Lately we've been hearing a lot of chatter about cutbacks in government spending, yet many of the organizations we speak aren't worried about the lack of opportunities for their companies to pursue. Rather, the main concern these days seems to be their ability to field a meaningful, competitive proposal that has a good chance of winning the business. So today's topic focuses on the key points to consider when making the decision to pursue an government contracting opportunity.
For more information, visit our website at www.achievence.com.
The capture and proposal process is integral to a company’s overall business development process. Capture begins when a company makes its initial decision to pursue a new contract or engage in a re-compete with existing government customer. A capture manager is appointed, who then leads the company’s activities in the pursuit of a new business opportunity.
Typically the Capture Manager is responsible for the developing a comprehensive understanding of the RFP requirements and objectives, developing the company’s preliminary solution, positioning the solution, assessing competition, developing the win strategy, setting the pricing, developing and implementing the teaming strategy, and assessing risk.
Addressing these areas effectively requires close coordination between participating constituencies in the organization and a well managed process to produce a winning proposal.
Understanding the information necessary to produce a winning proposal and managing the process of proposal production is a challenge for organizations of all sizes. The implementation and execution of information gathering, analysis, strategy and production processes that are repeatable and scalable is a core competence for all government contractors and systems integrators.
Here's what you really need to to pay attention to...
Information Requirements
In order to adequately understand and address the needs of the agency, comply with the RFP, and produce a competitive proposal, the following information is essential.
Background Information
This section contains information on the procurement. It should contain the customer/client/agency name expected RFP/RFQ date, and any other details specific to the opportunity. Incumbents, background on the opportunity or the agency are captured in this section.
Scope
What is the scope of the services required for the project? Are there services or products specifically included or excluded in the procurement? What should we influence in the scope and what is the plan to influence it?
Size
What is the size of the staff required to staff the project? What infrastructure, hardware, locations and other measurable things will be required to fulfill the requirements? What is the value of the opportunity? Is there potential growth once the initial award has been made?
Resources
What resources are required to pursue the opportunity? What materials, equipment or outside services will be required to produce the proposal? What staff will be necessary to support the proposal and where will they come from? Is there a budget?
Staffing
How many people will be bid? What is the ratio of current employees to new hires? Are there key personnel requirements? Who is the project manager? What are the position requirements?
Management
Describe the high level approach to managing the project. How will it be organized? What resource allocations need to be made? How will multiple locations be managed? Is a WBS required? What is the schedule for deliverables? Include a start-up plan for the first 30, 60, and/or 90 days.
Competitive Assessment
Who is the competition? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Is there a requirement to team in order to be compliant with the requirements or of the project? If so, who is responsible for the teaming arrangements and completion of teaming agreements? Who will manage the team members? What information is needed from team members?
Past Performance
Do we have the experience and qualifications to win? List the projects and experience that are relevant to the opportunity. Do we need to use team member’s qualifications to meet criteria? What are our references?
Technical approach
What is the high level approach to fulfilling the requirements? What SMEs or authors will be required to write the proposal?
Pricing
What is our pricing strategy? How many staff, in how many locations? What labor categories? What other direct costs are necessary? What is required to create an accurate estimate for the project pricing? Include any assumptions in the pricing model.
Win Strategies/Themes
How will we position against the competition? How are we positioned against the evaluation criteria (in detail). What are the reasons that the prospect should select us? What are the benefits to each customer constituency?
Roles and Responsibilities
An important component of your procedure is clearly defined roles and responsibilities for all individuals whose work affects the quality of the proposal and are responsible for participating in the proposal process from initiation through final approval. Some of the roles should include:
- Capture Manager
- Business Development Manager
- Proposal Manager
- Proposal Coordinator
- Proposal Technical Writer/SME
- Graphic Illustrator
- Assigned Proposal Team Members
- Review Team Members
Each participant’s role and responsibility will change through each defined, proposal process phase. These differences need to be clearly documented in the proposal development procedure or at a high level if individual work instructions are developed to cover specific phases. A sample responsibility is provided below:
The Role of Capture Management
Capture Management includes the following activities:
· Competitive analysis of opportunities (Black Hat)
· Competitive positioning
· Partner and teaming selection
· Bid and proposal strategy development
· Management of the bid and proposal process
· Pink, Red, Blue and Gold level proposal development
· Program management transition
· Proposal pricing and team member allocation and pricing
Proposal Planning and Development
The Proposal Management Plan (PMP) documents the roles, responsibilities, tasks, and key dates for the proposal development team. For each, a PMP should be developed containing information on as many of the elements identified in the table below as available:
Proposal Project Summary | General Information Project Focal Points Project Scope and Deliverables |
Agency and Opportunity Profile | Intelligence on Customer Organization Source Selection Process Needs, Issues, and Trends Perceptions of your company |
Competitive Analysis | Approach and Perceived Strengths/Weaknesses Competitor Profiles and Strengths/Weaknesses Bidder Comparison Matrix |
Proposal Strategies and Win Themes | Overall Proposal Strategies and Themes Technical Proposal Strategies and Themes Management Proposal Strategies and Themes Cost Proposal Strategies and Themes Past Performance Strategies and Themes |
Staffing, Roles, and Responsibilities | Integrated Proposal Team Proposal Review Team |
Proposal Operations | Proposal Development Key Activities/Schedule Proposal Outline and Writing Assignments Proposal Template Writers’ Workflow and Standards Preliminary Executive Summary |
Proposal Deliverables | List of Proposal Deliverables |
The Proposal Management Plan is a dynamic document that will be updated throughout the proposal development project.
Putting it All Together
Instituting appropriate Business Development processes, obtaining information and managing the proposal process adequately are key components to successfully win government business. Organizations that have adopted the Achievence Model have realized significant improvements in the following key metrics:
· Overall Bid to Win Rate
· Bid to Win Ratio
· Reduction in Average Level Of Effort per Capture/Proposal Transaction
· Return on Proposal Investment
· Level of Effort Per Transaction
· Increase in Reuse of Proposal Components
· Reduction in Days Outstanding Open positions
· Short and long term retention, and a significant reduction in turnover
· Reduced recruiting costs
· Increased morale
· Increased customer satisfaction (via surveys)
· Overall reduction in per-employee benefit cost
· Reduced management overhead relative to performance reviews
For more information visit our website at www.achievence.com
Great article, thank you! Do you have anything like a checklist for this kind of stuff? That would be most helpful.
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