Northrop heads for commercial markets

Northrop Grumman Corp.'s technology division has started offering its litigation electronic data discovery technology to commercial firms.

Northrop Grumman Corp.'s technology division has started offering its litigation electronic data discovery technology to commercial firms, after providing the technology to federal defense and intelligence agencies for more than a decade, the company said Thursday.

Northrop Grumman Information Technology of Herndon, Va., originally developed the solution for defense and intelligence agencies to quickly process and identify relevant information from large database repositories. In the commercial arena, corporations and law firms can use the technology to code information, create classifications and enable information searches.

Northrop Grumman of Los Angeles has joined forces with Driven Inc, a Falls Church, Va. company specializing in litigation support, on a contract to classify all the electronic documents in an outstanding lawsuit.

Northrop Grumman's information technology sector generated nearly $4.8 billion of the company's total $26.2 billion revenue in 2003.