The goal of the Army's SMART costing initiative is to develop a performance-based cost estimation capability linked to engineering designs and effectiveness models that will enable cost-performance trade-offs early in the life cycle of a system. IPCM will connect cost analysis methodologies, engineering design tools, system requirements, and effectiveness analyses. The IPCM will also be able to interface with web-based, collaborative environments, such as PTC's Windchill(TM), as utilized within the Army's Future Combat Systems program.
Through Phase IV of the program, the LMI/Engineous team demonstrated the IPCM concept and developed an IPCM component for Combat XXI. Combat XXI is a Joint Army-Marine Corps effort to replace the Combined Arms and Support Task Force Evaluation Model (CASTFOREM), a legacy combat simulation. Combat XXI is a non-interactive, high-resolution, analytical combat simulation focused on tactical combat scenarios. Additionally, the team began development of an interface between IPCM and the MATREX environment to enable classified studies within the framework.
During Phase V of the program, ODASA-CE requires the continuation of development and support for the fielded prototype system, and calls for Engineous' FIPER, to be adopted by four remote Army locations supporting the IPCM program. These installations will require assistance from the LMI/Engineous team in researching and developing the required policies and capabilities to advance the system towards its objective capability. The Army also will conduct fielding of IPCM to test the framework under operational conditions and to encourage user participation in the development process.
"We have reached an important milestone in the IPCM program," said Glenn Reis, Vice President of Business Development for Engineous Software. "Completing the development of the key FIPER components for Combat XXI and the MATREX environment positions IPCM for operational capability testing. Further, the Army's push to deploy FIPER to four locations shows an important commitment to fielding the IPCM capability", Reis stated.
"FIPER's ability to easily integrate with complex models and simulations and scale from the desktop to the enterprise, allows LMI to focus on our domain expertise for the benefit of the Army", said Gerry Belcher, LMI Program Manger for Cost and Resource Analysis. "Phase V will be an important step in fielding IPCM capability and providing the Army a strategic solution for support the Warfighter," states Belcher.
LMI selected Engineous Software and its FIPER solution as its core framework to support the deliverables of the IPCM program. FIPER is a commercial, enterprise-class architecture that specializes in providing a rapid component development and analysis environment and a distributed computing runtime capability, well suited to take advantage of current grid technologies. Built on a Java(TM)2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and web services standards, FIPER can support programs like the Army's Future Combat Systems by scaling across the extended Army enterprise and bridging complementary integrations with other J2EE applications like PTC's Windchill.
About Engineous Software, Inc.
Founded in 1996, Engineous began operations after securing major clients in the aerospace and automotive markets as well as several awards from the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA). These contracts facilitated the commercialization of the company's flagship product iSIGHT, which enables organizations to explore more design alternatives in less time, dramatically reduce production costs, decrease time-to-market, and create innovative design alternatives.
The company's newest technology, FIPER (Federated Intelligent Product Environment), was developed through a $21.5M cost-share award from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). FIPER, a next generation, web-based, distributed engineering analysis infrastructure, was developed by Engineous Software along with organizations like GE, Goodrich, Parker Hannifin, Ohio University, Stanford University, and key business partners such as ITI Transcendata, UGS PLM, and Engineering Intent. The technology allows organizations to access, integrate, execute, and reuse design and cost estimating tools to perform near real-time, multi-domain analysis. FIPER enables its desktop environment to be securely extended to an enterprise-class application for collaborative analysis.
Additional information can be found at www.engineous.com.
Contact:
Engineous Software, Inc. Marijo Mencini, 919-677-6727; Email Contact