Rob, I think we already know what the answers will be on a few of your questions.
Sylvan -- machines have been put into 15+ locations already, will go to as many as 250 locations to service the NASD contract of 250,000 per year, with possibility of more. He'll be only too happy to repeat this information. Sale of Sylvan machines to the joint venture will show a big revenue increase.
INS -- The contract is out for bid. He can't say more. I'm sure IDX is confident of getting the deal, but there is no way he can say ahead of time it belongs to IDX. INS officials have indicated that the machine delivery will be soon, in the next few months. So I don't expect a long bidding process at all.
Oracle -- He won't want to answer this one, I'll bet. No announcements so far, the only leak being an Australian report of a 5000 seat deal to the Australian government.
My concern at the moment is IDX's capacity to produce enough TP-600's to satisfy the anticipated demand. If we have Sylvan (200+ machines), INS (400 machines), Cook County (100+ machines), and other probabilities, as alluded to in the preannouncement, all coming up at once, can they do it without delays?
By the way, re: Possible IDENT upgrade to TP-600's (practically speculative at this stage, but worth discussing). The Border Patrol has 158 IDENT sites along the Southwest border, according to a December 1997 GAO report. If this happens, I'd anticipate a problem with the INS agents being well trained enough to use the equipment. |
