Software Shrinks Proposal Preparation From Days to Hours and Helps Triple Revenues
L. Robert Kimball & Associates Inc., Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, is a full-service firm that offers services in architectural/engineering building systems, civil and environmental services, mapping sciences, telecommunications and technology, and transportation services. Established in 1953, the firm does a great deal of work for the federal government such as prisons and highways in addition to commercial projects. Kimball is ranked among the top A&E firms in the world by World Architecture (number 266 of the world's 300 largest architectural practices/design firms; number 16 in top 30 for criminal justice), Building Design and Construction (number 29 in survey of the top engineers and architects), and Engineering News Record (number 200 of the top 500 design firms; in the top 200 of leading environmental firms).
Large Proposal Operation
Kimball has a sales staff of 10 people and a marketing team of 18 people. They work together to generate leads and submit proposals for new business. In the past, once a lead was identified, the marketing team prepared a proposal using a word processor, pulling much of the information such as company history, resumes, related experience, and so on from existing files. The drawback with this approach was that the information in the files quickly became outdated. For example, if a proposal was for the development of a prison, the version of the company history related to prisons might not reflect one or more additional prison projects that had been done since that file was last updated. Similarly, resumes might not reflect someone's latest promotion or recent experience. "Using information that was out of date did not illustrate our qualifications as well as it could, which would make us less competitive for the job," says Robert J. Iacaruso, Director of Information Services.
Another drawback to the previous approach was how long it took to complete forms SF 254 and SF 255. These complicated government documents indicate a firm's past experience in the area related to the project and the relevant skills of the people who would be involved, respectively. In the past, these forms were filled out each time a government proposal was submitted. Due to the complexity of these forms, it took three to four days to complete a typical government proposal. Since Kimball submits many thousands of proposals requiring forms SF 254 and SF 255 each year, this represented a sizeable expenditure of marketing department time.
After hearing about software that can automate proposal preparation, Kimball's information systems department decided to investigate further. They discovered that the Wind2Award! family of software from Wind2 Software, Inc., Fort Collins, Colorado, offered this capability as well as the ability to handle SF 254s and SF 255s. The Proposals module includes tools for preparing focused, effective, and exquisitely formatted submittals for the private as well as the public sectors.
Focused submissions
Now when the firm is bidding on a prison job, for example, the proposal generation process begins in Award!'s Proposal Generator. Designed to suit the typical layout and content of a service firm's proposals, the program uses separate tabs on the screen for key sections such as: cover page and letter, introduction, project approach, schedule, project organization, project experience, resumes and staff, references, scope of work, and appendices. Working in one of these sections, the user enters the word "prisons" and the software draws information from a database of boilerplate material, classified by subject. In this case, the software would retrieve a version of the company history specific to prisons, for example, listing all past prisons, who they were done for, where located, completion date, cost, and so on. The program would also bring up resumes for all personnel with prison-related experience.
The user goes through the list and picks which items should be included in the proposal. He or she can also query the database if more information is needed. For example, a list of sub-consultants with prison expertise might be necessary. That is created by calling up the sub-consultant database and searching with the term " prison." The software also works seamlessly with Microsoft Word. The selected text, graphics, and other information retrieved from the database appears directly in the word processor environment where the document is compiled. If this were a government prison, however, the 254/255 capabilities would have taken over and generated the appropriate forms.
Since installing this software, Kimball has seen the time needed to prepare all proposals drop significantly. The most noticeable reduction has occurred with government proposals because they were so time-consuming in the past. That time has decreased from three or four days to two or three hours. Also, because the Award! database is constantly being updated by five members of the marketing support staff, Kimball is assured that all proposals created by the software are up to date and highly accurate.
The efficiency of the automated approach allows Kimball to submit 5,000 proposals each year. Although the firm might have managed to create this many proposals using the old, manual method, for the most part the proposals would not have been as comprehensive or as focused as they are now. Another key benefit of this approach is how much more carefully Kimball can track all 5,000 proposals. For this, the firm uses the Award!CRM module. The module is integrated with the Proposals module and, once a proposal has been created, the project is transferred to the Award!CRM. This module serves as a central clearing house for the various activities that must be performed next to win the project. Sales staff and management use this module to track the status of a submission and see what follow up is necessary and when. Based on what they learn, they can assign tasks to marketing managers and coordinators, project managers, principals or technical staff as needed. A strong reporting feature produces client activity, follow-up, and status reports on project leads. Kimball uses these reports to update the status of all outstanding proposals at weekly meetings. "We produce reports for the sales staff showing all of their follow-up items," Iacaruso explains. "With this more consistent follow-up, we increase our chance of winning the job."
The firm finds Award! useful in other ways as well. "If I'm going to a function and know there will be clients there, I can query the database and see what work we did for them in the past," explains Iacaruso. "Having this kind of information at our fingertips is very helpful in situations like this." Another situation where the software comes in handy is as a tool for improving the efficiency of the sales staff. As Iacaruso explains, "Let's say a salesman is driving through his territory and sees a major company and wonders if we have ever done any work for them. He can access the database and see that perhaps there was a salesman in there two years ago but nothing came of it. With that information, he can do a better job of approaching that company again."
For Kimball, the timesavings alone from the use of this software are very impressive. At a rate of 5,000 proposals each year, saving about three days on each one represents a huge reduction in labor hours. But the benefits of the software extend to the firm's ability to win new business as well. By allowing the sales staff and management to know the status and follow-up requirements of every outstanding proposal, the software helps ensure that they do everything they can to win the work.