Using automation to help with bid / no-bid decisions – Can this work? - April 3rd, 2012, by Fergal

Blog UPDATE: We ran a webinar on April 10th where Jim Creutz (subject of this post) showed what he is doing. You can get the slides and a full recording here.

During early 2011, FIT systems, a Florida based SDVOSB (service disabled veteran-owned small business) asked these questions:

  1. Can we quickly determine whether to bid / no-bid or team
  2. Can we save time and avoid reading poorly qualified solicitations?
  3. Can we compare multiple opportunities for ‘good fit’ in a few minutes?

In February 2012, Jim Creutz, Business Development Director at FIT Systems and I got chatting. Jim shared what they were doing with VisibleThread to support these efforts. I was intrigued.

Of course, they were using VT for the normal stuff; making better quality props with readability analysis, generating starter compliance matrices in minutes, and driving more efficient pink and red team reviews. But, Jim showed me how they were also using VisibleThread to augment the very early stages of Capture Planning too to help bid / no-bid and teaming decisions. Now this was new!

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A (first pass) Compliance Matrix in under 10 minutes – Myth or Reality? - March 1st, 2012, by Fergal

During 2011 and continuing into 2012, we at VisibleThread saw more than our fair share of compliance matrices.

And we continue to work closely with proposal managers who manually create the compliance matrix. Depending on size, they spend anything from several hours to days; creating it, honing it, getting it right.

Of course, no one reading this post will be too surprised at the time proposal managers spend creating a strong compliance matrix. After all, if your prop is non-compliant, you may as well pack up and head home. From the perspective of government agencies and commercial entities, a non-compliant response can be a great excuse for culling the field.

So back in early 2011, we had some questions:

  • Can we automate some or all of the process? if so which parts?
  • Can we bring initial creation of the compliance matrix, down from many hours to minutes, (well actually under 10 minutes to be precise)?
  • If we automate the process can we keep it simple? Is it possible with no ‘prep work’?
  • If we automate the process, is the output readable?
  • Can we ‘shred’ both PDF and word formatted solicitations?

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How readable is your proposal? Readability metrics that improve proposal quality - February 8th, 2012, by Fergal

Larry Newman of Shipley posted this example of poor writing the other day. It was part of a very active discussion thread about overused clichés on the APMP linkedin group:

“To ensure optimum delivery of services for its membership, Mini Healthcare of Elbonia will leverage the administrative and legal structure of its parent company, Maxi Healthcare, Inc. to administer a cost-effective combination of local plan operations and shared corporate resources that ensure a person-centered, outcomes-focused approach to delivering managed care services.”

It was taken from a proposal he was reviewing (actual names removed). You should take a look at the entire thread; it has a lot of good stuff around clichés. As author of the Shipley proposal guide, Larry is extremely well qualified on the subject of ‘trash talk’ in proposals. (more…)

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Which words are (still) killing your best proposals? - December 29th, 2011, by Fergal

Winning bids contain clear, concise language. They are easy to review, they are credible. Credibility comes in many forms. One of the easiest ways to sabotage an otherwise strong bid is to use wordy language, peppered with clichés and trite phrases.

During 2011, we used VisibleThread to scan more than 120 separate bids (yes, we’ve been counting). The scanned bids included RFPs (Request for Proposal), Task Orders and commercial RFIs (Request for Information). We scanned bid responses from some of the largest integrators around the beltway, and smaller 8A companies too.
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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.