Upon its establishment by Marci Murawski in 1995, Intelligent Decision Systems, Inc. (IDSI) has focused primarily on researching and evaluating how organizations can improve daily operations.
Joe Collins, retired Navy and current vice president of business development, helps IDSI find its clients and works to facilitate collaborative operations to win contracts. Focusing mainly on work with the Department of Defense concerning training, Collins explains, “It’s near and dear to our hearts that our soldiers receive the right training.”
IDSI’s main work until now has revolved around analyzing and giving training options to battle command systems and assisting the military with coordinating and running large military exercises. IDSI creates gaming and virtual reality software in addition to offering updates to pre-existing training.
Collins says that IDSI’s goals are to use technology where technology is needed. If an already existing system is in place and works without the use of new technologies, then the company would work with that solution, he says.
Some of IDSI’s “claims to fame” are its gaming and virtual reality platforms that allow reservists in the military to practice life skills and training modules through a computer rather than being put into the field with no prior experience. This program is named “Reserve Life.” Through this program, reservists and members of the U.S. Coast Guard can practice life skills in a virtual setting, giving them the chance to make mistakes without consequences, according to Collins.
With offices from Pensacola, Florida, to Centerville, Virginia, IDSI chose its most recent location in Newport News this past October.
Collins says that it was a combination of the staff living closer to the area and the customers finding it easy to come to this location as it is a travel hub. Collins has been with IDSI since 2001, coming in fresh after retirement from the Navy. He explained that IDSI performed a contract with the Navy and when time came for his retirement, the then-COO at the time, Mike Gilles, offered him a job.
Collins remarks on how awed he is on a daily basis by the work that IDSI does. Other projects that IDSI has worked on in the past, in addition to the contract work with the military, revolved around creating fresh work to show what it could do with story lines and gaming platforms.
From this “flexing of muscles” came Richard Pizza’s Hungry Games. This project’s primary purpose was to show future clients what they could create, to test their resources and to learn what they still needed for creating games.
Collins says that moving forward, the company’s goal will be to shift to a more commercial sector for contracts. This small, woman-owned business has done a lot of work with clients such as the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Veterans Administration and many more, but Collins says that the company is ready to expand its client search and take on new projects.
Collins loves that he gets a chance to work on a team that can take a company, target its problem and provide a solution. He gives a simple analogy: “Sometimes the answer to a company’s problems is left-handed wrenches.” It seems the company can’t get work done in a timely manner because all its engineers are left-handed, so IDSI would assess the situation and offer a solution: buy all left-handed wrenches.
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