Hitting the ground running.

The article focuses on the preparations made companies vying for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program. The much-awaited prime integrator contract for the foreign visitor tracking system is not expected until late May of 2004, but eager vendors are already positioning themselves for the win. The program's major contract have set up office space, allotted staff and are well into the process of developing potential solutions. Teams led by Lockheed Martin Corp., Accenture Inc. and Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) submitted proposals in January for the program. Accenture officials formed the Smart Border Alliance team last October and have dozens of staff working on the design and building solutions for US-VISIT. The team is focused on transition and deployment plans for implementing the program at the 50 largest land ports of entry, which must occur by the end of the year. Lockheed Martin officials have set up two office spaces: a program office in Rosslyn, Virginia and a development lab in Rockville, Maryland, where they have begun working on software development and testing plans. CSC officials also created a collection of best practices from major programs, known as SureStart, which delineates a well-defined process from the proposal submission to the award. INSET: Williams focuses on making US-VISIT work.