09/29/2004

28 major companies announced their formation of the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium, (NCOIC), an industry-wide consortium, with the goal of recommending a unified approach that would enable sensors, communications and information systems to interact within a global network centric environment.

Founding members are BAE Systems, Boeing, CACI, Carrillo Business Technologies, Cisco Systems, EADS, EMC Corporation, Ericsson, Factiva®-a Dow Jones and Reuters Company, Finmeccanica, General Dynamics, HP, Honeywell, IBM, Innerwall, L-3 Communications (Integrated Systems), Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Oracle, Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, SAAB, SAIC, Smiths Aerospace, Sun Microsystems, Thales, and Themis with The Open Group acting as the management company.

A release by the consortium said the group will recommend and provide input on the underlying standards and architectural approach that systems and platform developers may follow to enable each platform, system or application to participate in a global network environment.

"Today marks the beginning of an unprecedented collaboration," said Carl O'Berry, newly elected chairman of the executive council of the NCOIC. "We've assembled the brightest minds from some of the most innovative companies in the world to bring their insight, technology, and customer requirements forward. I believe that we are on the cusp of profoundly changing the way we use network technology today, in both the military and commercial marketplaces.

"I am extremely proud to be associated with this powerhouse of knowledge. We understand the Network Centric Operations (NCO) vision, and we are committed to helping our customers achieve that vision," he said. Officials said that NCOIC was created in response to customer demand that industry assume a more prominent role in achieving network centric capability. The unique charter of the NCOIC makes it complementary to, not competitive with, those other consortia, industry associations, and government bodies that are also working toward the same goal of enabling customers to move rapidly to network centric operations. Details of the basic infrastructure to enable network centric operations will be the substance of NCOIC collaboration, while still enabling robust and healthy competition across the industry.

The NCOIC has formed an Advisory Council and an Affiliates Council in order to ensure that the NCOIC is well coordinated with all customer activities related to NCO.

“The importance of this consortium lies in its ability to provide a unified approach that integrates everything through the last mile," said former U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology Dr. Paul Kaminski, chairman of the NCOIC Advisory Council. "We’ve seen the power of the network grow by quantum leaps in the last decade, but we’ve been impeded by the lack of a common approach that enables our systems to network together as one. The deliverables and procedures from this consortium will provide tremendous capability enhancements to the Department of Defense, to other government agencies, and to our allies. This is an unparalleled collaboration and I laud these 28 companies in coming together to take us forward."

The consortium reported that membership is available in three tiers with all tiers involved in the activities of the NCOIC and its deliverables. Membership is open to all interested parties, both foreign and domestic. Members will influence the content and direction of the consortium’s programs, and all deliverables will be made available as public domain for use throughout the industry.

The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) is a not-for-profit international entity that is committed to convening members of industry to integrate existing and emerging open standards into a common evolving global framework that employs a common set of principles and processes to assist with the rapid global deployment of network centric applications. Established in 2004, the NCOIC consists of industry representatives from defense companies, large-scale systems integrators, information technology providers, and academia working in concert with advisory bodies consisting of government officials, standards groups and other stakeholders.

For more information, visit www.NCOIC.org