Can Plain Language save cost? – You better believe it! - June 24th, 2011, by Fergal

Did you know that ‘plain language’ is the law?

In October 2010, Barack Obama signed the ‘Plain Language’ bill. It mandated that all federal communications adhere to plain language principals. The implementation deadline is October 2011. By that date, all fed communications must be plain language compliant… better get our skates on!

For those new to the phrase; ‘Plain Language’ seeks to simplify written language; the result is clear and unambiguous communication. The net effect is easier to review text.

Why would the US government, the president no less, mandate such an esoteric thing as plain language?
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‘No Bad Language’ – Notes from Denver @ the APMP 2011 Annual Conference - June 20th, 2011, by Fergal

Somewhat belatedly, I wanted to quickly blog on the APMP (www.APMP.org ) annual conference this year in Denver. This was our first time at the conference and it was really great to have the opportunity to exhibit and meet so many new friends.

The VisibleThread team was 3 strong; Jeff from sales, Evan from marketing and myself. The show provided Proposal Professionals a great opportunity to find out what industry colleagues are up to as well as network. Some quick stats from ourselves: (more…)

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VisibleThread for IT

2:48 minutes
This summary overview shows the business case for using VisibleThread for IT programs. It shows why up to 42% of IT project cost can be attributed to defective documentation and demonstrates how VisibleThread addresses this large business issue.

Red-flagging Bad Language

3:47 minutes
There are some words/phrases that you should avoid in a proposal. This short video shows how VisibleThread scans and red-flags 'bad language' in your RFP Responses.

Using Discovery to spot Gaps

2:28 minutes
Identification of key concepts in issued documents (RFP etc.) helps align the language of the response volumes. Discovery in VisibleThread can uncover mismatches and lack of alignment between issuer and response docs to support reviews and underpin a winning bid.

Validating Win Theme Language

4:43 minutes
Win themes articulate business differentiation. Too often, with multiple contributors and authors, it is hard to keep theme language consistent.

Here we see how VisibleThread validates response docs against win themes by:

A starter compliance matrix in 3 minutes

4:20 minutes
Proposal Managers have to manually scan issued documents or pdfs to spot requirements prefaced with 'shall', 'must' etc. and track them in spreadsheets. This demo shows an 'obligation scan' run against a draft RFP pdf. All instances of 'will', 'must', 'shall' are identified. It concludes by generating a first pass of an Excel Compliance Matrix.

Collaborations and Team Reviews with
Discussions

5:31 minutes
Managing inputs from multiple contributors and conducting efficient team reviews is critical to successful outcomes. This demo shows how VisibleThread supports collaboration using web based discussions.

Integrating with MS SharePoint

2:36 minutes
VisibleThread integrates with MS SharePoint using an intuitive import capability. This short demo shows how you can import an MS SharePoint document for analysis.

Plain Language Analysis

4:11 minutes
Plain Language Analysis drives clear documentation. This demo outlines how VisibleThread can identify long sentences, passive langauge and facilitate plain langauge audits.