Public Sector Gets In The Groove

Groove Networks Inc. has hit its groove as a technology supplier to the public sector. A company official says Groove is in negotiations with police departments in several states that are interested in using its collaboration software in homeland security efforts.

The technology company, which was founded in 1997 and received a $51 million investment from Microsoft in 2001, considers government agencies one of its core markets, along with the pharmaceutical and professional-services industries. Michael Helfrich, Groove's VP of applied technology, says the vendor has more than 100 public-sector customers, including the U.S. Army and Navy, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the Organization of American States' Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism.

The vendor's Groove Workspace lets teams of people, both within and across organizations, collaborate in what Groove calls shared spaces. It's a capability that seems well-suited for the many local, state, and federal government agencies that need to work together on anti-terrorism efforts. Groove's platform was recently deployed in Iraq in a multiorganizational postwar coordination effort. The company says its system is being used by members of the Army and Marines and representatives of the Red Cross, Unicef, and the State Department, among others.