Automating Proposal Management with Advanced Tools

The Proposal Management Team at a global engineering and government services contractor is charged with all proposal related information and assets for the enterprise wide organization, and it was producing approximately 100 proposals per year on network drives and folders. Earlier attempts to build a system internally and to bring in outside resources had not delivered the functionality the company required. i3solutions designed and developed an enterprise proposal management system to simplify how proposals get developed and maintained, with features shaped around the specifics of government procurement. Its central feature is a proposal library, a knowledge repository of past proposal documents that proposal teams can search, browse, preview, and import from when they build new material, and that can be shared across multiple groups all over the world. The system runs on a portal platform for data sharing and collaboration, and it supports proposal teams and information websites along with the assignment of tasks and proposal sections to specific individuals or teams, the kind of workflow automation that reduces duplicate effort through scheduling and meeting forums. It is built on Microsoft technologies and integrates with the company’s existing tech stack, so the company kept the systems it already ran. The company has seen a demonstrated decrease in proposal generation time and an increase in the overall quality of its proposals.

The client is a global engineering and government services contractor whose Proposal Management Team is charged with managing and maintaining all proposal related information and assets for the enterprise wide organization. The company’s former proposal management process was largely manual, using network drives and folders to support the production of approximately 100 proposals per year.

Proposal Managers were frustrated by the inefficiencies inherent in a manual system and felt they had no means of leveraging the deep knowledge amassed within the company. The company made
several attempts to either internally develop a system or to leverage external resources, but they had all failed to deliver a solution that could provide the robust set of functionality required by the company.

What did the company’s proposal process look like before the new system?

Largely manual. The Proposal Management Team was producing approximately 100 proposals per year out of network drives and folders, with no practical way to draw on the deep knowledge already amassed within the company. The company had tried both internal development and external resources, and neither delivered the robust set of functionality the team required.

What does the proposal library do?

It acts as a knowledge repository of past proposal documents that teams reference when developing new proposal materials. Library content can be searched, browsed, found, previewed, and imported, and the repository is shared across multiple groups all over the world.

How does the system support proposal teams spread across locations?

i3solutions implemented the solution on a portal platform to promote data sharing and collaboration. It supports the creation of proposal teams and information websites, and tasks and individual proposal sections can be assigned to specific individuals or teams. Scheduling and meeting forums cut duplicate effort among the people working the same proposal.

Did the company have to replace the technology it already had?

No. The Enterprise Proposal Management System is built on Microsoft technologies and integrates with the company’s existing tech stack, so it stays compatible with the established systems it already ran and preserves the value of those investments.

If your proposal team is producing proposals out of shared network folders and rewriting content someone in the company already wrote, the cost is real and rarely measured. A first conversation covers how proposals get assembled today, where past content actually lives, who has to touch each section, and what a proposal library and task assignment would need to handle at your volume. You leave with a scoped view of that system and the specifics your approval committee will ask for: current proposal cycle time, how much content gets rebuilt from scratch each time, and what integrating with the systems you already run involves. Start the conversation