BIDS & PROPOSAL MANAGEMENT; A bird's eye view

by Tunji Banwo, PMP [ Feb 2012]

Proposal management is a systematic approach to dealing with proposals, from the perspective of an organization and on the individual level.

For an organization, Proposal Management means defining and implementing procedures and/or technologies to deal with proposals in the business environment and to profit from changing opportunities.

A Bid Manager is responsible for managing bids from customers in response to Request for Proposals (RFPs). Bid Managers orchestrate the creation of the solution and proposal, as ‘Bid Project Managers,’ ensuring compliance with customer requirements and highlighting the company’s value proposition.

Bid Managers in the Construction Industry

Bid Managers play an important role in the construction industry where they are responsible for the proposal of bids to existing or prospective clients for construction projects. A bid manager will ensure the smooth running of the bid for a project within the correct time and financial parameters, and manage the relationship with the client. Bid managers work in conjunction with the bid director, and often closely with specialists in the construction and built environment industry to provide and manage the bid for a project.

Bid Managers in the Outsourcing Industry

Bid Managers play an important role in the Outsourcing industry where they manage bids for outsourcing projects. A bid manager's performance is normally evaluated based on the percentage of wins. Bid managers typically work with teams collected together from line functions for the temporary duration of the bid project and hence need to have strong leadership skills to manage bids successfully. Good bid managers are in strong demand in the outsourcing industry.

 

Types of Procurement Documents

Procurement documents are used to solicit proposals from prospective sellers.

 

Why is Proposal Management important?

A global survey conducted in November 2008 through January 2009 jointly by CSK Management and APMP reveals that we are in a phase of increasing professionalism with all the pros and cons in proposal management.

Figure 1.0 – The Big Proposal Management Survey 2008/09

Figure 2.0 – Proposal Management Trends

About the APMP® qualification
Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP®) is an internationally recognized association promoting best practice through a diverse range of disciplines within proposal and bid management. Since APMP® accreditation assesses the tangible impact made by individual proposal managers, organizations can directly benefit from their employees being accredited by APMP®, as the Accreditation Program has been designed to ensure that it:

• Encourages retention of staff
• Supports competency based staff hiring and promotion
• Supports organizational initiatives such as IIP
• Identifies performers
• Improves performance

The BD-Institute conducted an industry benchmarking study, in conjunction with the APMP®. The results of the study clearly show that organizations that employ "appropriately competent professionals" in proposal management roles tend to win significantly more business than those who do not. As this demand intensifies, "Accreditation" and "Competency Assessment" have evolved to help organizations with their resource decisions.

However, various organizations across the world train individuals/ corporate organizations on Proposal Management and how to obtain the qualifications. (Please visit the link below to find out about our Proposal Management course)

http://www.longhallconsulting.com/publicapmpHome.php

RECOMMENDED READING

1. Title: Shipley Associates Proposal Guide for Business Development and Sales Professionals

              Author: Larry Newman

ISBN-13: 9780971424401

Publisher: Shipley Associates (Jan 2001)

2. Title: Proposal Writing: the Art of Friendly and Winning Persuasion

Author: William S Pfeiffer and Charles H Keller Jr

ISBN-13: 9780136582137

Publisher: Prentice Hall (August 1 1999)

3. Title: The Jelly Effect: How to Make Your Communication Stick

Author: Andy Bounds

ISBN-13: 9781841127606

Publisher: Capstone (April 4 2007)

REFERENCES

1. www.wikipedia.com
2. www.apmg.org
3. www.cskmanagement.com

Don't Resign Yourself- Redesign Yourself Cont'd

Probably the first step, should she want to stay on the job, is obvious-learn Hausa to communicate better not only with the potential but current customers. She also needed to recognize that this wasn't a job she could easily redesign, say by dividing up her tasks with others, since she had to work directly with the Hausa-speaking customers.

She couldn't effectively communicate with them if she used a translator, because this would undercut the rapport she needed to communicate with, as well as requiring the additional expense of a translator on a bank that already had a limited budget.

Thus, she needed to repackage, re-create, re-mobilize, and re-motivate herself to do the job effectively. (Yes-all the "re" words-meaning do it differently and better). In short, she should be the one to change and adapt, given the changing conditions needed to do her job effectively.
But beyond planning such a basic personal revamping, when you redesign yourself, let others know, so they see you growing and changing and want to help.
In addition, she should find out more specifically what she needs to learn. Tonye should talk to her supervisor or someone else she feels most supportive of her to find out what she needs to do the job well. If she is on a probation period and want to stay, she should find out what she needs to do to perform the job effectively.

If you are facing such a situation in which you need new skills of any sort, you must learn what additional skills you need to learn, seek help from mentors, coaches, teachers, peers, or others who might help you learn,and then start learning. The sooner you take action, the better-because this way, you don't have to resign yourself to losing out or falling behind-or get resigned (i.e: terminated or laid off by someone else). Instead, with a personal redesign, you're back in the game, like a whole new package. Just like companies refresh their packages to reappeal to consumers when they are losing market share, refresh and repackage yourself to increase your own appeal. Find a way to redesign a NEW IMPROVED YOU!
Adapted from “A Survival Guide for Working with Humans” Gini Graham Scott, Ph.d.

Don't Resign Yourself - Redesign Yourself Cont'd

Lets have an example of a woman who is facing adjustment to change problem in her work place.

Her name can be called Tonye. She was recently employed about two months ago by a bank and started work as a marketer with their branch in Potiskum, Yobe State, having to deal primarily with Hausa people.

While she had great credentials as a marketer from previous banks she had worked for and a certificate in her field, her problem is that she didn't speak Hausa, and she had replaced a marketer who spoke Hausa and English. Even her Branch Manager spoke the two languages. At one time, the community had mostly indigenes and businessmen who could speak pidgin English, but the community had changed because of increased immigration.

So why had the bank employed Tonye in the first place? Management was impressed by Tonye's past work history and hadn't thought there would be a language barrier. After all, the new immigrants were supposed to be able to at least speak pidgin English. But apparently they didn't learn it fast enough in order for Tonye to communicate with them, because many were older immigrants and it took more time for them to learn a new language than it would children or teenagers. And so Tonye found it hard to keep up with her new placement.

Because of these difficulties, she was becoming increasingly upset and emotional on the job. She felt even worse when she saw her Branch Manager communicating with potential clients in Hausa. Now she was concerned about an upcoming meeting with the Regional Manager, since she was in a six month probation program. Did this mean the end of her job, and what should she do?

What Should Tonye Do?
Here are some possibilities. In Tonye's place, what would you do and why? What do you think the outcomes of these different options would be?

Ask management to supply a translator, since it's not her responsibility to learn a new language; the immigrants are supposed to learn English?

Find another job where the clients do speak English?

Ask her supervisor to give her time off and cover the costs of any training if she needs to learn Hausa, since this is extra work, not part of her original work agreement

Speak to an employment attorney about preserving her rights to keep her job or gain compensation, if she is unfairly terminated because she is not performing but she shouldn't be required to learn Hausa?

Other?

...To be continued

Adapted from “A Survival Guide for Working with Humans” Gini Graham Scott, Ph.d.

Don't Resign Yourself- Redesign Yourself

In today's climate of dot.com, and high-tech layoffs, many people are running scared. People are afraid that the next job axe may fall on them; that the next business cutback will chop off their clients. Still other changes and readjustments in the work place are due to more and more cross-cultural diversity across and within departments.

Thus, this fast pace of change may leave you breathless and hoping for more stability, and your hopes to redesign your current job around your current skills may not work either.

For some people, such developments are demoralizing. They see the writing on the wall that looks like “Up and Out!” But you don’t have to resign yourself to becoming one more statistic in the turbulent new economy. Instead, think how you can redesign yourself to create a new improved future for yourself.

 Like the Chameleon, be ready to change your colours as the environment shifts around you.

Culled From “A Survival Guide for Working with Humans” Gini Graham Scott, PH.D.

Why IT Service Management?

IT Service Management (ITSM) is a discipline for managing information technology (IT) systems, philosophically centered on the customer's perspective of IT's contribution to the business. ITSM stands in deliberate contrast to technology-centered approaches to IT management and business interaction.

ITSM derives enormous benefits from a best practice approach. Because ITSM is driven both by technology and the huge range of organizational environments in which it operates, it is in a state of constant evolution. Best practice, based on expert advice and input from ITIL users is both current and practical, combining the latest thinking with sound, common sense guidance.

The primary objective of Service Management is to ensure that the IT services are aligned to the business needs and actively support them. IT Service Management in the broader sense overlaps with the discipline of IT portfolio management, especially in the area of IT planning and financial control.       

What is ITIL

ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) provides a framework of Best Practice guidance for IT Service Management and since its creation, ITIL has grown to become the most widely accepted approach to IT Service Management in the world.

ITIL is the most widely accepted approach to IT service management in the world. Providing a cohesive set of best practice guidance drawn from the public and private sectors across the world, it has recently undergone a major and important refresh project.       

ITIL has been adopted by hundreds of organizations worldwide. These include:

• Microsoft
• IBM
• Barclays Bank
• HSBC
• Guinness
• Procter & Gamble
• British Airways
• Ministry of Defense
• Hewlett Packard

Why is IT Service Management important?

ITIL provides a systematic and professional approach to the management of IT service provision. Adopting its guidance offers users a huge range of benefits that include:

• Reduced costs;
• Improved IT services through the use of proven best practice processes;
• Improved customer satisfaction through a more professional approach to service delivery;
• Standards and guidance;
• Improved productivity;
• Improved use of skills and experience; and
• Improved delivery of third party services through the specification of ITIL or ISO 20000 as the standard for service delivery in services procurements.

IT Service Management certification provides a means for individuals to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the key terminology, concepts and techniques that enable successful delivery of projects.

Why Risk Management?

It is now becoming increasingly evident that a well-structured approach to the Management of Risk is essential when organizations have to make informed decisions with regards to improving performance through change initiatives.

Risk is uncertainty of outcome: it is posed by any eventuality that may occur and that may affect an organization’s ability to meet its business objectives. In these uncertain times Managing Risk is crucial to business success.

Every organization manages risk, but not always in a way that is visible, repeatable and constantly applied to support decision making.

Recent developments have seen heightened concern and focus on Risk Management, and it became increasingly clear that a need exists for a robust framework to effectively identify, assess, and manage risk.

What is M_o_R

Owned and being maintained by the British Government’s OGC, M_o_R® provides a generic framework for the Management of Risk across all parts of an organization - strategic, programme, project and operational. It incorporates all the activities required to identify and control the exposure to any type of risk which may have an impact on the achievement of the organization’s business objectives.           

M_o_R® covers a wide range of topics, including business continuity management, security, project/programme risk management and operational service management. These topics need to be placed into the context of an organization framework for the Management of Risk.

Why is Risk Management important?

A Certain amount of risk taking is inevitable if your organization is to achieve its objectives. Effective management of risk helps you to improve performance by contributing to:

• Increased certainty and fewer surprises
• Better service delivery
• More effective management of changes
• More efficient use of resources
• Better management at all levels through improved decision making
• Reduced waste and fraud, and better value for money
• Management of contingent and maintenance activities 

Risk Management certification provides a means for individuals to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the key terminology, concepts and techniques that enable successful delivery of projects

Why PRINCE2?

PRINCE2 is owned and being maintained by the British Government’s OGC, PRINCE2 is a process-based approach for project management providing an easily tailored and scalable method for the management of all types of projects.

Structured project management means managing the project in a logical, organized way, following defined steps. A structured project management method is the written description of this logical, organized approach. PRINCE2 is a structured project management method.

PRINCE2 says that a project should have:

• An organized and controlled start, i.e. organize and plan things properly before leaping in.
• An organized and controlled middle, i.e. when the project has started, make sure it continues to be organized and controlled...
• An organized and controlled end, i.e. when you’ve got what you want and the project has finished, tidy up the loose ends.

PRINCE2 Certification

Project management certification provides a means for individuals to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the key terminology, concepts and techniques that enable successful delivery of projects. Specifically:

• Certification assures organizations that their staffs have a common set of knowledge and terminology.
• Certification provides concrete proof that you have undergone consistent, effective training.
• Certification provides you with a credible accomplishment that may be listed on your CV.
• Certification motivates you by providing a target to aim for and thereby helps you retain knowledge.
• Certification provides standards by which employees can be measured.

By undergoing the certification process and achieving a PRINCE2 qualification you will have demonstrated your knowledge of the PRINCE2 method to a recognized examined standard. This is important as many employers now wish to recruit candidates with specific skills in PRINCE2 and are aware of the PRINCE2 qualifications and what they mean in terms of PRINCE2 competency.

Taking the exams is fairly straightforward! The two levels of qualification are Foundation and Practitioner. Foundation confirms your understanding of what PRINCE2 is, Practitioner shows your knowledge in the application of PRINCE2.

Foundation: This level is aiming to measure whether a candidate would be able to act as an informed member of a project management team using the PRINCE2 method within a project environment supporting PRINCE2.

Practitioner: This level is aiming to measure whether a candidate would be able to apply PRINCE2 to the running and managing of a project within an environment supporting PRINCE2, showing that they can apply and tune PRINCE2 to address the needs and problems of a specific project scenario.