Large Global Space and Defense Company Partners for Efficiency

The U.S. federal government and foreign governments have become less predictable in the timing and release of high-value, competitive acquisitions. Having the necessary staff to adequately respond to government bidding opportunities became a nightmare for this Shipley client.

Preparing effective capture plans, proposal management plans, and responsive proposals evolved into an “ad hoc” process that was inefficient and inconsistent. Resources, time, and energy were wasted due to the inability to accurately forecast timeframes and consistent addition of new personnel and Proposal Managers to their business development culture.

The client engaged multiple staffing companies to augment the business development team. The result was a poor win rate and an environment of uncertainty, with minimal structure and discipline to guide the capture and proposal process. The client was not on a path to build internal, sustainable capability to help them succeed long-term.

This client determined that it was time to invest in a consistent approach to support business capture, with solid proposal management. This client sought a business partner who would quickly help them respond to government (and global) solicitations in a consistent and efficient way.

Shipley and our teaming partner accepted the challenge and provides proposal center leadership at two primary client locations by managing strategic pursuits while building internal client capability. A core team of proposal managers provides the right level of staffing and expertise to efficiently respond to opportunities with customer-focused, compliant proposals.

The core team, led by a Program Manager, handles the proposal coordination and administrative tasks associated with managing the centers. These tasks include managing workloads, recording matrices, capturing weekly data for client reports, and working toward balancing anticipated future needs. To support future needs beyond the core capacity, an additional pool of qualified surge support candidates is also available to the client as proposal demands and opportunities increase.

As part of this engagement, the Shipley team leads an effort to document best practices against the client’s corporate business development documentation. From this benchmark, the Shipley team refined a series of just-in-time training modules to help transfer this new knowledge to the internal client personnel to build a sustainable infrastructure for competing and winning.