November 17, 2009  |  imaginestics news release

VizSeek Powers VOICe

West Lafayette, Indiana, USA – The National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) has partnered with Imaginestics to develop the Virtual Opportunity Interchange Center (VOICe) to connect manufacturers and suppliers with outsourcing opportunities from Department of Defense facilities and prime contractors.

As part of the NCDMM’s mission to support both defense organizations and U.S.-based suppliers and manufacturers, the NCDMM works with the Department of Defense and its supporting contractor communities to match machining and manufacturing opportunities with appropriate part manufacturers, outsourcers, and technology providers that are NCDMM members. Currently, this process is a manual one that relies on the expertise of the NCDMM personnel in identifying suppliers whose capabilities match the requirements of the opportunity. Managing the matching process has become more complex in recent years, as the continuing U.S. conflicts abroad have led to an increased need for equipment repair, part replacement, supply replenishment, and other support from the U.S. manufacturing community.

Recognizing that the matching process could be improved for both the NCDMM as well as its member organizations, the NCDMM began working with Imaginestics in early spring of 2009 to develop VOICe, a web platform based on Imaginestics’ online network of private and public industrial communities, VizSpace. VOICe is a private community within VizSpace, where manufacturers and technology providers can create their own profiles, showcasing their products and services and defining their technical capabilities and expertise. This community empowers the member organizations to publicize their capabilities, search opportunities based on self-defined criteria, and create relationships with fellow VOICe members. For the NCDMM, VOICe eases the match process by continuously searching for public opportunities posted by the Defense Department and its outsourcers as well as opportunities posted by VOICe members. VOICe then matches the opportunity to providers, using the profile information that the providers themselves have defined, and notifies those providers.

VOICe was unveiled at the NCDMM Summit 2009 conference on May 6th to great excitement from NCDMM’s members and alliance partners. It is currently rolled out to approximately 100 members from NCDMM. Ralph Resnick, vice president and chief technology officer for NCDMM, feels that, “VOICe is a tool for removing information barriers, whether those barriers are between us and our members and partners, between defense organizations and the manufacturing community, or between the vendors themselves. The increased communication benefits everyone involved, and it will provide cost and time savings as well as marketing and partnership opportunities that were never possible before.”

Nainesh Rathod, CEO of Imaginestics says that, “As has become clear in the past few years, social networking technologies have unleashed the power of online collaboration. VizSpace provides the industrial community, and through VOICe, the defense community as well, with a way to take advantage of these new technologies and forms of communication in a way that meets their needs and culture, making them better prepared for the challenges that lie ahead.”

About NCDMM
The NCDMM delivers optimized manufacturing solutions that enhance the quality, affordability, maintainability, and rapid deployment of existing and yet-to-be developed defense systems. This is accomplished through collaboration with government, industrial, and academic organizations to promote the implementation of best practices to key stakeholders through the development and delivery of disciplined training, advanced technologies, and methodologies. For additional information, visit the NCDMM at http://www.ncdmm.org.

About VizSeek
VizSeek's mission is to connect the world's industrial users through online communities of interest, providing the knowledge and tools to identify business opportunities and make intelligent business decisions. VizSeek solutions are currently used by top government agencies and industrial users. VizSeek, a wholly owned subsidiary of Imaginestics, LLC, is a privately held company, headquartered at the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, Indiana. More information on VizSeek and its products is available at www.vizseek.com.