This 1,000 person, $250 million revenue defense contractor provides advanced scientific and technical services. They had been using document management systems to support their proposal operations. It was becoming a limitation. They wanted to jump into a modern proposal system that would allow them to scale by improving effectiveness and increasing productivity. So, they switched to R3 WinCenter. Here is their challenge and how they addressed it.
The Challenge
This 20+ year old defense contractor has two major divisions. They win Federal business in two different ways. One division focuses on large RFPs. The other wins business primarily through Task Orders on GWACs and IDIQs where it is a prime contractor.
It is a very successful and well respected organization. Its proposal operations capability was creating a drag on the ability of the organization to scale. They did not have a single system. Their divisions used different tools and worked differently. One division used a legacy, vendor-provided proposal management system that was based upon a 15 year old proprietary technology. Another used an older version of Microsoft SharePoint. Both of these systems were just used for document storage in support of proposals. The actual work was done manually.
They also did not have a centralized CRM. So, they didn’t have a formal way to centrally track opportunities, BD activity or capture work. As a result, they lacked visibility into the opportunities, their accounts, the capture work and the proposal work across the organization. They did not have the means to drive or automate the proposal or capture work. Effectively, all of their work was driven manually using personal productivity tools.
They believed that they could do much better. They wanted to have a system that would help guide and drive their people to follow their standardized business development process and best practices. This would drive effectiveness and win rate. They also wanted to streamline and automate their capture and proposal work to increase efficiency. This was important particularly for the end of the fiscal year Task Order surge. They knew that many Task Orders simply were not getting bid because of inefficiencies.
In sum, they were looking for a single system that would bring their business development, capture and proposal work together. This would provide visibility, help drive effectiveness and optimize their efficiency. They wanted a system that would drive and automate work, not just store documents. And, this system would have to be flexible enough to support the different needs of the the different divisions and the different ways of winning Federal Government business.
The Solution
They evaluated a range of options. They looked at the legacy proposal management systems, new proposal management tools, CRMs such as Salesforce, and, at custom development on SharePoint. Many of the newest proposal management systems are designed for data-centric proposals, like question-based RFPs. But, for GovCon RFP/Task Order work they needed a system that was document-oriented but also supported work management automation.
They found what they needed with R3 WinCenter Enterprise. This solution provides them with an integrated set of capabilities supporting capture and proposal management. It is specifically designed to support Federal Government Contractors and how they win business. It is built on a work management platform so it excels at process and streamlining the actual work. And, it runs on top of Microsoft SharePoint which is a platform that they were already using.
The R3 WinCenter solution met the needs of this customer in the following key ways:
- they could now have a single, centralized system
- that would bring together the work of BD, capture and proposal management
- that was specifically designed to support GovCon ways of winning such as APMP/Shipley BD lifecycle and best practices such as color reviews and bidding on Task Orders
- that allowed each division the ability to optimize the way they worked, but, was all part of one system
- that ran on Microsoft SharePoint which they were familiar with
- and that could be deployed in an “on premise” environment controlled by the customer
The WinCenter Enterprise edition has a number of enhanced features that add value for this customer. Some of these are:
- each Division could have their own Division Dashboard with its own user interface, feature set, and secure information – this is where they went to work
- they got the R3 Account Management add-on that provides them with “CRM Lite” to support BD call tracking and reporting
- it supports integration with external CRMs including Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics and Deltek CM – when the day comes
- it supports integration with the R3 Contract Management add-on
- they get advanced reporting which enables them to create custom dashboards with real time analytics
They deployed the new R3 WinCenter system within a brand new SharePoint 2016 environment running in their own hosted facility. It was controlled by the customer. The fact that R3 WinCenter was a productivity layer of software on top of SharePoint was a big plus for them. They trusted SharePoint for data and security. R3 WinCenter was adding the layer of work management productivity that delivered what they needed in an easy to use and relevant way of working. And, the whole system was within an environment that they could control.
The Takeaway
The situation of this defense contractor is common for many GovCon organizations their size. These organizations typically still use tools/systems that were adopted back in the early 2000’s when web-based document management/content management systems came to market. Most have not changed while the software industry has matured with more elegant work management solutions that drive a whole new level of productivity.
R3 WinCenter is a work management system that was specifically designed for capture and proposal needs of Federal Government Contractors. It delivered what this customer needed for integrated capture and proposal management. And, its additional “enterprise” capabilities and flexibility make it particular valuable for enterprise organizations that have more advanced needs and need to have it their way.
Click here to learn about R3 WinCenter. To discuss your situation, contact us.