Engineering and research firm SAIC is one of eight companies being awarded a blanket purchase agreement to maintain and sustain health information and technology systems for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The eight contracts represent an estimated total value of $1 billion if the government exercises four, one-year option periods, and five, one-year award terms are earned.

The SAIC-led team includes 18 companies providing a spectrum of services to the Department of Veterans Affairs' Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture, or Vista, program.

Vista consists of more than 100 clinical and administrative applications and is run at 157 health-care facilities and 887 ambulatory care and community-based outpatient clinics nationwide.

SAIC (NYSE: SAI) is a provider of scientific, engineering, systems integration and technical products and services to all branches of the U.S. military and other government security, intelligence and defense agencies.