Government Proposal Support Services

Government proposals are very time sensitive and require a tremendous amount of information. Having the right team available is one key to success. Here are some of the proposal team roles I can (and have) filled for clients.

Proposal Support Roles

Proposal Manager / Volume Lead. Making sure the proposal (or volume) is timely, compliant, responsive (i.e., addresses all customer requirements) and is properly formatted. This effort also includes establishing a proposal budget and schedule as well as hosting/participating in various reviews (Pink Team, Red Team, etc.)
Subject Matter Expert / Contributor. Participates in defining a solution that meets customer requirements, defines materials or services needed to fulfill the proposed solution, helps estimate costs, prepares performance schedules, and writes content for technical or management volume(s) as needed.
Solicitation Reviewer. Reviews solicitation documents, ensures amendments are acknowledged and incorporated, reviews deliverable requirements and terms and conditions, creates requirement matrix.
Cost and Pricing Volume Lead. Develops a cost estimate based on Federal Acquisition regulation cost guidelines and American Association of Cost Engineers best practices. Develops Basis of Estimate for project tasks in consultation with Subject Matter Experts, gathers and collates supporting information from historical sources or proposed suppliers/subcontractors, and produces FAR 15 Table 2 compliment cost and pricing data along with various exhibits and narratives for the proposal cost volume.

Everybody Likes A Winner

The Contract Coach congratulates the Mack Defense team for winning the M917A3 Heavy Dump Truck contract. The Contract Coach was a major contributor to the HDT proposal and was responsible for the Cost Proposal volume. As reported by the Department of Defense May 28, 2018: "Mack Defense LLC, Allentown, Pennsylvania, was awarded a $296,403,688 firm-fixed-price contract for Heavy Dump Truck M917A3.

Quoting from the Mack Defense website: "
The U.S. Army first solicited bids for the M917 HDT program in 2017, seeking to develop the next generation of HDTs with increased occupant protection levels, higher payload and improved mobility. Mack Defense was awarded the contract in May 2018 and will produce armor-capable or armored HDTs with deliveries through May 2025.
The Mack Defense M917A3 HDT is based on the civilian Mack Granite model, one of the top-selling construction trucks in North America. To meet the demanding needs of the U.S. Army, Mack Defense engineers added heavier-duty rear axles, all wheel drive and increased suspension ride height. … we’re confident these vehicles will exceed the U.S. Army’s rigorous testing requirements,” said David Hartzell, president of Mack Defense. “We are proud of our efforts and collaboration with the U.S. Army to deliver a truck that will serve the men and women of our armed forces for years to come.”

Important Update!

The Contract Coach recognizes the need for clients to work from various environments and locations in spite of disruptive forces such as COVID 19. That's why we have added significant upgrades to our toolset that will support our clients.

You want to be able to access files and data related to your proposal in a secure manner on servers that are guaranteed to be located inside the United States. Our dedicated servers provide 7 x 24 access to your working files on a server that is isolated from other corporate assets for security yet easily accessible via a secure SSL or VPN connection when needed.
You want to be able to work from anywhere without dependencies on platform specific solutions. The Contract Coach provides clients with complementary access to both our Celoxis server and our OnlyOffice server via any browser-based hardware you may use Mac, PC, IOS, or Android. Files are easily created or edited inside the browser meaning no issues with what Office suite or tools are on your laptop or desktop system.
You want to collaborate and share files - perhaps even have two people working on the same document at once … we can do that.
You want version control so you can see previous edits to the document and perhaps 'roll back' changes that were not desired .. we can do that too

Here are some of the tools and services used by the Contract Coach and available to our clients

CELOXIS

Celoxis is a leading project planning and project management product used by numerous Fortune 500 companies including Tesla, LG, and Lufthansa. (See https://www.celoxis.com).

The Contract Coach hosts an on-premises Celoxis implementation on a dedicated Windows Server 2019 platform so that we can guarantee our clients WHERE our server is located and that only the Contract Coach has physical access to the server.

Account access is via a web interface that has been tested and determined to be secure and capable of meeting the Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.205-21 requirements and is being currently being prepared for Department of Defense CMMC requirements.

Celoxis also provides a feature rich dashboard and reporting mechanism to track performance once the contract is awarded. It even supports project budgets, timecards, and project ccounting with an available integration with Quickbooks or other accounting platforms.

OnlyOffice

The Contract Coach also hosts a dedicated server offering the OnlyOffice document management and collaboration software. This platform independent and mobile device enabled product provides easy and convenient access to a secure archive of proposal documents that can be either locally created and uploaded or created/edited in a browser based web interface from anywhere. This capability allows the creation of a proposal-specific work area separated from your corporate network and solves the problem of collaborative multi-corporate proposal teams without exposing your network to potential risks from non-corporate entities.

Proposal documents are in a protected enclave tat is accessible to proposal team members yet walled off from access by resources that are not affiliated with the proposal effort. The OnlyOffice tool provides secured, team based access to proposal documents and can easily segregate engineering, finance, or other sub-teams into walled off workspaces.

Despite this level of security OnlyOffice allows collaboration among team members using a suite of tools including version control and simultaneous editing of documents with arbitration of multiple edits.

OnlyOffice also offers a Blog, Calendar app and Chat capabilities within the app - again supporting team based collaboration of teams composed of both corporate and non-corporate contributors while insulating the proposal effort from your corporate network.

ProPricer

Government proposals are based on detailed cost estimates that conform to very strict guidelines. It doesn't really matter if the solicitation is calling for certified cost and bring data or other than certified cost and pricing data - industry best practices call for using the same methods and techniques for developing and presenting those data. The Contract Coach is aligned with Executive Business Systems and ProPricer software. We believe it is a great tool and have used it to excellent effect with the above mentioned $296M proposal for the Mack Defense HDT.

The Contract Coach encourages clients to obtain the necessary license for ProPricer and allow me the opportunity of working with your proposal team to develop the Work Breakdown Schedule, work packages, Bases of Estimate and cost proposal for your next major proposal. Please visit the ProPricer web site (https://www.propricer.com) and review their offerings. Of special note are the "Small Business" edition and the "Express" editions which offer affordable access to this stellar product. Contact EBS for full details.