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The Advantage Consulting Network
"Profit Oriented Business
Solutions"
TABLE OF CONTENTS
· BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY.
· NEWS.
· NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY.
· ARTICLES.
· PREFERRED PRICING FOR OUR
CLIENTS
· POINTS OF CONTACT.
· PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TRAINING SCHEDULE.
· NETWORKING CALENDAR.
Link
to October Newsletter; Link to November Weekly Articles
The Advantage Consulting Network provides
information on business opportunities, teaming opportunities, events, and
services that may help you in your business development efforts. If you
do not wish to be on our Network, e-mail Debra
Giles and we will remove you from the Network. Advantage Consulting, Inc. makes no
warranties, direct or implied, regarding the accuracy of the information
presented.
_____________________________________________________________________
Business Opportunity:
The following opportunity summary has been provided by
epipeline.com, a government contracts database subscription service. The opportunity
is the best available public information and has been verified within the
past few weeks.
None for this week!
_____________________________________________________________________
News:
Fraud, Bribery and Waste
On
November 15, the “Washington Post” reported the Justice Department has
proposed new regulations for companies doing business with the government
that would require contractors to report themselves if any employees or
subcontractors violate a criminal law related to a contract worth more
than $5 million while the work is being done. Contractors who fail to
report could be suspended or barred from doing business with the
government for up to three years.
Current regulations
provide that contractors can voluntarily report themselves but the new
rules will make it mandatory because so few companies do so voluntarily.
The new rules will also require companies to set up internal controls to
ensure adequate documentation, adherence to proper procedures and other
protocols to catch fraud and other such crimes. The government would also
be required to consider whether a company had been ethical and performed
past work on federal contracts with integrity. According to the Post, the
decision to implement the changes stems from the growing number of cases
of fraud and bribery, many of which happened during reconstruction
efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Companies will have until mid-January to comment on the proposed
regulations.
_____________________________________________________________________
Networking Opportunity:
Nothing at this time!
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Articles:
Will a Program be Funded?
By Sid Jaffe, CEO, Advantage Consulting,
Inc.
We provide market research to
a wide range of firms as support for business development and acquisition
activities, with emphasis in the defense IT and defense services sectors.
Our research encompasses the use of a myriad of databases, Federal
websites, announcements, briefings, industry meetings and conversations
with people in the industry. The result of research is a compilation of
best estimates on what the Government is planning to fund. The forecasts
that we and others provide to your firm are just that, a forecast, and as
such require primary contact on a face-to-face basis by your people with
agency influencers and decision makers. In making those contacts your
firm needs to ascertain not only that they are meeting with the right
people but that they are sending the right people from your firm to the
meeting. Your representatives need to deliver a value-based reason to be
briefed by the Government person. Your persons need to be able to extract
from what they are learning that which they need to know to make a viable
pursuit decision. They need to be able to determine who within the client
organization will "champion" a procurement to take it through
the stages of funding. For more information on this topic please contact
Sid Jaffe, sjaffe@acibiz.com
at 703-642-5153.
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Look Out, the Devil is
in the Details
By Bill Hamilton,
Vice President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.
The
phone rang briskly and I picked it up.
The voice at the other end asked about proposal support resources but
when I asked about details of the RFP, the customer and the requirements,
the speaker could not answer the questions. To help those who might be calling in
the future, I thought it would be useful for prospective clients and for
our audience in general to have some basic guidelines to use in planning
your proposal resources augmentation projects. There are several questions you need to
ask before you make that call.
The
first major question to be addressed is “What do we want the consultant
to do?” There are two major types
of proposal projects. The first type is a staffing function to provide a
temporary employee such as a technical writer or a technical expert or
some specifically trained person to work under the guidance and direction
of the client’s employees. This
requirement is frequently the easier of the two types to fill. The second
type of requirement is to provide a portion of, or all of, the client
proposal management team. These
consultant duties can involve proposal or volume management, subject
matter expertise, single technical functions, evaluators, red team
reviewers and other very senior personnel resource needs. In this second type, the client must
decide how much authority, as well as how much responsibility, the
consultant managers will have and all parties must understand the limits
of that responsibility and authority. The proposal chain of command must
be clear and accepted by all parties.
The
second major question is, “Where will the assignment be based?” For management and production
assignments this is normally on site.
Other assignments can be off site or remotely based as long as
good communications exist for them.
The
third question is, “What are the specific requirements for the
position?” This is a question that
is frequently not addressed or is not addressed fully. The consultant’s mission and
prospective duties drive the requirements.
The
fourth question is, “When will we need this position filled and for how
long?” It is advisable to identify
alternative requirement periods if it appears that a solicitation
schedule will slip.
The
fifth question is, “How much can we spend on proposal augmentation?” Companies may ask for guidance on the
range of costs but the company must agree to a budget amount before we
can create a contract.
Finally,
the sixth question addresses any special or important amplifying items
that need to be considered. Some
examples of these items are security clearances, language proficiency,
specific technical knowledge and project travel requirements.
When
I receive a request for resource augmentation support, I ask four
questions.
1. When do you
need the consultant and for how long?
2. What is your
budget for the position or positions?
3. What is the solicitation (RFP) for and
who issued it?
4. Are there
other items to be considered? Some of these might be: Location of assignment, qualification
of consultant, special requirements that must be considered (such as those
listed above). Operational and
administrative command structure, et c.
If
the initial call indicates we can support the client’s requirement, we
will meet with the client or schedule a conference call to discuss the
proposal effort in more detail and resolve any uncertainties. Want more
information, contact Bill Hamilton, bhamilton@acibiz.com at 703-405-8912 and let’s talk.
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So It’s True What They say About
Source Selection Boards
Rob
Ransome, one of Advantatge Consulting’s proposal consultants, has the following perspective on
how Evaluation Boards operate in evaluating proposals. You can better
write to this audience after you take our Technical Writing workshop.
J.P. Richard, jprichard@acibiz.com
•
Looks for short cuts, particularly when evaluating many or large
proposals
•
Reads Executive Summary, Section Introductions, Graphics, and
Graphic Captions
•
Jumps from Graphic to Graphic and reads Graphic Captions (Comic
Book Reader)
•
Usually skims all the proposals to understand “the norm,” then
rereads for content and scoring. Therefore the proposal must be
“skimmable” and create a positive impression from titles, headlines,
bullet charts, graphics, and action captions.
•
Body text is the last item read, if read at all. Prepared
by Ransone Associates
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“Proposals Can be Fun!!”
By Mike Berger, Vice
President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.
Sounds
crazy, eh? Truth is; however, that while the last thing the average line
manager or member of the technical staff wants to hear are the words, “we
need to put together a proposal team,” from our perspective, writing
proposals are as much a part of the business development process as
developing relationships, finding potentially winnable opportunities,
“capturing” those opportunities, and making the “right” bid/no bid
decisions. But when it gets down to writing and bidding, it seems far too
many people don’t want to be involved.
There
are two aspects to every proposal – managing the process and preparing
(writing) the document. It should be the objective of every person in
every firm to ensure a focus of putting together responses that will win
the competitions it chooses to enter. Seems logical, but the obvious fact
is that more firms lose than win. The answer to the question “how much
does it cost to write a losing proposal?” is obviously “the same as
writing a winning proposal.”
So
what are your options? If managing or writing proposals is a major
struggle in your firm, the first thing to do is consider, for example,
calling us. We have relationships with about 100 professionals who are
expert in both aspects of the proposal process who will work directly
with you toward producing that “winner.” We also have relationships with
people who can assist with pricing, graphics, and final production to
help with those issues as well.
While
you are considering our assistance, we remind you that if you’ve been
working steadily with a government customer for years, your staff has
likely earned their trust and confidence, and may have remarkable
knowledgeable about their requirements, inner workings and so forth. That
being said, they are probably some of the best persons to be on a
proposal team. Remember, they are viewed by your client as a “solution
provider”, not a sales or marketing person, and can make all the
difference in preparing that winner.
Before
this happens; however, remember that those staff members may not have a
clue how to put together a proposal, so before you “draft” them, consider
adding to their professional skills in both proposal writing and
management. We can help you with both the physical tasks involved as well
as helping you make the right decision about pursuing and bidding that
new opportunity. Remember, for example, that if the first time you see an
RFP is when it appears in FedBizOpps (or similar), the odds of you firm
winning are probably no better than 5 in 100. We want you to go after the
“winnable” opportunities that you can prove you have a high probably of
winning – “feelings” and opinions don’t count.
So,
whether all you need is the training that will bring your team up to a
professional level in their ability to manage or write that winner, or
consultant support to help you get the job done, Advantage
Consulting can help. We can’t guarantee a win, but they
can help your firm be the “winners” everyone wants to talk about. Give me
a call. Mike Berger, mberger@acibiz.com,
(703) 642-5153, or cell (703) 861-0726.
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