NMCI a model for business

Officials from Electronic Data Systems Corp. are being peppered with questions at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas as business leaders inquire about the company's ongoing work on the $6.9 billion Navy Marine Corps Intranet, according to EDS' leader on the project.

"NMCI is the largest IT contract in the world and it opened up a lot of other government agencies to EDS' capabilities and teaming with other companies," said Rick Rosenburg, EDS' program executive for NMCI. "It's a great model...and can be drawn out to the private sector as a way to do business."

Rosenburg said many of the inquiries received are from industry leaders interested in how they can apply NMCI's security requirements to their businesses. He added that the business model of having EDS assume the project's capital costs — allowing the Navy to treat IT as a utility — also is generating ample interest and praise for the Navy's leadership in that area.

When they're not answering questions about NMCI, representatives from EDS are scouring the show floor looking for new technologies that could aid the project, Rosenburg said.

"There are great new technologies here that could be incorporated into NMCI," he said, including a videoconferencing tool that produces a 3-D image of the participant and numerous wireless technologies. Those must meet the Defense Department's strict security standards, he said.

The next phase of NMCI is slated to begin Nov. 14, when EDS will begin implementing more than 3,000 seats at the Lemoore, Calif., Naval Air Station, with work at Patuxent River, Md., NAS slated to begin "before December," Rosenburg said.