¶ … Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) Identify the Client

The client of interest is Science Applications International Corporation, more commonly known by its acronym, SAIC (hereinafter alternatively "the company"), one of the country's largest government contractors (Bartlett & Steele, 2007). Today, the company is publicly traded and provides technical, engineering, and enterprise information technology (IT) services throughout the United States and offers engineering and maintenance of ground and maritime systems, logistics, training, and simulation, as well as operation and program support services; in addition, SAIC also provides end-to-end services for the design, development, integration, deployment, management and operations, sustainment, and security of customers' complete IT infrastructure (SAIC profile, 2015).

Currently, SAIC provides these services to the U.S. armed forces, including Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines; the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the U.S. Department of State; and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (SAIC profile, 2015). Founded in 1969 and formerly known as SAIC Gemini, Inc. The company changed its name to Science Applications International Corporation in September 2013 (SAIC profile, 2015). The company maintains its headquarters in McLean, Virignia (SAIC profile, 2015), near the headquarters for the Central Intelligence Agency (Owusu, 2015). The company maintains operations in 40 states (70% of its employees are deployed to customer sites) and its five largest locations are as follows:

Washington, DC Metro;

Huntsville, AL;

Charleston, SC;

San Diego, CA;

Crane,...

The company's main competitors (in descending order) include:
IBM Global Services;

Ingram Micro Inc.;

HP Enterprise Services, LLC;

Tech Data Corp.;

Accenture plc;

T-Systems International, Inc.;

Computer Sciences Corporation;

HP Enterprise Group; and,

Cap Gemini S.A. (SAIC profile, 2015).

2. Identify the Problem

Despite its proven track record of success, SAIC has experienced some problems with contract backlogs in recent years that has adversely affected its cash flow and profit margins. For instance, market analysts at TheStreet have rated SAIC's stock a HOLD due to mixed performance results in recent months. For instance, according to Owusu (2015), "The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed - some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks" (para. 2).

Although SAIC demonstrated some solid strengths with respect to sustained revenue growth, consistent stock price performance and earnings growth, the company has also experienced some constraints to performance including poor profit margins and weak operating cash flow in recent months (Owusu, 2015). The company's chief information officer and senior vice president, Charles Beard, conceded there had been some IT-related issues involved in their contract backlog. In this regard, Beard reports that,…