Springs firm wins Air Force work worth $27.6 million

Intelligent Software Solutions Inc. has won two Air Force contracts totaling $27.6 million this week that will result in adding 40 to 50 people to its payroll.

About 20 of the hires will be at the company’s Colorado Springs headquarters, while the rest will be split between Washington, D.C., Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, Iraq and Afghanistan, company President Jay Jesse said Thursday.

The contracts are the largest among 25 to 30 awards totaling more than $50 million won by ISS during the past year, Jesse said. The new contracts will help the company boost sales this year to about $50 million from $36 million last year, he said.

A $17.5 million award made to ISS on Thursday is part of a larger $49.9 million contract the company landed last year to provide software to military commands and federal agencies that makes data from many sources easier to view and analyze.

ISS will manage the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base under a $10.1 million contract awarded Tuesday. The agreement is the first of its kind for the company, Jesse said.

“Our corporate résumé is now substantially more diversified. This opens the door to a whole new area we can expand into,” he said. “They were looking for a company that could combine expertise in technology, intelligence and intelligence analysis.”

Privately held ISS, started in 1997 by four former engineers from GTE Government Systems, employs 150 in Colorado Springs and 110 elsewhere.