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The company is called New Technology Management Inc. for a reason, says CEO Lurita Doan. "I love gadgets. If there's something new out there, we're playing with it. We are willing to take on some of the leading-edge technologies."

But this techno-pioneer's career almost took a decidedly different path. Doan was on the verge of completing her Ph.D. in Renaissance literature when she realized there were more opportunities in computer science -- her other field of study -- than in Shakespeare. So she went to work in the high-tech industry and, six years later, started New Technology Management in Winchester.

Now Doan is one of a very small number of black women who own a high-tech business. "Even among minority businesses, I'm in a minority," she says. "I don't think there are even 10 of us."

Doan started the Winchester-based company in 1990 -- on Halloween "because it's scary starting a new business." New Technology Management provides systems integration support in Unix, Microsoft Windows, and Novell Netware environments, including installations, setting up networks, training, managing and even testing new technologies. Since 1990, The company has experienced revenue growth of 200 percent per year, says Doan.

New Technology Management has implemented video surveillance for the U.S. Customs service in Arizona by installing high-resolution cameras along the U.S. border. The cameras work remotely through microwave or fiber hookups, and the images are relayed to a series of stations. This allows border patrols or customs agents to see vehicles or people before they approach the border. Resolution is so high, says Doan, that agents can complete a license plate check before the car arrives at a check point.

Another of the company's federal clients -- the Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Agency -- has been with New Technology Management since the beginning. The company provides e-mail support and Internet access to 5,000 local users plus other customers throughout the Midwest. It's no small order, Doan says, noting that support is needed for "six different flavors of Unix, NT servers, Novell, and a plethora of applications. We support as many as 70 different software applications on a given day."

This agency is New Technology Management's bread-and-butter client. "They were my first government contract and it started at $16,000; now it's $12 million," says Doan, making New Technology Management the agency's largest minority contractor and also its lowest-cost provider of high-tech brainpower.

Even though its biggest client is in Washington, D.C., the company remains in Winchester, where it first opened to serve nearby commercial clients. As New Technology Management gained government contracts, it opened an office in Oakton so it could be within a 20-minute drive of the district. For the same reason, it now has offices in St. Louis and Tucson, Ariz.

Despite its growth -- New Technology Management is not really in the market for new clients. "We don't advertise, and we submit only about five bids a year," Doan says. "We have five government customers and three commercial customers, and as their budgets get bigger, we get more of their money." The key she says is to do good work that makes the client look good. "And because they're performing well, we get a bigger piece of their increasing pie. It's a good model, but it's unusual. The industry trend is to hire more business-development people."