Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) announced that the Tactical Information Systems Division (TISD), part of the Systems Engineering Group has achieved certification for International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2000. Each of the three divisions that comprise TISD--the Information Systems Integration Division (1306) in Sterling, VA, the Forward Integration Facility (FIF) in San Diego CA, and the Information Systems Technology Division (0121) in Charleston, SC--has successfully completed an intensive 3rd party audit by the British Standards Institution (BSI, Inc.) in order to qualify for registration. The scope of registration is the Design, Analysis, Development, Environmental Testing and Evaluation and the Integration, Assembly and Installation of Ruggedized Information Technology Systems.

"By achieving this most important milestone, the TISD team has demonstrated that we will continue to aggressively strive to ensure that our customers' satisfaction will be achieved at all times. We are committed to the continuous improvement of our products and services, and honor innovation and contributions from all of our employee owners." said Operations Vice President Gary Lufriu.

The ISO 9001:2000 standard represents an internationally recognized accord on good management practices. The registration process is based on stringent requirements that involve an in-depth examination of business methodology, products, and processes. The aim of the ISO 9001:2000 standard is to add value to all types of business operations by ensuring that the organization can consistently deliver products or services that meet customers' quality requirements. The quality monitoring activities mandated by the ISO standard ensure consistent customer satisfaction and provide a measurement of customer satisfaction. The resulting data promotes continuing improvement of the Quality Management System.

"To accomplish our goals for ISO registration, we had to establish a Quality Management System that details a hands-on approach for our management responsibilities, identify and correct resource management issues, do a top-down review of our products and services realization objectives, and initiate appropriate measurement and improvement programs and repeatable processes," said Jim George, TISD's ISO Implementation Manager/Management Representative.

TISD is responsible for the engineering design, development, and on-time production of reliable and cost-effective systems and products for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) and Industrial Information Technology (IT) Systems. TISD has developed a unique expertise in ruggedizing and integrating Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Information Technology (IT) products into the Navy's Command and Control Systems and Network Communications Systems. Emphasis is placed on the entrepreneurial integration, innovative adaptation, production and worldwide Fly-Away support of COTS equipment into the harshest Military Tactical & Industrial Environments. TISD excels in resolving issues in the performance, reliability and maintainability problem areas, to include enhancements to COTS hardware, firmware, software and the operational concepts of those Tactical and Industrial Systems.

TISD's Information Systems Technology Division (0121) in Charleston provides engineering design, development, and production of reliable and cost-effective Tactical Military and Industrial information systems and products with a focus on Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) platforms and users, and National and local security systems. ISTD also provides product evaluations for Government and Industry; specializing in servers, back planes and receiver technology.