The best in this category is a business development management system uniquely focused on the issues government contractors face in assessing and managing strategic and ID/IQ bid opportunities. A similar process is useful for evaluating commercial business opportunities. It works by:

1. Creating a self-documenting bid decision process
2. Defining metrics for bid decisions
3. Assessing how real a business opportunity is
4. Formalizing the process of determining the win possibility
5. Quantifying the value in bidding
6. Facilitating accurate communication

The best system is a product of strategic value to a business development or marketing organization. It directly increases the marketing capacity of the organization as well as its win ratio. Communicating and analyzing bid decisions across capture teams and business units is usually much easier than with homegrown systems. The best system allows the business development or marketing organization to sharply focus its activities for the direct benefit of the entire company. It is integrated with a tracking system but can also be linked with a company's existing opportunity management system.

A Procurement Reality module determines the probability that a contract will be awarded -- to anyone. This is accomplished through the use of an inferential logic software engine. The logic engine is built around a knowledgebase drawn from experts in the field and statistics from procurement records. Users enter evidence by selecting items from pull down menus and documenting observations. The evidence is interactively analyzed and the probability is displayed.

A Win Probability module determines the probability a company or team will be awarded a particular contract. This module uses the same logic engine and evidence gathering process as the Procurement Reality module. Interactively, the user documents the business assumptions and builds the business case for winning this particular opportunity. This results in a win probability being displayed.

A Valuation module allows users to analyze the multiple impacts of winning or losing a bid. It quantifies the overall value of a bid opportunity combining the short-term (tactical) value with the bid's long term (strategic) value. The probability determined in the Win Probability module is used in conjunction with nine specific attributes to allow the user to determine the relative value of a bid in terms of "profit."

This is a tool for changing your company's business development culture to meet the realities of today's competitive marketplace. Companies, large and small, are finding that this tools focuses their company's resources and energy on their best business opportunities. The name of the game is getting real business, not merely bidding or winning empty contracts!

If you want more information about this tool, contact John Bender at 703-642-5153 or at jbender@acibiz.com