USGIF Member Spotlight: CGI Federal

Advanced, resilient IT capabilities are among the essential backbones for effective GEOINT application—especially in light of emerging and constantly evolving threats. Errol McEachron, Senior VP of Consulting Services at CGI and leader of the space and intelligence sector of the company’s Defense, Intelligence, and Space business, told trajectory how CGI is meeting the challenge.

CGI Federal’s roots are in IT and business consulting—you’re a subsidiary of CGI, one of the largest IT consulting firms in the world. Describe your offering to federal clients in the GEOINT landscape.

We offer a range of services to federal clients in the national security landscape, including strategic IT, business consulting, systems integration, managed IT, business processing services, and intellectual property solutions. We work with federal clients across many civilian, defense, and intelligence agencies. Our core capabilities span Digital Transformation, IT Modernization, Application Development, Cloud and Cyber, and Data Services, which encompass data engineering, modeling, advanced analytics, and AI/ML. Our focus is on the intersection of technology and mission, and through partnerships with our clients, we provide vital services and solutions that contribute to our nation’s security, prosperity, and scientific achievements.

In the GEOINT community, we concentrate on identifying and developing technologies, services, and solutions that enable more effective integration, analysis, and sharing of GEOINT data at the scale and speed required for mission success. We assist intelligence agencies in transforming the way they provide foundational intelligence to support the warfighter, policymakers, allies, and partners. We also work with commercial geospatial companies to advance earth intelligence. Moreover, as a global company, CGI delivers GEOINT services and solutions to our Five Eyes partners and other allies, contributing to capabilities such as imagery intelligence, geospatial analysis, and the production of maps and charts.

How does the company’s global reach come into play for your clients?

Our global reach plays a crucial role in serving our clients. What sets us apart is our ability to draw on our global network’s knowledge and experiences, allowing us to understand what has worked for other Five Eyes partners and allies and bring the right talent and proven solutions. This advantage is particularly valuable in a time when partnership- and coalition-driven operations are becoming more prevalent. While we cannot share classified project details with our global colleagues, we facilitate connections and information sharing between our clients on either side of the Five Eyes partnership, fostering collaboration and learning.

What has you most excited about where GEOINT is headed, and CGI’s role within that?

Regarding the future of GEOINT, we are excited to be part of the larger community working toward its advancement. Rapid advancements in technologies like artificial intelligence and digital engineering (or “digital twins”) are shaping a more comprehensive, persistent, and resilient GEOINT capability. This evolution involves integrating commercial, open, and other sources of data in real-time. However, as we strive for a more integrated capability, we must also address the evolving threats. Adversaries are moving beyond traditional kinetic and cyber-attack vectors and focusing on manipulating and compromising underlying data. To tackle this challenge, we are developing technology solutions and services that securely share data while ensuring end-to-end data integrity, from collection to decision-making. Our goal is to build trust into the data and maintain the decision advantage for our clients.