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Local leader takes chargeWith the creation of the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security short-

ly after 9/11, there became a greater

need for technology and equipment to

service this new federal department.

Ken Morrelly, a veteran Long

Island technology and manufacturing

leader, recognized the need and sought

to create a facility that could nuture

the growth of such companies locally.

As a result, the Applied Science

Foundation for Homeland Security was

established.

The 90,000-square-foot building on

the grounds of the Northrop Grumman

Corp. in Bethpage was built using a $25

million state grant. While Morrelly pio-

neered the facility’s development, he

never saw its completion, suffering a

fatal heart attack just a few months

before it opened in spring 2010. The cen-

ter was named in his honor. Today it

holds 16 technology companies focused

on homeland security.

“If there’s a growing market within the

homeland security field, we want to be able

to help firms expand their technology and

grow jobs,” said Bill Wahlig, executive

director of the Long Island Forum for

Technology, the parent of the Morrelly

Center. “We gather teams and clusters of

technology firms, and then go and advocate

for them to get them the things they need

to be successful.”

Having so many security-focused

technology firms under one roof makes

information sharing easy. The center

has seen its business opportunities grow

as more agencies have bolstered their

emergency operations plans in the after-

math of 9/11.

New businesses ariseFive years ago, when the Morrelly

Center was first conceived, both Balfour

Technologies and Power Management

Concepts were brought on as promising

homeland security technology firms. The

company heads saw an opportunity to

combine Balfour’s fourDscape visualiza-

tion browser with PMC’s Mission Critical

Access data repository for critical docu-

ments including floor plans, standard

operating procedures, images, user man-

uals, punch lists and transmittals, creat-

ing a comprehensive Google Earth-like

mapping system, complete with infra-

structure visuals of mass transit sys-

tems, buildings and other locales.

“The software contextualizes informa-

tion and visualizes real-time data as it

moves through time and space,” said

Eduardo Browne, CEO of the new joint

venture, called VCORE. “The user defines

the environment and brings it all to one

picture. They can then enable the sharing

of information among other homeland

security or public safety agencies.”

VCORE has gained several clients

since its inception, including the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security, the

Anaheim Convention Center, the New

York Institute of Technology and the

Nassau County Police Department.

Also based in the Morrelly Center,

GEOcommand emerged from the ashes of

9/11 as a communications interoperabili-

ty solution for agencies that need to stay

in constant contact during a disaster.

“Before 9/11, I was involved with

another company focused on interopera-

ble communications as an investor,”

said Albert Koenigsberg,

GEOcommand’s CEO and chairman of

the board. “That company worked close-

ly with various agencies in New York

City. I remember seeing the people that

worked there sitting at their desks as

the buildings went down.”

With the company’s communication

system down, Koenigsberg said he knew

there had to be alternative means of

communication in the event of a disas-

ter. And buoyed by the Assure

Emergency and Interoperable

Communications for First Responders

Act of 2005, which provided grant fund-

ing to state and local municipalities to

enhance emergency communications

capabilities, he was ready to create a

communications system himself.

In 2006, he took back the technology

that would be the basis for

GEOcommand and spent the next five

years developing the system, which

allows first responders to share informa-

tion such as GPS coordinates, vehicle

routing information and utilities loca-

tions through the company’s server mod-

ule if modes of communication are

knocked out.

“We’ve spent the last five years devel-

oping it,” Koenigsberg said of the

GEOcommand system. “We brought it to

the market in February and now we’re in

a few jurisdictions in the Northeast.”

However, unlike most, Koenigsberg

feels 9/11 made it tougher for his busi-

ness to get off the ground.

“If 9/11 didn’t happen, we probably

would have started selling years earlier,

but we would have been more of the

problem as just another barren data

source company,” Koenigsberg said.

“Because of 9/11 we focused on the inter-

operability of data and that’s made us

who we are.”

Local tech companies shift focusNew businesses weren’t the only ones

who saw an opportunity to help make

the world safer from terrorist attacks

post-9/11. Many local companies focused

in one industry saw the ability to branch

out and easily shift their technology to

homeland security.

Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, Farmingdale-

based Impact split time as a company pro-

viding public safety dispatch technology

and one performing record keeping for

governments and court systems. However,

following the fall of the Twin Towers,

which held antennas Impact had used for

their dispatch operations in Westchester

County, the firm decided to divest itself of

its municipal record-keeping business in

favor of focusing solely on public safety

and homeland security.“The two [industries] went hand-in-

hand, and it was easy to shift focuses,”said Dennis Labriola, president and CEOof Impact. “By 2004 we had sold off ourgovernment and court record-keepingaffairs.”

Impact tailored its dispatch system tomeet the needs of homeland security offi-cials who direct public safety and emer-gency response personnel when disasterarises. Through the company’s VisualComputer Aided Dispatch system, userscan configure how they want to displayvarious types of caller, dispatch and sta-tus data, and then share that informa-tion with any other public safety agency.

And the move has been a success forImpact. Labriola said the company nowhas double the amount of employees itdid prior working on its publicsafety/homeland security offerings, and,more importantly, has increased revenuesince applying the focused approach.

Even Long Island’s largest companieshave begun trying their hands at home-land security technology since 9/11.

With locations all over the world,Farmingdale-based Telephonics has longbeen known for its focus on defense andmilitary technology. After 9/11, however,the tech giant began exploring otheravenues, using its experience in the mili-tary communications business to create aline of ruggedized communications systemsfor mass transit vehicles.

Wahlig said Telephonics’ story is notuncommon.

“Many of the companies supportingthe federal government and theDepartment of Homeland Security arecompanies coming out of defense con-tracting world,” Wahlig said. “They had aseries of capable products and servicesthat they were able to transfer fromdefense to homeland security. The twoindustries are so interconnected that inmost cases it has worked out very well.”

Local companies emerge from 9/11 tragedyRisen from the rubble

©2011 Long Island Business News, all rights reserved

Ten years later, local business owners still remember what they were doing when theyfound out their country was under siege. Many could only watch in horror on their TV screensas the Twin Towers fell from the heavens, leaving clouds of dust and debris in their wake. Inthat instant, everything changed.

Struggling to make sense of the incomprehensible, some Long Island companies used theterror attack as an opportunity to change their businesses and technology to ensure similarattacks never again were carried out on American soil, or if so, that emergency responders arebetter-equipped to handle such a disaster. Many set about to develop communication strate-gies and solutions that could be employed to increase access and sharing of vital information.

These are their stories.

By JOHN CALLEGARI

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