IPS MeteoStar - Company History

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COMPANY HISTORY

In 1997 IPSM was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of Information Processing Systems of California (IPSC). At that time, the intellectual property for Lockheed Martin's MeteoStar® products was purchased by IPSC. The primary product was the Leading Environmental Analysis and Display System (LEADS) weather workstation software. In 1987, Lockheed determined there was a need for the LEADS software following award of two weather contracts for the US Navy and USAF. These systems had a contract value near US$200 million. Because Lockheed believed customers would no longer fund expensive custom weather systems, it began development of an advanced, low-cost, commercial weather system with the functionality provided by its large custom programs. Lockheed used the meteorological processing concepts of the two major weather systems as a springboard to launch the more cost effective commercial weather ingest, analysis, and display system, LEADS. However, after a 6-year, US$6-million investment, Lockheed re-focused on core business, and divested itself of commercial pursuits. As a result, the MeteoStar® intellectual property was sold to IPSC.

Years of investment in the LEADS software paid off in May 1999 when IPSM was awarded the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) Operational Weather Squadron, Phase II (OPS II) contract. The OPS II is a multi-million dollar, multi-year contract for providing meteorological software for support of USAF operations worldwide. Under OPS II, the AFWA began investing in the LEADS software through modifications to make the LEADS operationally usable at world-wide weather squadrons. LEADS passed the OPS II Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) at Davis Monthan AFB in Jan 2000.

LEADS PRODUCT HISTORY

LEADS was originally developed by Lockheed Martin for the US Navy as a visualization tool in the Shipboard Meteorological Operational Observation System (SMOOS). The LEADS product was continually enhanced with additional capabilities and commercialized by Lockheed. The LEADS system was also configured to support the Air Quality network in Texas and is presently the basis for all the Air Quality data collection and EPA reporting for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). In 1997 Lockheed redefined their business focus and divested themselves of the LEADS division and product by selling the LEADS product and assets to IPS in California.

IPS absorbed the LEADS product into the IPS MeteoStar (IPSM) division in September of 1997. Shortly afterward, IPSM purchased Planet Weather and integrated their web capabilities into the LEADS product. The LEADS product ran solely on UNIX at this time.

In 1999 IPSM ported the LEADS application and tools to MS Windows. At the same time IPSM also aggressively expanded their customer base to include a number of International users. In 2002 IPSM acquired the SAIC/METPRO workstation and product line and integrated the capabilities of the METPRO product into the LEADS system.

Today IPSM continues to add new capabilities and enhancements to the LEADS product. LEADS has been successfully ported to Linux and offers cross compatibility with MS Windows, Unix and Linux. With the IPSM LEADS Software Subscription Service our customers can get a free upgrade to once per year to the latest software revision. We at IPSM pride ourselves with our continued development and sustainable product capabilities afforded to our customer base.