GOLD™ Customers Meet in La Jolla

April 5-7, 2005

GOLD™ customers participating in the 1st annual GOLD™ User Group Meeting held in La Jolla on April 5 – 7 agreed on one thing, “I’m coming back next year!” Based on consistent feedback from attendees, the conference format facilitated a good exchange of ideas and information between GOLD™ customers and MIRO managers, and among customers as well. Sixty people representing over twenty GOLD™ customers attended the three-day conference held at the San Diego Marriott La Jolla.

Day one of the conference featured presentations by MIRO staff on the company’s strategic focus, functionality enhancements, implementation, deployment, support and technology evolution. MIRO’s president, Vincent Monteparte, described the company’s vision and mission, outlined the significant events of the past year, and set the pace for the conference. “This seminal GOLD™ User Group Meeting is a pivotal event in executing MIRO’s strategic direction,” he said. “This is our clarion call to continue to focus on our customers.”

The conference agenda on day two was reserved for customer presentations and guest speakers, with the keynote speech delivered by Major General Lew Curtis, USAF (Ret.). MGEN Curtis, who serves on MIRO’s Advisory Board, discussed trends in Department of Defense (DoD) Performance Based Logistics and presented a paper entitled “Sustainment Transformation: Opportunities and Challenges.” GOLD™ customer presentations were made by The Boeing Company, AAR Corp. and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. Other presenters included the Defense Logistics Information Service, who discussed DLIS tools available to contractors, and Intermec Technologies Corporation, who discussed and demonstrated RFID technology equipment.

Day three of the conference was hosted by ASG, a key MIRO technology partner, who provided a complimentary (full day) training session on their various ASG-Safari reporting and analytical products. Beginning with the release of GOLD™ 2005 in December of last year, all remaining GOLD™ COBOL reports have been rewritten using ASG’s Report Writer™ tool.

MIRO Technologies (formerly Spirent Systems-San Diego) has been serving the contractor and defense communities for over 24 years. Our customers include many of the largest defense contractors in the U.S.--Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, Raytheon, Honeywell, Hamilton Sundstrand, etc., as well as defense agencies throughout the world such as the U.S. Navy, the Royal Navy (UK), the Royal Australian Air Force and the Malaysian Air Force. In addition to supporting several key U.S. Navy Performance Based Logistics (PBL) programs such as the Boeing F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet contract and the Hamilton Sundstrand CH-46 and CH-53 helicopter Auxiliary Power Unit contract, MIRO's GOLD™ contractor logistics support (CLS) software has emerged as the de facto standard used on the 14 largest of the Air Force's 17 CSWS programs. These programs include the C-17 Globemaster III, C-130J Hercules, F/A-22 Raptor, F-119 Engine, E-8C Joint STARS, C-5M Modernized Galaxy, RQ-4A Global Hawk, RQ-1A & 1B Predator UAV, AF Satellite Control Network, C-130 AMP, AC-130U Talon II Gunship, AC-1030H Aircrew Information Mapping System and the Special Operations Forces Support Activity. In all these CSWS programs, the contractor is an Inventory Control Point, or ICP, enabling them to receive MILSTRIP requisitions directly from any military retail supply activity (usually the USAF Standard Base Supply System (SBSS)). GOLD™ also provides visibility of contractor-managed inventory at each retail location as reported by SBSS.