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Courtesy of Carl Dickson, www.CapturePlanning.com
Transition Plans may be an important factor in determining who wins the contract. If there is an incumbent, they may not even need a transition period. If there is no incumbent and everything else is equal, the vendor with the best transition plan may have an edge.
Funding secured for insourcing, supplying troops and cutting wasteful spending
Courtesy of FCW
The House of Representatives has approved more than $636 billion in Defense Department spending for fiscal 2010, and the measure would increase oversight to reduce waste and fraud.
Most companies formulate win strategies, but then they leave it up to the authors to include them in their proposal sections. Frequently these strategies remind one of a teenager learning to swear: the words are there, but they appear awkward and make no sense.
During my 25 years in the proposal business, I am always amazed to see how many bidders lose the competition because they haven’t adequately prepared for the bid. “Not being prepared” may take many forms.One of the most common forms of inadequate preparation is to assign personnel who don’t have proposal experience. This is especially true for companies who try to keep valued personnel by assigning them to work on proposals until a more permanent position can be found. For these companies, it doesn't matter if the employee can’t spell “proposal.” It is also quite common for small businesses to refuse to begin work on their proposal until the RFP is released. They believe they can reduce expenses by waiting until the last minute. It's as if they are saying to themselves, "We cannot afford to develop the proposal correctly, but we'll find the money to do it over if we have to."
A claim for an adjustment was summarily granted because the contract's Variation in Quantity clause clearly contemplated payment of the indirect and overhead costs sought by the contractor.
Today, it is still easy to understand that a stone age drawing showing a man with a spear and a deer means "hunting for food."The evolution of written language over several hundred thousand years has not diminished the importance of communicating through pictures. In proposals, communication of details is made especially difficult by the severe page restrictions we often encounter. In addition to improving the overall presentation, the use of graphics is a primary tool in reducing pages. While there is no magic percentage, winning proposals often have 30-60% total page space in graphics.
A Proposal Manager Is…
One who must direct 30 to 50 authors, who don’t want to be there, in responding to several thousand requirements that he disagrees with, scattered throughout a several hundred page RFP that screws up the way he wants to write his proposal, and include several dozen win strategies that are of no interest to the customer, from two of more companies who are in violent disagreement, in a painfully page-restricted proposal with an impossible but inviolable due date, so that in only three days 30 to 50 government evaluators, who don’t want to be there, can find the answers to questions someone has hidden somewhere in the RFP, so that the Source Selection Authority can make a decision that is the least risky to his own career, and that he can justify to the losing bidders’ Congressmen!
In the first five parts of this series we explained the importance of a structured analysis of your win probability and provided checklists for critically analyzing the opportunity, your customer, your competition, and yourself. In this final part we provide guidelines for preparing your win strategies and making a sound bid decision.
7 Uncommon Power Point Techniques…That will make audiences sit up and take notice
In this article, we provide several ideas on how to make all of your Power Point presentations more interesting.
1. Insert blank black slides
2. Mix up the colors
3. Embed sound
4. Use video instead of still photos
5. Use photos instead of graphics
6. Use build capability to create visuals with depth and texture (not because something is too complex)
7. Increase the ratio of visuals to text slides
In the first four parts of this six-part series we provided an overview of the importance of a structured analysis of your win probability, and checklists for conducting critical analyses of the opportunity, your customer, and your competition. In this part we will provide a checklist for a critical analysis of yourself. In the remaining part we will provide guidelines for preparing your win strategies.
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Editing (2)
Graphics (4)
Marketing (8)
Key Personnel (1)
Red Team (5)
Proposal Writing (15)
Resume Preparation (1)
Proposal Coordination (2)
Writing Past Performance (2)
Orals Coaching (11)
Proposal Protests (5)
Proposal Management (23)
Miscellaneous (8)
Earned Value Management (1)
Competition Analysis (8)
Risk Management (1)
Capture Management (13)
Proposal Evaluation (1)
Government Procurement (9)
Proposal Group Management (9)
Contract Management (9)
Business Development (6)
Virtual Proposal Preparation (1)
Unsolicited Proposals (1)
Performance Based Service Contracts (PBSC) (3)
Grants (1)
Executive Summary (1)
First Time Proposals (2)
Training/Education (2)
OCI News (1)