IBM added another piece to its
information management services empire this week by buying the government
sector-oriented firm National Interest Security Co. (NISC) for an undisclosed
amount.
NISC bills itself as a strategy and operational solutions provider, offering a
range of services and solutions in security, logistics, energy, health care and
defense. IBM honchos say the pickup was made
to bolster Big Blue's federal government expertise in order to complement its
existing public sector offerings, including the recently launched Business
Analytics and Optimization (BAO) Services for Public Sector, which offers
agencies advanced analytics for predictive intelligence.
"IBM's analytic and innovation prowess,
combined with NISC's industry knowledge and depth of experience, will allow us
to deliver an unprecedented level of service and support to our growing list of
government clients," Chuck Prow, managing partner, public sector, IBM
Global Business Services, said in a statement.
Some of NISC's domain of past experience includes systems engineering,
biometrics, document and media exploitation, systems integration, information
assurance and analysis support. Its business model relies on highly trained
consultants developing a high-touch strategic partnership with agency clients
to provide integrated strategy, analytics and management of information assets.
"NISC's high-end, differentiated approach combined with IBM's
Analytics Center will help federal agencies improve current mission
effectiveness and create new capabilities," Andrew Maner, CEO
of NISC, said in a statement.
Due to close by the end of first quarter, this deal will greatly improve Big
Blue's competitiveness for information management contracts compared with other
big players such as CSC and Harris.
Federal IT spending remained a big bright spot for channel and services
partners of all stripes last year. Total spending equaled $75 billion, with
about 55 percent coming from civilian agencies and 45 percent from military
agencies, according to the firm Government Insights. Those numbers are expected
to edge up by 4 percent in 2010.
 |
