Booz Allen's blueprint for integrating PAR Government Systems

In June, Booz Allen Hamilton touted its $95 million acquisition of the PAR Government Systems Corp. business as a move intended to further expand across the digital battlespace landscape.

Now fast forward to Friday, and Booz Allen's chief executive Horacio Rozanski laid out more of the rationale during the firm's fiscal first quarter earnings call with investors and what it plans to do with PGSC in the fold.

PGSC designs its products for use in functions involving imagery, data sharing, visualization and real-time communications. The business was stood up in 1985 and its technology will be integrated into multiple mission areas at Booz Allen.

On the call with analysts, Rozanski characterized Booz Allen's approach with PGSC as one looking to "augment and knit together" some of its work in defense tech.

"Sometimes big innovators come in small packages, and this is one of those cases, where we were able to find a company and close a transaction with a carveout that really focuses on doing some really innovative edge type work for the warfighter," Rozanski said.

"That fits so well into our entire digital battlespace platform, and what we're trying to do about integrating information and bringing it together from multiple sources, using ultimately artificial intelligence to filter it and giving the warfighter the information he or she needs, at the time that they need it, in the place that they need it."

The digital battlespace concept is new for government agencies and their contractors alike, plus will require continuous iteration as the underlying technologies change all the time. Artificial intelligence and cyber will naturally be a part of that battlespace, as will the vast quantities of data that the military has to work with and get to operators quickly.

Rozanski described Booz Allen's ideal role in the digital battlespace as being a tech provider that can "bring information together at speed, at scale, to the warfighter from headquarters to the edge."

Relationships with companies across the global technology ecosystem are a part of that approach for Booz Allen, which feeds into its role as a tech scout -- both as partner for those companies and sometimes an investor in them.

All of those approaches are about ensuring the government customer has the latest-and-greatest to work with, as it's almost a given that the adversary does.

"We need to have the ability to persistently look at an environment that's in conflict, to understand and anticipate threats, and to take them on in ways that are effective to the type of threat," Rozanski said.

Fiscal first quarter revenue of $2.9 billion was approximately 10.8% higher than the prior year period, while profit of $302.6 million represented a 1.6% year-over-year decline in adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).

Booz Allen also reported a total headcount of 35,100 employees as of the quarter's end on June 30, which represents an approximate 7.7% year-over-year increase.