Simplifying Proposal Management with Advanced Technology

The client is a nonprofit defense research organization that serves government entities, public agencies, and private subcontractors across operations research, scientific testing, modeling and simulation, program management, systems engineering, and training services. Every proposal it pursues needs its own self-contained collaboration site, and SharePoint Online did not support creating those sites automatically through custom workflows or Microsoft Flow, so IT had to stand up each new environment by hand. i3solutions built a modular proposal site creation system on SharePoint Online and handled the custom application development around it: forms built with Angular, jQuery, and JavaScript that validate what a user enters and pull related data from other lists. Provisioning that used to wait on IT now runs as process automation, with jQuery and JavaScript making REST API calls to SharePoint Online to create each site from a predefined template, customize its security groups, assign users to the appropriate roles, and apply unique permissions through a JSON definition. Sites arrive minimally configured, with a calendar already populated from the proposal milestones, and the code library behind the system is reusable on later projects. End users create their own secure sites, and only authorized personnel can reach the proposal information inside them.

The client, a nonprofit defense research organization specializing in operations research, scientific testing, modeling and simulation, program management, systems engineering, and training services, serves government entities, public agencies, and private subcontractors. With its broad spectrum of services, the organization faced the challenge of efficiently managing proposal collaborations across diverse teams. The organization needed a streamlined way to create self-contained collaboration sites for each proposal request. These sites required specific security configurations to ensure that only authorized users could access and collaborate on sensitive proposals.

A significant hurdle was the limitation of SharePoint Online, which did not support automated site creation using custom workflows or Microsoft Flow. This posed challenges for the organization, as IT intervention was often required to set up new collaboration environments, delaying critical processes. The organization needed a dynamic and scalable solution to enable users to create secure and functional collaboration sites on demand, without relying on IT support.

Why could SharePoint Online not create the proposal sites on its own?

SharePoint Online did not support automated site creation using custom workflows or Microsoft Flow. Every new collaboration environment therefore required IT intervention to set up, and the proposal work waited on it. The system i3solutions built moves that step to the people requesting the site: end users create secure collaboration sites independently, and IT resources go to other strategic tasks.

How does a new proposal site get created?

A user completes a custom form built with Angular, jQuery, and JavaScript. The form applies business logic to validate the input and dynamically retrieves relevant data from other lists. On submission, jQuery and JavaScript make REST API calls to SharePoint Online, which creates the new site from a predefined template, customizes its security groups, assigns users to the appropriate roles, and applies unique permissions through a JSON definition.

How is access to sensitive proposal information controlled?

Each site gets its own security groups and permissions, defined in JSON and applied as the site is created, so sensitive proposal information is accessible only to authorized personnel. That requirement shaped the project: the sites had to be self-contained, with specific security configurations limiting access and collaboration to authorized users.

What does a newly created proposal site include?

Deliberately little. The sites are minimally configured, which gives the team a blank canvas for collaboration, and they include key features such as a calendar pre-populated from the proposal milestones. The code library behind the site creation system is reusable, so it can be applied to later projects for the organization and for other clients.

If every proposal in your organization needs its own site and someone in IT has to build it, the proposal work queues behind the setup and the permissions get rebuilt by hand each time. A first conversation covers how sites get requested and created in your tenant today, what has to be true about permissions before a site can hold sensitive material, and which parts of that setup a form and a site template can handle without IT. You leave with a scoped view of on-demand site provisioning and the specifics your approval committee will ask for: how many sites get stood up in a year, who has to touch each one, and how long the current setup step takes. Start the conversation