NetCom launches government group

NetCom Solutions International Inc. announced this week that it has established a wholly owned subsidiary — NetCom Solutions Government Services Inc. (NSGS) — to provide its Total NetWorks solutions to federal, state and local government customers.

NetCom's Total NetWorks solutions support wired, wireless and optical networks. The Chantilly, Va.-based company designs, deploys, maintains, manages and secures large and small-scale public and private networks for carriers and enterprise network owners.

Emmit McHenry, NetCom's chairman and chief executive officer, said the company has grown in its six years of existence, mostly in the commercial sector. But he said increased demand from the public sector, coupled with "economic uncertainties and the downturn in the telecommunications and technology areas" made it "an appropriate time for our company to diversify."

In conjunction with the subsidiary's launch, McHenry announced that Bill Black has been appointed president of NSGS. Prior to joining the new firm, Black founded and developed a company focused on software delivery to the emergency response community and served as a senior business development executive for Logica Consulting.

McHenry initially contacted Black with the idea of breaking into the government space last October. In the ensuing months, the duo studied the market to determine if a government-focused subsidiary could be competitive before incorporating NSGS in June and officially launching the company Aug. 6.

Currently, the government firm has three full-time employees, including Black, but will be using the technological and personnel resources of the parent company to attract government customers.

"We have been a [subcontractor on government] telecommunications contracts with AT&T, Verizon [Communications], Global Crossing [Holdings Ltd.], Sprint" and others, Black said, adding that they are currently working with Sprint to install a Metropolitan Area Cyber Network in San Francisco. "We're re-applying that into government.... We have the folks and experience, and we're going to start priming these things."

NSGS expects to announce its first new government customer "within the next 30 days," Black said.