TEL AVIV, Israel, June 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Ness Technologies, a global provider of information technology solutions and services, today announced that it has joined, as project coordinator, the CATO project for the management of non-conventional CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) crises. CATO, which is an acronym for CBRN Architecture, Technologies and Operational Procedures, is co-financed under the 7th Framework Program of the European Commission. The €14M research and development effort brings together 25 European companies and organizations that collaborate in this project.

CATO's purpose is to develop a comprehensive open toolbox for dealing with CBRN crises resulting from terrorist attacks using non-conventional weapons, or attacks on facilities with CBRN material. The CATO project is supported by a distinguished advisory group comprised of European leaders and first responders in the field of CBRN crises.

CATO will address the key CBRN incident management challenge: fragmentation of doctrines, knowledge, processes, and systems - as many different organizations need to be involved and coordinated to deal with such crises. Current approaches and systems are fragmented due to multiple players and organizational setups, as well as the lack of an effective shared operational picture and commonly shared information. CATO's open toolbox will meet this challenge and will serve as an infrastructure for a dedicated and customized Decision Support System (DSS) that can be adapted to local, national, organizational, political and financial constraints as well as to different levels of exposure to CBRN threats.

In addition to its role as project coordinator, Ness Technologies, through its Technologies and Systems Group (Ness TSG), will develop the main components of the CATO toolbox and knowledge base and will serve as the integrator of the CATO DSS, making use of Ness TSG extensive experience in developing command & control systems and decision support systems.

"Ness was appointed to the CATO project as project coordinator due to its status as a global leading C4I solutions company with special expertise in crisis management command and control solutions," said Michael Zinderman, president of Ness TSG. "In a CBRN crisis every second counts, and precise and immediate situation awareness is crucial."

About Ness Technologies

Ness Technologies is a global provider of IT and business services and solutions with specialized expertise in software product engineering; and system integration, application development, consulting and software distribution. Ness delivers its portfolio of solutions and services using a global delivery model combining offshore, near-shore and local teams. With about 7,000 employees, Ness has operations in North America, Europe, Israel and India, has customers in over 20 countries, and partners with numerous software and hardware vendors worldwide. For more information about Ness visit http://www.ness.com.

Media Contact:

Maya Lustig
Israel: +972-3-767-5110
Email: maya.lustig@ness.com

SOURCE Ness Technologies Inc