SALAMANDER, the award-winning software technology and service business based at York Science Park has won a major contract with the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The MoD has selected Salamander's software solution to improve its efficiency and effectiveness in areas ranging from business information to the battlefield.

The contract, for an undisclosed sum, is another highlight of success over the past two years for Salamander which last year became the first York firm, along with Osbaldwick-based YorkTest, to win the Queen's Award for Innovation. It followed a DTI "Smart" Award in 2003.

The army has already chosen Salamander's software for its operational and business activities. Now the MoD has extended the software's application to deliver benefits throughout the Whitehall department. What impressed defence officials was how, for instance, the software was able to spot the wastage of having four parallel streams of work. It recommended what could be kept, dispensed with or merged to improve efficiency and save millions of pounds.

Salamander director Dr Dick Whittington said: "The MoD has an 'enterprise wide' licence which gives it the right to install copies of the software in hundreds of installations throughout its computer network

"Now we have pilot programmes in several key parts of the MoD to maximise improvements and savings.

A big thing in the MoD is information superiority. It wins wars."

Colonel Brian Gorski, who is leading the MoD programme, said: "We have evaluated the achievements and experiences of a significant volume of previous work using the software and believe that Salamander's technology provides a flexible and robust basis for our programme. It will deliver significant benefits across the MoD. We are very pleased British technology has taken the lead in this area."

Updated: 11:31 Friday, February 18, 2005