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GOV. BLAGOJEVICH
ANNOUNCES $445,000 IN HOMELAND SECURITY
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT GRANTS TO FOUR,
CHICAGO-BASED ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
COMPANIES
Innovative Product
Grants Will Help Create 34 New Jobs in
Emerging Technology Sector
CHICAGO - Continuing his efforts to
support businesses engaged in the high
technology and homeland security
industries throughout Illinois, Gov. Rod
R. Blagojevich today announced $445,000
in Opportunity Returns funding to four
Chicago-based companies to commercialize
new software that can be used to enhance
homeland security efforts. The grants
will help these companies create 34 new
jobs over the next two years and retain
17 jobs. The funding is being provided
through the Innovative Product Grant (IPG)
Program administered by Illinois
Department of Commerce and Economic
Opportunity's (DCEO) Homeland Security
Market Development (HSMD) bureau. IPG is
the nation's first state-funded grant
program focused on developing products
to meet homeland security needs.
"Today's economy centers on innovation
and advancing new and existing
technologies that will create a safer,
cleaner, healthier and more efficient
world. These four companies are
excellent examples of utilizing already
successful products and developing new,
important applications that will make
them even more marketable. By investing
in emerging companies that are investing
in Illinois, we are helping them meet
the ongoing challenges in the homeland
security industry and create
high-paying, high-tech Illinois jobs,"
Gov. Blagojevich said.
The following companies are receiving
grants:
Cognitor provides Solutions for Service
Management, enabling customer service
and support organizations to optimize
their service lifecycle from the first
call to a support center to the delivery
of parts and service in the field. The
company will use this $120,000 IPG grant
to commercialize its Transportation
Security System (TSS), which will
integrate Cognitor's Agile Service
Management Suite into a user friendly
product that captures and presents data
from the multiple systems at use in
transit systems. Cognitor's TSS will
intelligently monitor service operations
of major metropolitan public
transportation systems and help to show
potentially harmful trends or developing
emergencies before they become major
incidents. The grant will help the
company create six new jobs and retain
two over the next two years. For more
information on the company visit
www.cognitor.com - Nik Rokop -
312/463.1300.
Information Development Consultants (iDC)
is a 25 year-old, software/technology
firm that provides advanced financial
management and citizen centric software
to government and not-for-profit users.
iDC will use this $125,000 IPG grant to
add new emergency management and
continuity of government functions to
its 4govR Financial
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
software application for local
government. 4gov is a secure, web-based
software application that cities use to
perform budgeting, accounting, payroll,
billing and collection and other key
functions. This grant project will allow
iDC to add new security and emergency
management functions. iDC has a
nationwide customer base of almost 100
government users/buyers. The grant will
help the company create nine new jobs
over the next two years and retain 13.
For more information on the company
visit
www.4idc.com - Carolyne Turner -
312/464.1020.
Intellext is a privately-held software
company that will use this $100,000 IPG
grant to commercialize "Watson for
Intelligence Analysis." The new version
of Watson, which proactively finds
relevant information based on the
context of a user's work, will
incorporate retrieval of
evidence-related information from the
web and proprietary government
databases. This will allow law
enforcement or national security
intelligence analysts to draw up
evidence related to perpetrators and
suspects, crime locations, crimes
involving property and crimes involving
vehicles. "Watson for Intelligence
Analysis" is being developed in
consultation with a representative of
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and
other homeland security users. The grant
will help the company create seven new
jobs over the next two years. For more
information on the company, visit
www.intellext.com - Jay Budzik -
312/896.2200.
TransLumen Technologies creates
proprietary and patented visual display
technologies for software, firmware and
content. The company will use this
$100,000 IPG grant to enhance its v-INDICATORTM
peripheral awareness software product
for use by defense and homeland security
systems integrators. TransLumen will use
the grant to prototype, test and prove
software, serving as a visualization
tool that gives a user enhanced
monitoring capability reducing the
operators' workload and increasing
situation awareness by decluttering the
screen, and improving decision-making.
Users include aerospace, the U.S.
Department of Defense, and municipal
emergency centers in the areas of
command and control, security and
surveillance, Future Combat Systems, and
unmanned aerial and ground vehicles. The
company will create 12 new jobs and
retain two over the next two years. For
more information on the company visit
www.translumen.net - Carol Sherman -
312/337.8099.
"In order to boost the economy, we must
help our growing companies identify new
markets and opportunities to continue
advancing technologies and turning them
into successful products in the
marketplace. Gov. Blagojevich and I are
committed to making investments like
these that help make us secure and
create more good jobs," State Senator
Mattie Hunter (D-Chicago) said.
"Illinois continues to extend its
leadership position in the homeland
security industry, in large part because
of Gov. Blagojevich's commitment to help
companies meet the ongoing challenges
and opportunities within this key
sector. This investment in these
tech-based firms is another example of
our efforts to support innovation that
will result in more good jobs," State
Representative Ken Dunkin (D-Chicago)
said.
DCEO's Innovative Product Grant (IPG)
Program was created to accelerate the
commercialization, improvement, and
production of goods and services with an
application in homeland security and
other sectors. IPG funds are intended to
help create jobs and increase economic
activity in Illinois while strengthening
the state's competitive position as a
leader in science and technology
innovation.
"The key to advancing Illinois in the
global economy is to encourage
innovation through investment. With
these grants to four exemplarily,
high-growth, tech-based companies, Gov.
Blagojevich and I are helping toensure
our companies have the support they need
to develop more effective products and
advance technologies that contribute to
improving our national security and
creating more good jobs," DCEO Director
Jack Lavin said.
DCEO's Homeland Security Market
Development bureau is focused on
supporting businesses engaged in the
homeland security industry, and the
bureau offers a variety of investment
tools designed to help existing Illinois
companies expand operations and utilize
available state and federal programs and
services. For more information on HSMD,
visit
www.hsmd.illinois.gov.
Gov. Blagojevich's Opportunity Returns
regional economic development strategy
is the most aggressive, comprehensive
approach to creating jobs in Illinois'
history. Since a one-size-fits-all
approach to economic development just
doesn't work, the Governor has divided
the state into 10 regions - each with a
regional team that is empowered and
expected to rapidly respond to
opportunities and challenges.
Opportunity Returns is about tangible,
specific actions to make each region
more accessible, more marketable, more
entrepreneurial and more attractive to
businesses. It is about upgrading the
skills of the local workforce,
increasing the access to capital,
opening new markets, improving
infrastructure, and creating and
retaining jobs. It's about successfully
partnering with companies and
communities, large and small, to help
Illinois reach its economic potential.
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