities scatteredworldwide. Their assetsinclude huge volumes of data,much of which is confidential.Furthermore, they are doing businessin foreign jurisdictions, in unfamiliarcultures, and often with insufficientor underdeveloped infrastructures.Hence, critical asset protection? human, physical, intellectual anddigital ? is essential. And companiesare emerging with the experience andtechnical know-how to configure,deliver and support those comprehensivesecurity solutions.Security initiatives haveoften been addressed on abalkanized basis at thelocal level, much likeinformation technology inits early years. Many companiesin the security arena addressone or two of the identified threats anddeploy technologies and processes specificto the circumstances.However, exciting new products andsystems have emerged, including bettercameras, screening, access controland identification technologies. Spectroscopyand improved sensors areavailable to detect, capture and transmitimagery, sights, smells and sounds.Sophisticated software and complexalgorithms offer pattern-recognitioncapabilities, tools that defense andintelligence operations have beenusing successfully for many years.Captured raw material can be digitized,communicated and stored in asecurity data warehouse, thus providingthe foundation for analysis, feedbackand systematic decision support.Essentially, those elements provide aframework for integrating securitycomponents across organizations,geographies and asset types.This might all sound familiarbecause many of the elements fit inthe area known as command, control,communications, computers, intelligence,surveillance and reconnaissance.Together with physical security,C4ISR encompasses most of the elementsneeded for delivering theenterprise-level security solutionslarge entities seek.Software, hardware, delivery systems,vehicles and people are componentsof those solutions. Governmentor commercial entities seeking toexamine their security environment atthe enterprise level might increasinglyturn to experienced lead systems integratorsto guide them. Similar to ITand other military systems, the integratorfunctions include developingthe architecture and managing theimplementation of the solution. Theactivities entail assembling contractingteams, negotiating prime and subcontractorteaming arrangements, andorganizing the installation, trainingand support functions.Many companies have entered thesecurity market in the past five years,introducing new products or migratingtheir capabilities from commercialto government markets. Several federalmarket integrators have technologiesand experience that could proveeffective in this segment. Newer companiesthat seek to provide such solutionson an international basis includeGlobal Strategies Group and OliveGroup.Senior executives at those firms haveextensive experience in the defenseand intelligence business and bringsignificant expertise on the nature ofsecurity threats, effective technologiesavailable and knowledge of where tofind the necessary resources to deliversecurity solutions. Abraxas Corp. isanother example of a business integratingexperienced national securitypeople with emerging technologies todevelop riskmitigationsolutions.I expect several companies toachieve above-average growth byaddressing this demand well into thefuture.