Industries
Government & Defense
Industry

Government & Defense

Government software work has a gap in the middle: research teams and innovators produce promising prototypes, and agencies need accredited, documented, maintainable production systems, and the distance between the two is where projects stall. Closing that gap is our core practice. Iron Forge is a U.S.-based, SAM-registered software firm that commercializes prototypes into production systems, with NIST-aligned security practices, documentation written to pass review rather than to check a box, and accessibility built in. We work directly with agencies and as a subcontractor to primes that need a small-business software partner who ships. Our capability statement covers codes and past performance categories; the conversation about your specific program starts whenever you're ready.

Solutions

How we improve your project

Secure Document Management Systems

Privileged documents stored, versioned, shared, and audited with access mapped to how firms actually work.

Government Documentation & Review Packages

System documentation, security artifacts, and user guides written to pass review, produced alongside the code instead of after it.

Section 508 Accessible Applications

Accessibility as a requirement from the first wireframe: keyboard, screen reader, contrast, and testing built into every release.

NIST-Aligned Secure Development

Security controls designed in and evidenced throughout, so the assessment is a review of what exists rather than a list of what's missing.

Prototype to Accredited Production

Research and pilot software rebuilt into systems that pass accreditation: hardened architecture, real documentation, sustainable operations.

Industry Segments

We build dozens of projects each year. Here are a few of our latest and favorites!

Defense Innovation

Defense innovation programs produce pilots that work in the demo and die in transition. We commercialize research software into production systems: hardened architecture, real documentation, and the security posture accreditation demands, delivered by a U.S. team.

Primes & Subcontracting

Primes need small-business partners who deliver without hand-holding. We slot into contract structures as the software subcontractor: registered, responsive, and experienced at building to specification while flagging the risks specs missed. Our capability statement covers codes and past performance categories.

State & Local

State and local teams need modern software at a pace big-vendor procurement rarely delivers. We build constituent-facing tools and internal systems with commercial speed and government discipline: accessibility, security, and documentation treated as requirements, not change orders.

Federal Agencies

Federal software stalls in the gap between promising prototype and accredited system. Closing that gap is our core practice: NIST-aligned security, documentation written to pass review, and accessibility built in. A SAM-registered U.S. team that ships production systems, not slideware.

Related work

We build dozens of projects each year. Here are a few realted projects!

Enceinte Health - Patient management
Healthcare, Patient management, CRM
Medico - Healthcare management platform
Healthcare, Patient Management
Noria AI - Software engineering
AI

things you might want to ask

Frequently asked questions

What does it take to scale a pilot into a production system?
More than most pilots are built to survive. Turning a proof of concept into something the wider business runs on means hardening it for real usage, meeting the security and data standards a central IT team will accept, and documenting it well enough to hand over. This is the gap where most corporate innovation dies, because a demo that works is not a system anyone can adopt, and it's exactly the work we specialize in.
How do you keep executives and stakeholders aligned during a build?
With short feedback loops and progress an executive can actually read. Corporate innovation teams answer to sponsors, dual reporting lines, and shifting priorities, so we work in a cadence that produces working software rather than status decks, and we keep useful work moving when an approval stretches out or a sponsor changes direction. A partner who has only worked with founders will build you something good and then be surprised when it stalls in your process.
How do you get onboarded through enterprise procurement?
We've been through it before, which is usually the difference between weeks and months. That means signing your master services agreement, carrying the insurance your legal team requires, completing vendor risk questionnaires, and working inside your change control and approval gates without needing to be walked through each step. Ask any partner whether they've been onboarded as an enterprise vendor before, because if procurement is new to them, that learning curve becomes your delay.
Can you work with our SSO and identity provider?
Yes. New applications should authenticate through your existing single sign-on rather than standing up a separate login for your IT team to govern. We work with standard enterprise identity providers and SSO protocols, and we scope authentication during planning so access, roles, and permissions are settled before development starts instead of being retrofitted later.
How does a development agency get through our InfoSec and vendor security review?
By expecting it and preparing for it, rather than treating it as red tape at the end. A partner who has been through enterprise reviews before can answer a vendor security assessment directly, produce what reviewers actually ask for (data flow diagrams, access controls, audit logging, evidence of secure development practices), and support a penetration test near the end. Watch how a firm reacts when you first raise security. The ones who have done this can tell you what your reviewers will flag before you ask.
How is enterprise web development different from building a startup MVP?
The engineering is similar; everything around it is not. An enterprise build has to authenticate against your identity provider, connect to systems of record that predate the project, pass an InfoSec review, and clear procurement, none of which a startup MVP faces. Budget for that surrounding work from the start, because it usually determines the timeline more than the code itself does.
Who does Iron Forge work with?
Our clients span solo founders, funded startups, enterprise innovation teams, and institutions — including Johns Hopkins University, Delta Airlines, U.S Air Force, and the San Diego Angels. We've worked with clients across 47 states and in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

How we approach things

Simple process

Start with discovery
Book a Strategy Call

01

Talk

A free strategy call to hear what you're building and tell you honestly whether we're the right team for it.

02

Discover

A fixed-price Discovery, two to three weeks. We map your users, your features, your goals, and any existing code, including AI-built prototypes, and your existing business.

03

Decide

You get a requirements document, vendor recommendations, line-item pricing, and a timeline. It's yours to keep, whether you build with us or anyone else. Sometimes the honest answer is don't build yet, and we'll say so.

04

Build

One U.S. team designs, builds, launches, and supports your product, with a membership for the years after launch.

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