Automation Support forProposal Development

Association of Proposal Management Professionals

Chesapeake Chapter

May 25, 2017

Your Panelists and HostName/Organization Highlights

Erik JohnsonGeneral Dynamics Information Technology

• Extensive experience managing and producing proposals

• Leading implementation of tools• Wrote government contract requirements for

RFPs

Fergal McGovernVisibleThread

• Extensive experience with marketing and proposal software tools

• Perspective of how industry is using tools

Tracy WitmerNorthrop Grumman

• Extensive experience managing and producing proposals

• Technical and Program perspective

Melisa PayeMPM Writing Services

• Extensive experience writing and editing compelling proposal content

• Develop tools and recommended technologies to support proposal development

Agenda

• Automation: Features and benefits

• Tool Demonstration

• The Burning Questions

Proposal Development Process

• Analyzing and comparing

RFP versions

• Managing and locating

content

• Translating content

• Assembling documents

• Formatting documents

• Understanding agency

mission and needs

• Formulating the message

• Differentiating the

organization

• Drafting targeted content

• Building in quality

RFP Analysis and Proposal Generation Activities

20%

Strategic Tactical

80%

How Can Automation Help?

02468

1012

Manual

Automation

Day

s Sp

en

t

Thirty Day Proposal Effort

Automation shifts the time allotment among proposal process activities.

Automation Benefits

• Focus efforts on value-added solutions

• Start with a basic RFP burst vs cut-and-pasting a compliance matrix from scratch

Time

• Consistent formatting and content

• Increased qualityConsistency

• Supports and automates process management

• Provides a consistent experience regardless of proposal team role

Coordination & Efficiency

• Analyze performance against outcome

• Identify strengths & weaknesses for continuous process improvement

Insights & Analysis

Demonstration Overview

• Technology – overview and “state of the state”

• Functions we will review today:

1. Shredding RFP into Compliance or Responsibility Matrices

2. Comparing RFP Versions

3. Acronym Integrity

4. Readability and Clear Language Evaluation

5. Use Discovery for Resumes and Qualifications

6. Win Theme Usage and Consistency

1. Shredding RFP –Compliance & Responsibility Matrices

• Highly manual copy/paste process – can take hours/days

• OR if using MS Word macros, prone to error

• e.g. RFP Sections L&M, SOW, System Spec, Model Contract

• Automation can’t think for you but it can cut down the heavy lifting

• Beware – which automation approach

• Option 1: Training the tool by prepping the content.

Pitfall, energy and time required to prep can be prohibitive

• Option 2: Ingest the doc as is. Get quick results but need tweaking

80-20 rule (get 80% there with 20% of effort)

1. Shredding RFP –Compliance & Responsibility Matrices

2. Comparing RFP Versions

• I’ve used MS Word to compare a draft RFP against the final revision of the RFP.

2. Comparing RFP Versions

• I’ve used MS Word to compare a draft RFP against the final revision of the RFP.

2. Comparing RFP Versions

• I’ve used MS Word to compare a draft RFP against the final revision of the RFP.

Some issues with Microsoft Word Compare :

designed to merge documents, not compare differences side-by-side

difficulthard to seeread all ofthe merged documents paragraphs

hard to identify and line up the related paragraphs in each document revision

Word performance seems to be a problem

once important changes are identified, how do you assign tasks & manage the workflow ?

Let’s see how VisibleThread “compares”…

2. Comparing RFP Versions

2. Comparing RFP Versions

Easy to read side-by-side comparison

Compares text changes only, ignores formatting

Quickly see which paragraphs have changed – Identical, Modified, Deleted

Use Excel to filter on Modified, Deleted paragraphs

Add additional columns to manage workflow e.g. status, owner

Ability to exclude text/patterns from the comparison e.g. page numbers, dates, renamed products, entities

3. Acronym Integrity

• Checking for correctly defined Acronyms painful

• Time consuming.

• Simple search fine, but…also need to consider:

• Conflicting definitions

• Usage before definition

• Repeated definitions

• No definitions

3. Acronym Integrity

4. Readability & Clear Language Evaluation

• Need single tone of voice

• Not all SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) write well

• How to ‘score’ and fix in an objective way?

4. Readability & Clear Language Evaluation

4. Readability & Clear Language Evaluation

5. Use Discovery for Resumes & Qualifications

• Finding the right resumes to put into a Proposal can be tricky, & labor intensive

• Who has the right Clearance Levels (TSI etc.)?

• Who has the PMI certification or has done Agile projects?

• Who knows Java or is a cyber expert?

• Etc.

5. Use Discovery for Resumes & Qualifications

6. Win Theme Usage & Consistency

• Are we aligned with the customer?

• Using the right language & mirroring their approach?

‘Risk Abatement’ versus ‘Risk Mitigation’

• Addressing all factors/sub-factors?

• Emphasizing our win themes?

6. Win Theme Usage & Consistency

Final Questions or Comments?

Thank You!

With the greatest appreciation to you and your organization!

Erik Johnson, Senior Proposal ManagerGeneral Dynamics Information Technology

Tracy Witmer, Senior Proposal ManagerNorthrop Grumman

Additional Information:

Fergal McGovernCEO, VisibleThreadfergal.mcgovern@visiblethread.com | 301-793-1355

Melisa Paye, MPM Writing ServicesAPMP Chesapeake Chapter (Past Chair)mpmws@outlook.com | 410-804-9143