The process of winning Federal Government business via RFPs is very well understood. There is an industry standard GovCon Business Development process model that was first codified by Shipley Associates in the late 1990’s and became part of the curriculum of the APMP (Association of Proposal Management Professionals). It has since evolved and been widely adopted by GovCon organizations and consulting organizations.
Most GovCon organizations have adopted the basic elements of the GovCon BD model and created their own “flavor” of the process. It is widely believed that following a structured, repeatable phase-based process is the best way to insure winning Federal RFP business. However, the problem is that the model and an organizations’ process are just theories. Best practices are on paper and in people’s heads. Fortunately, some consulting organizations such as Lohfeld Consulting have taken the theoretical GovCon BD model and developed a more realistic, practical process and best practices. They help educate, train and support organizations to leverage the best practices of the model.
So, what can you do to drive your organization to follow your flavor of the GovCon BD process and make it easier for people to do so? Certainly, training is the place where organizations start. You can also developed artifacts to use to support best practices and activities within the process. The next step is to take these elements and embed them into software that will make it easier for users to do the right thing at the right time. Software can provide organizations with the leverage to do things more consistently, better and more efficiently.
This is what R3 has done. Working with GovCon organizations, APMP, and Lohfeld Consulting, we put together a system to support GovCon BD called R3 WinCenter. Effectively, it takes theory and transforms it into a workable software system to support the process.
WinCenter at Work for GovCon
R3 WinCenter is a work management software solution. It is specifically designed to help Federal Government Contractors win business on RFPs. So naturally, it supports the key elements of the GovCon Business Development process model and is designed to drive a structured, repeatable process. It operationalizes the process and makes it more manageable. It guides and drives people to do the right thing at the right time. It provides real time process visibility. And, it streamlines and automates the capture and proposal work throughout the lifecycle of the process.
See 6 Key Elements of BD Process Model in Action
We’ve put together the video below to highlight 6 key elements of the GovCon Business Development process model that are embedded in WinCenter. It will give you a feel for how software can “operationalize” your process. It doesn’t show you everything that WinCenter will do for you. It just focuses in on the key elements that support the standard GovCon BD process model and help people to do the right thing at the right time.
The 6 key elements of the GovCon BD Process model we’ll cover are:
- Managing Opportunities by Phases
- Tracking Activities for a single Opportunity (what Shipley calls Steps of the Phases)
- Customer Milestones
- Color Reviews
- Gate Reviews
- Internal Events/Actions
To get the full picture of how WinCenter can help you win more GovCon business, click here to request a personal demo.