Montana firms like Missoula’s Invizeon benefit in time of war

Number of companies have ties to defense

In these troubled times, a call from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency might be cause for alarm.

But when Missoula’s David Todd received that call Wednesday morning, it was a promising development for Todd’s high-tech company, Invizeon http://www.invizeon.com/ .

By DARYL GADBOW of the Missoulian

The Missoula company recently joined forces with AT&T to build a new kind of fiber-optic network called Community Health Alert and Information Network, or CHAIN, that would link about 1,000 law enforcement, medical and other emergency management professionals. The network will be capable of delivering secure information to almost any kind of radio, cell phone or computer system.

With heightened homeland security a growing concern since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and especially now with war in Iraq, the federal and state governments are clamoring to check out Invizeon’s new communications system.

"I just got a call from the Defense Intelligence Agency," said Todd. "They want to take a look at our product. I’m leaving for the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta) today for a private meeting. There was actually a pretty significant sense of urgency, as you can imagine."

Invizeon’s CHAIN could provide solutions for CDC’s Health Alert Network and Public Health Information Network, according to Todd, president and founder of Invizeon.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Todd said, the federal government has released $1.1 billion for the CDC information networks to provide bio-terrorism warnings and updates.

"That’s going up this year to $5.5 billion," Todd said. "The process of the state and local governments figuring out what they need to do and how to do it has taken up a year. They’re just now getting serious and putting out RFPs (requests for formal proposals) to companies. We just made presentations to Tennessee state and New York City departments. We’re just now realizing the demand created by 9-11. Government agencies are beginning to make decisions and spend money."

The war and corresponding homeland security measures will create more demand for products and services like Invizeon’s, according to Todd.

"And there’s more money in the pipeline," he said.

The increased interest and demand has already stretched his company’s staff and resources to respond to requests for information, demonstrations and media inquiries, and answer proposals by government agencies, said Todd. Invizeon employs 50 people, up from six when the company started five years ago.

Invizeon’s association with AT&T "has leveraged our ability to meet with agencies like FEMA and the Department of Defense," Todd said. "It’s opening more doors for us because AT&T has more resources and credentials within the defense community."

Invizeon is one of a number of Montana businesses with defense industry ties that may benefit from a U.S. war in Iraq, according to David Gibson, head of the Montana Office of Economic Development.

However, he added, most of those companies probably have already seen a boost in their business during the past year as the United States prepared for the possibility of war in the Middle East.

"To the extent that war leads to more procurement or demand for new technology," said Gibson, "that may help their business in the long run. But nothing’s going to help from a two-month, or four-month or one-year war. But we’ve been building up to this war for the last year or so. So companies either have seen a boost already, or the war leads to new demand for stuff that could help them in the future."

In general, Gibson said, Montana’s isolation and diversified economy shield it from events such as war.

"In Montana there’s a dampening effect from our cyclical industries – agriculture, forest products, mining," he said. "We’re not driven as much by one-time events. We also don’t see fast growth from them. But we don’t get whacked as much."

Two side issues associated with the war could have serious economic impacts in Montana, however, according to Gibson.

One is rising fuel prices.

"Because of our long distances from markets, Montana gets hit harder than, say New York, where most markets are on the next block," he said. "And fuel prices could hurt tourism, which is a $2 billion industry, and 10 percent of our economy."

Gibson’s other war-related economic concern is homeland security.

"If security gets to the point where there are big restrictions on transportation and airlines," he said, "again, our long distances to markets relative to other states could cause problems. Look at United Airlines. The latest speculation is that it may liquidate. Say something like that happened with Delta, and all of a sudden there’s no Fed Ex in Billings. We’re a little worse off, because we’re more dependent on them. My own feeling is that because of our isolation, we’re more seriously impacted."

The lack of a substantial manufacturing segment of the state’s economy could be beneficial during a war, Gibson said.

"Manufacturing gets really hurt in uncertain times," he said. "In general, people buy things they need in uncertain times. But they don’t buy a new car or a washing machine. We don’t produce those things in Montana, so we’re not impacted. But those are good, high-paying jobs. In the long term, I’m working hard to get more of them."

Defense procurement and military wages, as a percentage of Montana’s gross state product, are about average compared to other states, according to Paul Polzin of the University of Montana’s Bureau of Economic Research.

"But this is not like World War II or Korea," Polzin added, "where we mobilized the entire country. It doesn’t cost all that much more to maintain a soldier in Kuwait than Fort Bragg. The major impact of war might be psychologically through the stock market and travel. When there’s an increased level of uncertainty, people put off making major purchases."

Reporter Daryl Gadbow can be reached at 523-5264 or at [email protected].

http://missoulian.com/articles/2003/03/24/export4006.txt