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Manakoa Services is on a fast track to being a very significant
corporate entity not only in the field of compliance, but in establishing and creating a
new area of enterprise risk management
Technology
Security and Compliance Solutions
(MKOS.OB)
Manakoa Services Corporation
7203 Deschutes Avenue
Kennewick, WA 99336
Phone: 509-736-7000
Robert Williams, PhD
CEO and Director
Interview conducted by:
Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
CEOCFOinterviews.com
March 24, 2005
BIO:
Robert Williams - PhD, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Dr. Williams has over 20 years of senior-level IT management experience with companies
ranging from start-ups to large technology firms and consultancies. He was also
instrumental in recent anthrax terrorist attack crisis management and is active in
continuing anti-terrorism efforts. Prior positions include being President of professional
services organization PDS Advanced Technologies, President and founder of pioneering UNIX
applications developer Decathlon Data Systems, a senior executive at UNISYS/System
Development Corporation, and Dean of Research at the University of California, Los Angeles
and California State Polytechnic University. A recognized technology expert, he was also
the featured speaker in the international road shows sponsored by Microsoft, Hewlett
Packard, Compaq and Tech Data on UNIX and Windows NT interoperability. He is the co-author
of the best selling, The Ultimate Windows Server 2003 Administrator's Guide (Addison
Wesley 2002), and other best selling books. Dr. Williams has a BA and MA from Whittier College,
and a PhD from UCLA. He was named by Microsoft Corporation as the Most Valuable
Professional (MVP) in the field of Security (2003).
Company Profile:
Manakoa is an independent software vendor and professional services company addressing the
multi-billion dollar IT security, IT compliance, and regulatory compliance marketplace for
enterprise customers. Manakoa's security and compliance solutions suite offers advanced
automation software on pre-configured, scalable platforms designed to control business and
IT policies, implement and enforce mandated compliance initiatives, and provide dynamic
views for monitoring and administration based on the role and permissions of user and
department. This groundbreaking software platform transforms high-cost security and
compliance consulting engagements into automated, consistent, and cost-effective
technology. Manakoa's software platform can greatly reduce consulting hours and
time-to-compliance through sustainable, repeatable technology. Manakoa's flagship products
are being previewed by Fortune 500 companies due to their unique approach of providing a
pre-configured platform, with templates, department by department, for analyzing
compliance with United States regulations such as the Gramm Leach Bliley Act, Sarbanes
Oxley, the USA Patriot Act, and HIPAA. Manakoa's full product suite, which will include
Manakoa Compliance WorkCenter(TM) and Manakoa Compliance Command and Control Center(TM),
provides a scalable, cost-effective, total compliance solution, which can be utilized in
concert with a company's existing IT. Finally, the Company recently announced a joint
licensing and development agreement with Battelle Corporation and the Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory (PNNL) to commercialize the first Cyber Attack Simulation Trainer.
Trademarks are the property of Manakoa Services Corporation.
CEOCFOinterviews: Dr. Williams, will you tell us about your
background with Manakoa?
Dr. Williams: "I am one of the co-founders of Manakoa.
Manakoa was established in its current form in 2003, but actually evolved out of a
previous company, which I co-founded called Secure Logistics Corporation. That corporation
formed in direct response to as you might remember the Anthrax attacks that took place
right after the 911 disaster. We were called to help minimize cross-contamination. What
happened is right after that event, we were charged with what now is called the Department
of Homeland Security, and with the FBI, and the EPA, with the responsibility of doing an
assessment as to how we as a nation can better deal with risk responses and security. The
report that we wrote at that time, became the basis for us moving forward and establishing
and creating software packages and solutions in the enterprise risk management field, and
specifically trying to ply this kind of information to the ever growing and emerging
regulatory compliance environment we find ourselves today."
CEOCFOinterviews:
Manakoa recently became a public company and the business started on the bulletin board;
why is now the right time?
Dr. Williams: "The company engaged in a reverse merger
into a pink sheet company back in March of 2003. We have been working with the NASDAQ to
delavate us up to the OTC bulletin board because as many know, the pink sheets tend to be
a graveyard for companies, whereas the OTC gives us an opportunity to emerge as a
legitimate corporate player in the world. Manakoa is on a fast track to what we believe
will be a very significant corporate entity, not only in the field of compliance, but in
establishing and creating this new area of enterprise risk management. We need to be able
to be in a credible environment."
CEOCFOinterviews:
Where are you in the process?
Dr. Williams: "The products are beginning to be
rolled-out. The company is releasing a series of products in 2005, all dealing with the
ability to provide solutions to companies to better meet the risk and compliance
requirements. The compliance knowledge base, which is an internet based portal, is to be
launched in February, that portal is prescription based and provides people whether or not
you are a board-of-directors, or CXO. A Compliance officer, an IT manager, anybody in the
command structure that has requirements and needs to know how to get around the compliance
maze, can go to this center and understand better what regulations are going to impact
them, how they are going to be impacted and how to maneuver and plan for compliance
responses. The content involved, is content which Manakoa has developed and integrated
with a series of international standards and cross-reference that against various
regulations that exist, so that people have a basis in fact to move forward. The other
content is being provided to us by people like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT). We
are providing direct links to Lexis-Nexis so that additional legal research and
information can be conducted. It is a wonderful resource that has been put on the desk of
anybody dealing with the clients and financers. Beyond the knowledge base, we are
providing a number of software packages. The Compliance Work-Center Suite, is rolling-out
in segments beginning this quarter. Once organizations understand what the requirements
are to the knowledge base, they then do the assessment and planning activity to get to a
reasonable level of compliance."
CEOCFOinterviews:
Is there anything as comprehensive as your product available elsewhere?
Dr. Williams: "We are unaware of anyone that has as
quite a comprehensive set of information and tools that we are offering. What we find is
that there are a lot of folks out there dealing with compliance and risk, but they are
doing it in a very piece-meal or point-product oriented basis. What we did is step back
and say there is a requirement and to really connect all the dots, and it is criminal in
our minds to have people deal with regulations on an individual basis since things like
HIPPA and GLBA have an undercurrent of common governance practices, and risk aversion
practices that run across all of these regulations. What we try to do is provide a means
for people to gather their information once and then to manipulate that information in
such a way that they can respond to a whole assortment of regulations and orchestrate it
in a process that is not piece meal and that is straight-forward. It provides them with an
efficient way to deal with multiple regulations with the same database."
CEOCFOinterviews:
How do you reach customers?
Dr. Williams: "We are working closely with a number of
channel partners that are trusted parts of corporations and have been charged with certain
responsibilities to help organizations meet compliant activities. These include accounting
organizations and systems integrators and law firms."
CEOCFOinterviews:
You are the only company worldwide with three Microsoft MVP award winners, including
yourself; what does that mean for a company like Manakoa?
Dr. Williams: "It is validation on a couple of fronts.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) has recently given us several pieces of validation;
one is to validate the technical competence of our folks. The MVP in the field of security
is a select group of folks that have been called out by the Microsoft team as folks that
they recognize as making major contributions. Since our organization is focused on risk
management and security, they have an organization as globally important as Microsoft to
validate the competence and expertise in this field, is significant."
CEOCFOinterviews:
What are the challenges of getting a new offering out there, accepted and utilized and how
are you prepared?
Dr. Williams: "It is more of an opportunity than a
challenge. What we have found is that there really were no set of solutions. The nature of
enterprise risk management and compliance up to this point has been very focused on one
element and a small series of elements. Our opportunity is the ability to say to corporate
America that you need not look upon these things in an ad hoc fashion anymore that there
is an ability now to embrace something that can bring all of this together. The thing that
we are founding is that companies are spending millions of dollars. I am handling a small
segment of this issue. Companies are finding themselves subject if they for example, have
to deal with non-public financial information; involvement in insurance and healthcare
areas. By us having the capability to provide them with a means to collect all this
information under one umbrella, I think the opportunity is really speaking loudly to
us."
CEOCFOinterviews:
Do you have all the funding you need for your activities?
Dr. Williams: "We are a publicly held company. The
funding comes from individuals who have purchased stock in the company. We have embarked
on yet another round of money that will toward our next level of growth."
CEOCFOinterviews:
What does Manakoa mean?
Dr. Williams: "It is actually a word from a Tongan Kingdom
and it literally means, strong, desirable and sexy."
CEOCFOinterviews: In closing, why should potential investors
be interested and what should they know that perhaps they don’t realize when they
first look at the company?
Dr. Williams: "There are four primary points; one, we
targeted a rapidly growing multi-billion dollar growth industry in compliance and risk
management. There is no clear leader at this stage and we believe we can fill a leadership
role. The second is the fact that we are taking a broad-based holistic view and supplying
our customers with leading edge solutions that we believe are light years ahead of our
competition. Thirdly, we have a management team, which has grown companies and developed
products successfully in the past. At our stage, we have already added value to our
investors portfolio, having gone from 6 cents to 80 cents at this stage hopefully much
higher in the future."
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