ARLINGTON, Va., 14 February 2005. CACI International Inc. announced today that it has been awarded a $2.8 million contract by the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New Jersey to extend the E Team Crisis Management System to every county and key allied and state agency in New Jersey. CACI will conduct project management, implementation and deployment, training, exercise development and technical support for the expansion of E Team through the first months of 2005.
E Team is collaborative software for crisis management from E Team, Inc., and CACI is a strategic partner with the company. The State of New Jersey deployed the E Team solution to extend its crisis management capabilities and to share incident data among state agencies. The software was deployed in 2004 for the State's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and activated for the Republican National Convention and floods in four New Jersey counties.
The expanded system will link agencies and departments throughout the state to manage everyday incidents and large-scale events. It will connect the New Jersey State Police Office of Emergency Management with all 21 counties and state agencies, including the Department of Health and Senior Services, Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs, Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Transportation, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the New Jersey National Guard.
CACI, one of E Team's largest system integrators, had been engaged by E Team to complete initial and ongoing New Jersey incident management system deployments. CACI focused on concept and architecture development, deployment, training, and life cycle support and assisted the New Jersey State Police in the development, execution, and after-action analysis of a successful exercise to prepare the state for the convention.
"The software has dramatically improved our effectiveness by providing real-time situation updates among a variety of agencies from the local to the national level," said Lieutenant Colonel Lori Hennon-Bell, commander of the New Jersey State Police Homeland Security Bureau. "The benefits were most apparent during the Republican National Convention, when the system enabled us to share online information instantaneously with our New Jersey partners, New York City's Office of Emergency Management, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, all of whom utilize the system."
For the 2004 Republican National Convention, held in New York City from August 30 through September 2, CACI augmented the operational mission by training more than 250 emergency management professionals in the use of E Team before the convention. During the event, CACI subject matter experts were onsite at the State's Emergency Operations Centers to provide assistance to the New Jersey State Police and New Jersey Office of Emergency Management. The convention drew approximately 50,000 participants to the area and as many as 250,000 protestors. It was designated a National Special Security Event and required regional collaboration to ensure the highest level of preparedness and response.
Under the new contract, the system will be ready in part for use during the TOPOFF III (Top Officials) exercise in April 2005. TOPOFF III is the third of a congressionally directed national series of exercises focusing on weapons of mass destruction (WMD). It will simulate a terrorist campaign with simulated attacks using WMD in the states of Connecticut and New Jersey.
"It's important to tie together communications for all of the emergency managers throughout the state to give us a clear picture of each incident as it is developing," said Chris Scaturo, Deputy Coordinator of Emergency Management for Union County, New Jersey. "It gives all of us the ability to properly plan and respond to any situation because of the rapid exchange of information."
Christopher Bonin, Homeland Security Program Manager from CACI's Eatontown, New Jersey offices, added, "The system provides a geographic view of the status of all incidents and critical infrastructure in the area of operations. Jurisdictions such as counties and cities, as well as key state agencies, keep the state Emergency Operations Center up to date on their status by submitting online situation reports. Further, the system has a logistics support engine that allows the state to monitor resources and deploy them rapidly in response to requests from front-line responders and county emergency management partners."
To date, CACI has installed E Team and trained users for the Burlington County (New Jersey) Department of Health; City of Portland, Maine; and in the U.S. Army Emergency Management Testbed located at Picatinny Arsenal and Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey. The Testbed is part of a System-of-Systems Architecture Evaluation Facility used by the U.S. Army Armaments Research, Development and Engineering Command to evaluate and demonstrate current and emerging Homeland Security Technologies. CACI played a lead role in the development and presentation of the first in a series of demonstrations that highlighted various homeland security technologies to the homeland security community across city, state, regional, federal and military levels. CACI is also providing E Team training to the State of Georgia National Guard and has provided consulting services on the use of E Team to the District of Columbia Emergency Management Agency.
Founded in 1998, E Team is a leading provider of crisis management software, serving public agencies of all levels and sizes, private entities, and non-profit organizations. E Team's collaborative software offers comprehensive functionality for the critical tasks of crisis management, enabling users to better prepare for, respond to, and recover from large-scale emergencies and everyday incidents. It is used in a wide variety of applications, including emergency management, homeland security, public health, business continuity, disaster preparedness and recovery, event management, and training and exercises. Proven time and again in real-world situations including Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Ivan; the 2004 G8 Summit; Republican and Democratic National Conventions; and New York City's response to 9/11, E Team's browser-based software links the key players in a response, allowing effective multi-agency, multi-group collaboration. For more information, see www.eteam.com.
CACI International Inc. provides the IT and network solutions needed to prevail in today's new era of defense, intelligence, and e-government. From systems integration and managed network solutions to knowledge management, engineering, simulation, and information assurance, we deliver the IT applications and infrastructures our federal customers use to improve communications and collaboration, secure the integrity of information systems and networks, enhance data collection and analysis, and increase efficiency and mission effectiveness. Our solutions lead the transformation of defense and intelligence, assure homeland security, enhance decision-making, and help government to work smarter, faster, and more responsively. CACI, a member of the Russell 2000 and S&P SmallCap 600 indices, provides dynamic careers for approximately 9,500 employees working in over 100 offices in the U.S. and Europe. CACI is the IT provider for a networked world. For more information, see www.caci.com.
