NICE Systems, an Israeli-based security and data analytics firm, has landed their biggest deal to date after arriving at an agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration. As part of a 10-year contract, the tech company will be bringing the regulator into the 21st century with new and improved air traffic control capabilities. The contract is reported to be worth up to $137 million and includes, more specifically, a suite of applications that will enhance the FAA’s mission critical debriefing, incident handling and continuous improvement processes.
“Millions of flyers rely upon the FAA daily to ensure their safety,” said Chris Wooten, executive vice president, NICE. “In mission critical times of need, the FAA needs to be best positioned to act fast and respond smartly. We at NICE recognize the need of this important work and are ready to support the FAA as it improves incident related debriefing and investigations. We look forward to continuing our years of service in supporting the FAA.”
The NICE Inform Incident Information Management System (IIIMS) is a comprehensive solution designed to integrate with most air traffic control (ATC) software and captures data from voice, radar, CCTV video and other information to provide users with a synchronous, full-scope picture of incident happenings. The Inform System simplifies the process of capture, search, reconstruction, organization and distribution of all available data – which can have a profound impact on the speed with which air traffic investigations are conducted.
For NICE, it all started in 1986 when seven Israeli ex-servicemen came together with the idea of becoming a private sector provider of surveillance equipment for the military. From there, the Neptune Intelligence Computer Engineering (NICE) firm was founded and in those first few years, they focused on the development of defense and security solutions for the armed forces.
It didn’t take the company long to see the benefit of branching out into the civilian sector and they successfully transitioned over to building business intelligence applications, public safety analytic platforms, and cybersecurity & compliance software. NICE specializes in converting data collected from structured and unstructured sources into powerful insights that drive success for their client organizations.
Neptune officially changed their name to NICE Systems in 1991 and experienced significant growth in 2000’s – largely through acquisitions of other tech firms. Some of their most recent transactions include a $940 million deal for NICE inContact, a call center software company in 2016; a $140 million purchase for Mattersight, a SaaS-based behavior analytics firm in 2018; and the procurement of Brand Embassy, a digital customer service platform, made for an undisclosed amount in 2019.
In a 2017 interview, the company’s CEO Barak Eilam shared his experiences about how he started out with the company 18 years ago. “When I joined NICE, it was not a start-up but a small company in the $100 million range. Today, we are north of the $1.3 billion in revenue,” Eilam remembered. “Seeing the company’s evolution and transformation, it doesn’t feel like working for the same place for 18 years. It has changed so much in 18 years, and I had the privilege to see those transformations. I also had changed roles every two to three years. So, it gave me a great career opportunity over here.”
The company has become an industry leader with over 7,500 employees serving 25,000 customers – 85 percent of the Fortune 100 amongst them – spanning 150 countries.
