If you've got it, flaunt it… so when computer consultants Lockheed Martin UK - Integrated Systems & Solutions were accepted as participants in the DStan customer care programme, they were delighted to provide the skills and knowledge of arguably the biggest and best tactical data link team outside of the United States to help service the MoD and defence industry's standardization needs.

Tom Johnston (left) and Dave Wilkinson (second left) of DStan meet some of the Lockheed Martin UK - Integrated Systems & Solutions team: Technical Assistant Vikky Johnson, holding the company's DStan Helpdesk certificate, Derek Dunton (second from right, Director with special responsibility for Tactical Data Links) and Andy Hannam (right, Senior Consultant and Quality Manager)

The MoD UK Defence Standardization Helpdesk is a free service run by DStan to facilitate access to the vast reservoir of expertise in the UK, via an enlisted army of helpdesk supporters.

For DStan it means a greater understanding of their customers' standardization needs, and for helpdesk supporters like Lockheed Martin UK - Integrated Systems & Solutions  it means greater visibility of their products and services.

Supporters are asked to provide DStan helpdesk customers with perhaps five to ten minutes of free time and expertise in an atmosphere of co-operation. There are necessary limits. "We don't expect our supporters to release information to known competitors that might impact on their business," says DStan.

Lockheed Martin UK - Integrated Systems & Solutions, who are based at Farnham in Surrey and have recently opened a branch at Malvern in Worcestershire, joined the helpdesk team in the summer of 2000. The company specialises in providing independent, high quality consultancy to military and civilian clients particularly in the fields of command, control and communications consultancy; information security; aeronautical navigation applications; and business continuity and crisis management.

Lockheed Martin UK - Integrated Systems & Solutions is an acknowledged leader in the field of NATO Tactical Data Links (TDLs), with a unique level of expertise in the development and maintenance of TDL message standards, protocols and procedures, and the implementation and testing of TDLs in operational platforms. Lockheed Martin UK - Integrated Systems & Solutions' team uses these high level skills to support the UK, US and many other NATO and non-NATO countries.

Expertise ranges across the whole spectrum of TDL-related activities, including operational and system requirements specification, communications terminal development, platform integration and testing, network planning, network management, multi- and single-link operations, system-wide interoperability and harmonisation.

Notably, Lockheed Martin UK - Integrated Systems & Solutions developed the Through Life Interoperability Planning (TULIP) process, which is a collection of policies, standards, tools and processes used by the UK and other nations in the specification, integration, testing, acceptance and operational use of TDLs to ensure through life interoperability.

"Being a helpdesk partner enables us to pool all this knowledge for the benefit of more effective UK defence standardization," says Lockheed Martin UK - Integrated Systems & Solutions Director Derek Dunton, who is also the company's TDL Business Manager. "In return, we gain exposure of our products and services on the DStan website, the Internet being both a national and international market place.

"We all work in a highly-specialised area, and without facilities such as the DStan Helpdesk, people may not know where to go for the right advice. When people do seek our advice, it may lead to business opportunities for us. This has happened with our TDL training courses - the students can become our future customers."

Derek believes that participating in the helpdesk operation underlines the authority of Lockheed Martin UK - Integrated Systems & Solutions in its area of expertise and can be used as part of the "company's CV", and he sees no real risk in helping competitors.

"We use every opportunity to publicise our capabilities wherever we feel our current or potential customers are likely to look. As far as the DStan Helpdesk is concerned, DStan does this for us in the MoD Contracts Bulletin, on its website and in its own publications."

So are the helpdesk questions likely to be difficult? "Of course not," says Derek. "If we couldn't respond authoritatively to the questions, we wouldn't be the experts." As they say on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, it's easy when you know the answer!

Illustrations

Derek Dunton