Innovation Awards Past Winners: Where Are They Now? Optimum Technology, Inc.

Editor’s Note: Plans are well underway for the 2010 TechColumbus Innovation Awards with nominations currently open and coming in from all types of individuals, disciplines and organizations from the largest research institutions to the earliest stage startups. This week, TechWeek begins a look back at some of the previous winners of these awards which have been going on since 1996 when they were known as the TopCAT Awards (1996-2007). As the awards have grown from year to year, we wanted to see how some of the past winners’ endeavors and companies have also grown. We begin the series “Where Are They Now?” with a look at Optimum Technology, Inc.

In 2003, Optimum Technology took home top honors in the category, “Best Use of Technology in a Product or Service.” Optimum Technology was founded by Josh Davda in 1984 as an enterprise IT professional services provider. After establishing a successful track record in IT consulting and services, in 2000, Davda decided to invest returns back into the company to begin development of more solutions-based software products targeted at law enforcement and government agencies. The objective was to develop solutions that could help fight crime and eliminate fraud by facilitating information sharing and collaborative investigation among agencies. With the terrorist attacks of 2001, such interagency collaboration and information sharing became even more critical. And Optimum Technology became involved in a greater mission – that of helping protect communities and citizens.

In 2003, Optimum Technology won the “Best Use of Technology in a Product or Service” for its Integrated Justice Information Sharing Platform, a proprietary framework upon which a number of solutions could be built to better facilitate information sharing between various law enforcement organizations and agencies. Optimum Technology’s flagship solution is the Prescription Monitoring Program which helps states and practitioners with prescription drug monitoring and use analysis.

According to Davda, the timing of the first TopCAT win was very fortuitous. He was in the beginning stages of trying to determine the best ways of marketing the Integrated platform when he spoke to Steve Clark who, at the time, ran the Business Technology Center (one of the predecessor organizations that came together to form TechColumbus and the original hosts of the TopCAT Awards). Clark suggested he enter the Integrated Justice Information Sharing Platform into the competition and when Davda followed this advice, he received top spot in a very competitive category.

Since launching the Integrated platform, Optimum Technology has gone from a practice area focused on 5-15 core clients located solely in the State of Ohio to working with 16 states, more than 1500 law enforcement agencies and serving more than 45 million citizens across the US.

Davda says that the TopCAT win contributed to this growth in the very early stages of the product’s launch.

“Because the Integrated Justice platform had been reviewed and validated by a group of peers, it elevated our credibility,” says Davda. “We weren’t the only ones saying that our product was of value – an independent review panel bore this out.”

In 2006, Optimum Technology was nominated again and won first place in the TopCAT Awards for best “Minority Owned Enterprise.” And, according to Greg Davda, senior manager with Optimum, the company is exploring new solutions which will warrant future Innovation Awards considerations and set the company up for a possible “three-peat.”

Nominations for the 2010 Innovation Awards are currently being accepted through October 11. You can nominate a company, an inventor, a woman in technology, a technology team, or any of a variety of nominees across broad categories. You can even nominate yourself!

The 2010 Innovation Awards will be held February 3, 2011. More details and the nomination forms are available here.