PORT TOWNSEND — Intellicheck Mobilisa, a Port Townsend company that develops and markets wireless technology and identity systems, experienced its best year ever in 2009, Chief Executive Officer Nelson Ludlow said.
“In early 2009, I stated that our goal was to increase our revenues by making an investment by adding new products to our product line and new personnel to the sales force,” Ludlow said Thursday.
“As a result of our plan, we have shown a healthy increase in revenues, and for the second year in a row, we have recorded positive cash flow from operations.”
That cash flow amounted to nearly $1 million, Ludlow said.
It was a year that added AT&T to Intellicheck Mobilisa’s client list, with the major telecommunications company acquiring the company’s driver’s license ID reader system, which will allow customers to quickly apply for a credit charge card at some 15,000 AT&T stores.
East Coast AT&T stores are using the system now. It is expected to roll out across the country to the Northwest some time this year.
“When you buy a new iPhone they scan your driver’s license,” by using a reader box developed by Intellicheck Mobilisa, Ludlow said.
Intellicheck Mobilisa also landed Alliance Data Systems as a client. The company has 22 chain stores, including Victoria’s Secret and The Gap.
“We grew 24 percent over the last year,” Ludlow said. “And that’s with the economy doing its roller-coastering.”
Outlook better for 2010
The outlook is even better for 2010, he said, and the company is still in a hiring mode.
Ludlow said the staff is now at about 60, most operating out of the Port Townsend Otto Street offices in Glen Cove Industrial Park.
Ludlow said the company recently hired some Washington State University computer science graduates.
Trading as IDN on the New York Stock Exchange, Intellicheck Mobilisa on Thursday reported revenues for the fourth quarter of 2009 increased slightly to $2,577,071, compared with $2,575,014 during the same period of the previous year.
Order backlog
The company’s backlog, which represents noncancelable sales orders for products not yet shipped and services to be performed, was about $10 million at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to $11.3 million at the end of 2008.
During the final quarter, revenues increased to $12,414,579, compared with revenues of $10,016,806 reported in the same period of the prior year.
Ludlow praised his salespeople, including Debi Bainbridge and Ryan Anderson, both based in the Port Townsend office, for the stellar year.
Intellicheck Mobilisa also sells mobile and handheld wireless devices for the government, military and commercial markets.
The company is setting up a wireless buoy system in the Strait of Juan De Fuca and Puget Sound, developing an array to provide security and environmental sensors for both public and governmental use.
The buoy network is on the lookout for security issues, oil spills and environmental monitoring.
They are even capable of detecting “dirty” bombs aboard cargo vessels in the event of a terrorist attack attempt.
The high-tech buoys monitor the coastal waters and transmit the collected data via Intellicheck Mobilisa’s trademarked Wireless Over Water technology.
The company used Wireless Over Water technology to add wireless Internet access to Washington State Ferries.
The buoy project is a joint effort of the U.S. Navy, Intellicheck Mobilisa and University of Washington Applied Physics Lab and is called a littoral sensor grid.
The buoys are equipped with security, environmental, acoustic, weather, video and other sensors. They transmit data to a tower on Blyn Mountain, east of Sequim.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
