Supply Tracking Software Intended for Marines Goes Commercial.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Innovation Nation

PARIS--A startup working on a Marine Corps grant is looking to consolidate antiquated logistics software so it can deliver medical supplies in disaster zones in a timelier manner.

14BIS Supply Tracking, a Burlington, Massachusettsbased company, developed its Just in Time Medical Logistics software under a Marine Corps Small Business Innovation and Research award, CEO and co-founder Eleanor Mitch, said at her booth at the Eurosatory trade show in Paris recently.

The problem is widespread in the military logistics world: legacy systems that don't connect or communicate, she said.

"Frank over here has got one system. On the other side of the street, Betty has another, but no one knows what's happening," she said, especially when it comes to delivering consumables like medical supplies in a timely manner.

The Marine Corps was looking for more precise deliveries based on actual needs rather than estimates, she said.

The Marine Corps is running a competition for the program, and has yet to select a winner, so 14BIS, meanwhile, is marketing the system commercially to the emergency, disaster and humanitarian world, where centralized planning is a bane to workers in the field.

That sector has similar problems to the military, she said.

"It's as if medical logistics were currently functioning with blinders, which means that the right supplies aren't...