System Studies and Simulation, Inc.
Global Woman Owned Small Business
History:
S3 was incorporated in the state of Alabama in 1993 by its founder and CEO, Jan Smith. S3 began operations as a provider of technical services for U.S. Army Team Redstone and NASA to address high tech requirements in the Tennessee Valley. S3 quickly established a business base of diverse defense and space programs, significantly increasing the level of expertise in the technology community. In 2010, Tom Houser joined S3 as President.
S3 has experienced remarkable growth, at a rate of 20% per year, and continues that expansion today. The company provides comprehensive state-of-the-art technical services through three business units: Acquisition/ R&D/IT; Aviation Training/ Sustainment/Log Ops; and Strategic Planning/ Transformation. Today's customer base is 95% Army and 5% NASA.
The defense community has recognized S3's achievements. On February 14th, 2008, S3 was awarded the "Army Aviation Materiel Readiness Award for Contribution by a Small Business". On August 21, 2008, S3 was awarded 1st place as the 2008 Small Business of the Year in Technology by the Huntsville/ Madison County Chamber of Commerce. Jan Smith, President/ CEO of S3 won the Chamber's Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2008. She was also named UAH Business Fellow for 2008.
S3 has been awarded six major IDIQ contracts since 2006: SMDC/ARSTRAT's SETAC '07; FORSCOM's FIRST (Field Installation and Readiness Training); PEO STRI's STOC II (Omnibus), both Full and Open and Small Business Set Aside; a NASA BPA and the US Navy's NAVAIR Seaport-E contract vehicles which support current customer requirements and future diversification. S3 is recognized throughout the Department of Defense, CONUS and OCONUS, as an outstanding provider of services as well as an excellent small business prime manager of subcontractor teams.
S3 provides lifecycle support to multiple weapon systems currently in use in the defense of the country. Support to Joint Transformation and C4ISR is nationally recognized by the Pentagon, NGB, JFCOM and TRADOC. The company supports NASA MSFC/JSC in International Space Station and ARES missions.
Today S3 is a global technical services company. In addition to its headquarters in Huntsville, AL., S3 has offices located at Ft. Hood, TX, Washington, DC, and Newport News, VA. Personnel are co-located with 30 government customers including Arizona National Guard and WAATS, Marana, AZ; The Pentagon; FORSCOM GA; Ft. Campbell, KY; Ft. Sill, OK; EAATS, Fort Indiantown Gap, PA; Ft. Leavenworth, KS; Ft. Hood, TX; WSMR; JFCOM and TRADOC at Tidewater, VA; as well as OCONUS locations at Germany, Afghanistan and Iraq.
A significant milestone in the company's history unfolded with the move into S3's Corporate Headquarters in Huntsville's West Research Park at 615 Discovery Drive in April 2002. S3 continues growth and diversification with the addition of one to two new field sites each year. The phenomenal growth achieved by S3 is the direct result of the company's ability to recruit and retain senior managers whose expertise mitigates risk for project support. With a team of qualified personnel tailored to each project, S3 combines seasoned expertise with a process to maintain technical excellence within costs.
S3's unique appeal to customers lies in responsiveness, understanding of customer requirements, and appropriate application of specialized technical skills. The size and diversity of S3 provides the project managers the ability to promote the integration of processes and procedures, and thus reduce cost and risk for the customer. These attributes supported the second significant performance achievement in 2006: S3 became a Certified ISO 9001:2000 and AS9100 company.
S3 continues to operate utilizing a condensed management structure. Customer requirements are supported by Program Managers (PMs) and Contract Vehicle Coordinators who execute the project tasks. 
Each PM operates with complete delegation of responsibilities and empowered authority to implement each contract work plan. The process establishes access by the client to the full resources of the company and ensures that those resources are provided in a timely manner. These PMs provide direct input into the operation and strategic planning required for project success.
The technical approach is to understand the contract requirement and identify the appropriate skill mix to address the requirement, within cost and schedule projections. The key to S3's successful program execution is the process of "plan the work and work the plan." Having achieved this objective, S3's management, both corporate and project, maintains proactive attention to changing requirements and applies the resources required to ensure customer satisfaction.
S3's greatest asset is its employees. Their experience, skills, capabilities, and pro-active attitudes, coupled with the responsive customer focus of management, enables the company to be adaptive to diversified and changing requirements.
In order to recruit and retain community-recognized quality technical staff, S3 offers a professionally supportive work environment, an attractive benefits package, and flexible family-friendly scheduling. S3's excellent employee benefit package, one of the best in the industry, offers benefits for the employee and family that support peace of mind for quality of life today and into retirement.
Customer satisfaction stands alone and always ranks first in importance. S3 operates with pro-active responsiveness, is a good "steward" of tax dollars, and maintains focus on quality. As a result, S3 enjoys an excellent reputation for quality performance with customers and the community. The managers continue to promote a cooperative spirit, pride, and tradition of technical excellence in working with both soldiers and civilians at each duty site.
S3 strongly believes in "Giving Back to the Community", in providing support and resources for both the technical community and to S3 employees in their support of local organizations. The technical support aids the U.S. in strengthening defenses. The community service work strengthens staff support of others.
The S3 approach is an excellent model in providing state-of-the-art technical services to a diversified field of customers. Proven expertise, diversity, a close working relationship with the customer, and highly qualified employees, provide S3 with a solid foundation on which to continue this remarkable success into the future.