AIT Develops Portal to $250 Billion Annual Industry

September 27, 2005; 07:36 AM

Fayetteville, N.C. – AIT (ait.com/?news-tide), a web hosting company near Fort Bragg, NC, has developed a portal technology that opens billions of dollars in defense contracts to civilian vendors.  GovTide is a potential economic development engine that retains federal revenues and creates jobs by: 
·         Simplifying the bidding process for contract and qualified vendors
·         Recruiting new industries who value proximity to military installations
·         Creating an environment in which money stays in the communities where the projects are located  
·         Integrating military personnel and their dependents into the civilian workforce
 
The military marches on more than weapons 
The US military spends about a quarter of a trillion dollars each year with civilian contractors for non-weapons needs ranging from textiles to furniture, from food contracts to professional services.  GovTide matches registered vendors with defense procurement offices from the convenience of a desktop or laptop computer.  The technology has been licensed to the North Carolina Military Business Center under the name of MatchForce.  “In a matter of months, contracts worth more than $1-billion have been posted in the database,” said Scott Dorney, the Center’s Executive Director.  “There is no guarantee, of course, that all of the contracts will be awarded to in-state businesses, but without this portal, I can guarantee that few of them would be.” 

Keeping local dollars local

In fact, North Carolina’s interest stemmed from having the nation’s 4th-largest active-duty population but only a small percentage of defense contracts.  It’s the same story in other communities with military ties – heavy dependence on retail and service business that rely on disposable income, businesses that are paralyzed during deployments.  “People read about the 7- and 8-figure contracts, but the services run on projects with much smaller price tags and those are projects local companies can compete for and win, if they’re aware of the opportunities,” said Clarence Briggs, AIT’s Chief Executive Officer and a former infantry officer.

“Communities don’t grow when dollars are spent with out-of-town contractors, and taxpayers lose when public contracting dollars are siphoned away.” 
Founded in 1996, AIT supports more than 190,000 domains in 107 countries and is the only hosting company listed on both the Inc 500 and Deloitte & Touche Fast 500.  AIT provides e-commerce, data storage, software development, IP telephony, application hosting, and technology training from a 93,000 square foot data and service center.