TECHNOLOGY Park start-up Calytrix Technologies has taken a big step into the tough US market with the sale of its SIMplicity software to US-based The Mitre Corporation.
TECHNOLOGY Park start-up Calytrix Technologies has taken a big step into the tough US market with the sale of its SIMplicity software to US-based The Mitre Corporation.
Calytrix CEO Mark Rheinlander said the sale was significant for Calytrix as The Mitre Corporation was the organisation that developed ‘high level architecture’ standards — the standard upon which SIMplicity is based.
The sale follows a contract the company signed with US defence giant Lockheed Martin early this year to study the simulation technology for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Project.
While remaining tight-lipped on the dollar terms of the deals with both The Mitre Corporation and Lockheed Martin, Mr Rheinlander said the deals were important for building credibility for the technology and the company.
“The software standard, HLA, which our software is based upon, was developed by Mitre,” Mr Rheinlander said. “There is no better organisation to make a first sale to.
“The deal with Lockheed gave the company credibility and the deal with Mitre is giving credibility to the technology and the software.”
Mr Rheinlander said the deal added to the increasing number of the company’s customers, many of which are involved in the defence industry.
Customers include Lockheed Martin, Boeing Australia, the Australian Defence Modelling and Simulation Office (ADSO), Saab Systems, Novonics Oceania and Defense Research and Development Canada.
Calytrix was established in April 2001 and has been the recipient of a Federal Government $500,000 R&D Start Grant as well as Building on IT Strengths seed capital from business incubator Entrepreneurs in Residence (EiR).
The company has managed to survive the recent difficult time in the WA ICT industry but was forced to scale back its Perth operations to establish a US office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to provide local sales and support to North American customers.
Mr Rheinlander said the company was positioning itself to target the US defence and aerospace market, not only because of its size, but also because it can influence similar sectors around the world.
“The initial response to our SIMplicity product has been very encouraging. I believe our timing is right and expect steady growth of our US operations over the next few years,” he said.
SIMplicity is a toolset for software development that allows developers to create distributed simulations more efficiently and at a lower cost than other methods.
Mr Rheinlander said Calytrix was pioneering a revolutionary approach to building distributed software.
He said the company’s core business was the development of software tools for simulation.
The Mitre Corporation is a not-for-profit US national resource that provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the US government. It is involved in aviation, defence and intelligence and enterprise modernisation industries.
