Partnership pays off for tech firms

SYRACUSE - Two businesses based in the Syracuse Technology Garden beat out global companies like Adobe and IBM earlier this year in winning a major contract from the FBI.

CollabWorx, Inc., which provides Internet-based conferencing and collaboration software, and Govsphere - a management, strategy, and technology consulting firm for federal, state, and local government agencies - won the deal in September. The contract calls for the firms to provide the FBI with secure, real-time collaboration capabilities using CollabWorx software.

The companies will also customize the product and add some new capabilities. The firms are currently in development on a six-month pilot phase of the project, which includes options for extensions.

The companies couldn't say how much the deal is worth - the FBI limits what they can say about the contract for security reasons. It is, however, a significant win for the firms and the first fruit of what they hope will be a long-term, valuable partnership.

CollabWorx is the prime contractor on the deal and is handling work on the software, installation, and configuration. Govsphere is serving as a subcontractor and will handle project management, analysis, training, and documentation for the project.

"How often do you see two small companies like this winning a contract over Adobe and IBM? That doesn't happen very often," says Marek Podgorny, president and CEO of CollabWorx.

CollabWorx, which generates about $1 million a year in revenue, has six employees and Govsphere has four.

Podgorny, who founded CollabWorx based on work he did at Syracuse University, first met George Mazevski, Govsphere's president and CEO, at the fuse technology conference in 2007. The two eventually realized their companies could work well together.

"The work that Govsphere is doing, we don't want to do," Podgorny says. "George's strength is to run projects according to government rules, which I don't even want to know. They have those skills. We're not well suited to that."

Mazevski, a Syracuse native and Syracuse University graduate, spends about three weeks a month in Washington, D.C. and a week a month in Syracuse.

"CollabWorx has very, very technically skilled people that are very capable," Mazevski says. "We provide a lot of the functional knowledge and have that experience with government agencies. We have complementary skill sets."

The FBI project involves allowing offices across the country to work collaboratively online and use documents together. The connections must be highly secure as the technology will support investigations, Podgorny says.

The companies went through a rigorous process to win the deal. An FBI team visited Syracuse to see the CollabWorx software and also tested it at the bureau's labs in Quantico, Va.

The FBI project, however, is just the first to result from this partnership, Mazevski says. CollabWorx and Govsphere are currently exploring business with the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Almost all those projects are related to anti-terror activities and the need to have better and secure communication," Podgorny says.

The companies have a pipeline of potential new business in the range of $8 million to $10 million over the next 12 to 18 months, Mazevski says. He declined to release specific revenue information for Govsphere.

He says that Govsphere and CollabWorx could both double their work forces over the next year.