20 May 2013
Federal Government Contractors • IDIQ Task Order Management

Small Business IDIQ Prime–You Won! Now What?

So, you are one of the small businesses that just won a Prime contractor position on a major IDIQ contract.  Congratulations!  It was a lot of work, worry and risk. You are now in the drivers seat with the potential for a great deal of business.  So, how do you go about translating the opportunity into revenue and profits?  And, how do you now play the game as a Prime and compete along with other leading companies in the space?  An important part will be your ability to operationalize the process of managing and responding  to Task Orders.  This article explains how CorasWorks can help you succeed.

Our IDIQ Task Order Management Solution

Recently, we introduced version 2.1 of our commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) IDIQ Task Order Management solution for Federal Government Contractors (see the launch press release CorasWorks Announces New Version of IDIQ Task Order Management Solution on SharePoint ).  Over the last year this solution has become a market leader amongst the Top 100 Federal Contractors.  It is a comprehensive solution that operationalizes the full life cycle of managing Task Orders including the important activity of engaging Teaming Partners.

With version 2.1 of this solution we have made it more flexible and able to be configured to meet the different needs of Small Business Prime contractors such as yourself.  In addition, we introduced a new pricing model that enables smaller businesses to start on an annual, per user term basis.  This makes it far more affordable for smaller organizations.

Now, with this solution, as a Small Business IDIQ Prime you can now get going quickly with an industry leading way of working that is appropriate for your business and affordable.  To learn more about the solution and features see the overview article Overview of CorasWorks IDIQ Task Order Management v2.1

And Beyond…

The CorasWorks IDIQ solution is a great place to start.  The solution runs on Microsoft SharePoint.  So, once it is in place you will have a SharePoint environment, the CorasWorks Work Management platform, and, your IDIQ solution.  You can then leverage this work environment to add additional value.

Let’s say you are using the IDIQ solution for your major Prime contract.  You can add modules to be used to manage the work that you do as a subcontractor to other Primes.  The work as a subcontractor is slightly different.  But, it is just a “flavor” of your IDIQ solution that you can create by just reusing what you now have and tweak it to the new scenario.

This leads to an important point about CorasWorks software.  Our solutions leverage our Work Management platform, first introduced in 2003 and now in version 11.  It is the market leading platform for configurable business solutions on SharePoint.  This means that it is very easy to customize your solutions and enhance and extend them.  This is done using the CorasWorks Configuration Wizards and is so easy that empowered business users are usually the ones to get it done.  This ability is important for a Small Business as it enables you to continue to make changes and innovate on your own without the cost or dependency of leaning on CorasWorks or any one else.

You can go further.  For instance, you can just layer on the COTS CorasWorks Capture and Proposal Management (CnP) solution.  Since you will have already invested in SharePoint and the CorasWorks platform, you only have the incremental cost for the solution.  This solution will provide you with a way to manage the full life cycle of opportunities through the Capture and Proposal Development process.  It also includes a feature for Opportunity Management, which may be enough so that you don’t have to invest in a separate CRM solution at this time.  For more information on this solution see the overview article of CnP v2.1 and read a case study of a $30m Small Business graduate.

Of course, by design our IDIQ solution and our Capture and Proposal Management solution are integrated so that you can share elements.  Examples are shared Proposal Asset Libraries, the ability to see, contribute, and act on your work across the different solutions, and enabling Partners to engage with you on both IDIQs and RFPs.  You can also get reports and manage all of your Business Development activities across these solutions.

How about after you win a Task Order?  With CorasWorks, you can also set up Customer sites where your customers can go and access your IDIQ CDRL reports and interact with you – a common requirement of major IDIQs.  You can also spin up the COTS CorasWorks Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) solution to actually manage the delivery work on Task Orders.  This easy to use and pre-integrated solution becomes part of your integrated work environment.

CorasWorks for Small Businesses

We have been serving small businesses since our founding 10 years ago.  Small businesses represent about 1/3rd of our 1,000 customers.  A core value proposition for small businesses is that they are able to buy or build multiple applications that run within a single CorasWorks-SharePoint work environment and are natively integrated.  This reduces complexity and cost and increases your ability to control your destiny.  And, with our new solutions and pricing for Small Business Federal Contractors you can now quickly add these COTS solutions and compete at the level of other leading players in the industry.

You have a great opportunity.  We look forward to helping you reap the rewards…

william

William Rogers | No comments | Tags: , , , ,
20 May 2013
Capture and Proposal Management • CW Products • Federal Government Contractors

Overview of CorasWorks Capture and Proposal Management solution v2.1

Version 2.1 of the CorasWorks Capture and Proposal Management (CnP) solution for Federal Government Contractors has been released.  Over the next few weeks you’ll see articles, press releases, webcasts, and customer case studies for the solution.  This article will provide you with an overview of the solution to get you started.

Background of the Solution

Over our 10 years, we have supported many customers that have leveraged the CorasWorks Work Management platform to create custom Proposal Management solutions that run on SharePoint.  Over the last year, as we’ve built our Federal Contractor business we’ve found considerable demand for a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) solution for Capture and Proposal Management running on SharePoint.  Version 2.1 delivers this COTS solution as a comprehensive, integrated, and flexible way to master the full life cycle of Capture and Proposal Management.  Its flexible design (technically and via pricing) enables it be leveraged by small and mid-sized businesses and the largest enterprises.

Overview of CnP v2.1

CnP v2.1 is a 3 module system.  It is designed to allow you to get started quickly with a COTS, comprehensive, integrated solution that can be easily customized, enhanced and extended.  The schematic below depicts the core three modules.

image

Capture and Proposal Management Center – this module is the center of the system.  It allows you to manage all opportunities/proposals through a structured Stage-Phase-Step life cycle.  It provides you with the top down visibility and overall management of your proposal pipeline.  Typically, customers configure this module to reflect (visually and functionally, see screenshot below) their custom Shipley/Lohfeld/APMP process model.  CorasWorks then automates the work of the users to manage the process.

Proposal Working Sites – this is where the collaborative work takes place for each opportunity/proposal from capture through post-proposal.  It is full of CorasWorks enhanced Work Management features to organize and automate the work with integration with all CnP system features, native SharePoint and external applications and systems.

Proposal Asset Library – a key part of the system is the availability of the Proposal Asset Library (PAL) to manage assets such as Past Performance, Forms, Policies, Boilerplate, Graphics, Resumes etc. Leveraging the integrated nature of this solution these resources are made available to users as they work in proposal sites.

Below is the home page of the CnP Management Center.  In this implementation, a customers’ 4 Stage, 8 Phase, 22 Step “baseline” process is depicted visually to show where everything stands.

[Click on the image to enlarge]

CnP Home - Stage-Phase-Step

Key Features of the Solution

Below I’ll highlight key features of the CorasWorks CnP v2.1 solution.

  • Support for custom Stage-Phase-Step Process -  flexible Stage-based process management and the ability to embed the solution with your customized way of working
  • Auto-provisioning and configuration of Proposal Working Sites
  • All Documents Work Management – special display allowing users to go to one place to see and act on all documents related to a proposal across multiple libraries
  • Color Review Workspaces – special workspaces for proposal color and gate reviews supporting review and commenting
  • Master Calendaring – central master calendar of events such as color reviews across all proposals in the system, editable and accessible from within each proposal working site
  • Pinpoint Search and Fetch – ability for users to search and fetch information from Proposal Asset Libraries while working within a proposal site
  • Writer Assignment Management – automation of the assignment, notification, and management of writer tasks
  • My Work – enable users to see, contribute and act on work related to them as individuals from across the system
  • Support for Role-Based Work Consoles – ability to create work consoles where users of a certain role, such as teaming partners, can go and work with information from across the system
  • Configurable reporting – off-the-shelf you have configurable reporting in Tabular Reports with one click to print, to Excel, PDF, and Word.  You also have configurable Pivot Charting.
  • Integration of third-party CRM Systems – ability to integrate the solution with the leading CRM systems  (Deltek GovWin, Salesforce, MS CRM) and just about any other external system (ERP, HR, Custom, SAAS app)

CnP v2.1: Flexibility to Accommodate and Innovate

If you are using any of the COTS legacy proposal management solutions in the market you are constrained by their proprietary, fragile, and custom coded design.  If you are using SharePoint that is heavily customized by IT or a proprietary system, while this may mean that it could be modified, the cost, risk, and time is so high that change is constrained.  If you use native SharePoint or Alfresco or file shares, you are probably working with tools that are feature constrained, relying on manual content-driven work, siloed document libraries, siloed proposal sites and an environment where assets like proposal asset libraries are siloed.

With CorasWorks CnP v2.1, you are in a different world.  The COTS solution is feature rich but is really your base solution.  As a solution on the CorasWorks Work Management platform, it is unusually flexible and unusually easy to change – so easy that it is normally business users that customize, enhance, and even extend the solution leveraging the market leading CorasWorks Configuration Wizards.  This flexibility enables organizations to get what they want today, change things on the fly to accommodate specific work needs, and to innovate as their needs change.

A new choice

Now, with CorasWorks CnP v2.1 you have a new choice.  If you have little in the way of formal CnP tools or are using native SharePoint, you don’t have to just make do.  Our affordable pricing model allows you to move up the value stack to a COTS solution on SharePoint with a rich feature set to optimize your work and stay competitive.  Or, if you are heavily invested in a legacy, costly system you can replace them or enhance them with just what you need often at less than it costs you to maintain them.

No matter where you come from, the key is that you are not switching to a locked-in COTS system.  CorasWorks CnP is open, flexible and will allow you to decide where you want to go from here.

For more information:

 

william

William Rogers | No comments | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
20 May 2013
Capture and Proposal Management • Federal Government Contractors

Getting to a Competitive Capture and Proposal Management system on SharePoint

We just published a case study about an implementation of our new Capture and Proposal Management v2.1 solution for a $30m revenue, 200 person, Federal Government Contractor who is graduating out of small business into the free and open market.  The driver is their need to get up to a full and open competitive level.  They wanted the next generation solution (vs. legacy proposal management solutions), they wanted it their way, they didn’t want to spend a lot for it, and, they wanted control over their future.

The case study gives you the general overview of the situation, the solution and the results.  It is a great story.  I recommend that you read it before reading this article.  Here, I’ll take a different perspective and drill into the details of the implementation that made it successful.

The reason that I am writing this article is that I believe that a Capture and Proposal Management solution is one of those types of solutions that require a strong dose of mind-melding of people.  It involves process at a high level and very detailed task activities.  You don’t just install the software.  You need a good implementation methodology and the right people to be really successful.  In addition, this article will point out the importance of the flexibility of CorasWorks software when it comes to this solution – it makes a big difference to the customers long term success.

As written in the case study this was a five week implementation.  That means that it happened over 5 weeks.  However, the budget included just 5 days of CorasWorks Professional Services.  And, we stuck to the budget.  This is impressive given that this was a soup to nuts implementation including a completely new SharePoint infrastructure and migration of 300 proposals from file shares and Alfresco into the SharePoint environment along with a very custom solution and a lot of empowerment training.

Getting it Right, Getting it Done

So, how did we all manage to get a comprehensive, very customized, rather large, fully integrated, Capture and Proposal Management system, up and running with trained, empowered business users from scratch with 5 days of our services?  Here are some of the elements that made it successful.

  • In our pre-sales, we showed them different “flavors” of our Capture and Proposal Management solution implementation enabling them to narrow down their approach in advance and be familiar with how it would look and feel and what could be customized.
  • Their IT people were very efficient to spin up the infrastructure in advance based upon our best practices (this was a new SharePoint environment) and then they got out of the way
  • The Business Users drove the solution implementation.  Thus, they knew what they wanted and were motivated to get it right and done quickly.
  • The Business Users came to the kick-off meeting armed with 3 core documents: 1) their modified Shipley 22 step “baseline” Stage-Phase-Step process, 2) a comprehensive information architecture for their system (basically top down all of the features/information to be captured and its logical structure), and 3) key dashboard reports with metrics they manage by.
  • The customer made their core business team available and they were able to commit to multiple weekly sessions to get this done.
  • The project had executive visibility from day one of pre-sales.
  • We stuck to our standard Walkthrough/Workout implementation approach.  Basically, we start by implementing our base solution.  Then, we conduct 1-2 hour sessions where we walk the customer through using the system.  Then, they take control and workout the solution following a prescribed process and we note desired changes.  Many of the changes are made real time.  Then, we work it out again.  This approach moves the custom solution forward very quickly and keeps the business users fully engaged and learning.
  • They were reasonable about where they had to get to because they knew that they were also being empowered to take control, customize the solution and move it forward on their own.
  • They began formal CorasWorks “essentials” training half way through the implementation and by the end they were making the changes and doing the work with us just advising them.
  • We set up a semi-automated migration onramp system and their business users did the rest.

Of the elements above, the most significant is that the core team of business users were directly involved and driving the implementation.  Often, we find that these users are “too busy” to be directly involved.  That is a key mistake.  You need to educate them in advance about the new possibilities with CorasWorks configurable solutions if you want them engaged and want to succeed like this customer.  If they understand what they can get and how the process works, then, they will not be too busy.  It helps to do multiple 1-2 hour sessions so that they can fit the work into their schedules.

End of the Beginning

Yes, the implementation is done.  However, it is really the end of the beginning.  They had what they wanted at the end of 5 weeks.  But, a week later we had our Engagement Review/Lessons Learned session and they had already enhanced and extended the solution quite a bit further.  They are rapidly perfecting and innovating on their own as they do “workouts” with other business teams and teaming partners.  (Yes, the business users are now conducting the workouts and making changes.)  This is really the key to long term success and the value of CorasWorks as a competitive platform for them – they are empowered to innovate.  As a growing and maturing business, over the next couple of years this one solution will go through many phases.  If they had gone with some fixed, legacy, proprietary solution or a native SharePoint approach that required expensive custom IT involvement – they would be stuck.

Instead, they are empowered to compete today and get better over time.

william

William Rogers | No comments | Tags: , , , , ,
24 Apr 2013
CW Products • Federal Government Contractors • IDIQ Task Order Management

Overview of CorasWorks IDIQ Task Order Management v2.1

Our newest version of the CorasWorks IDIQ Task Order Management solution for Federal Contractors is now available.  On April 10th, we did a webcast introducing the solution to the market.  For access to the recorded webcast, that includes about 30 minutes of demo time and the powerpoint deck used in the webcast – email info@corasworks.net.  In this article, I’ll provide an overview of the v2.1 release.

The Purpose

Simply put, the solution provides you with the means to efficiently and effectively manage Task Orders through their life cycle.  Below is a graphic showing the core stages of the life cycle supported by the solution.

image

Solution and Implementation Scenario Flexibility

The solution consists of 6 modules leveraging the CorasWorks v11 Work Management platform running on SharePoint 2010.  It is designed to be flexible to meet a number of scenarios such as:

  • Corporate IDIQ/GWAC centers with many IDIQs
  • Prime, multi-award IDIQs
  • Sub contractor IDIQ Task Order Management
  • Single Award Task Orders
  • Business Units with multiple IDIQs and depth of working on Proposals and Delivering the Work
  • IDIQs with extensive partner engagement or no partners
  • Small Business with their first IDIQ as a Prime contractor

Core Features

At its core the v2.1 solution continues to support the core IDIQ work management workload with the following features:

  • Manage Portfolio of IDIQ Vehicles
  • Capture Task Orders
  • Auto-Provisioning of IDIQ Vehicles and Task Order Working Sites
  • Bid/No Bid Decisions
  • Manage Partners, Partner Surveys and Engagement
  • Business Unit Surveys and Engagement
  • Proposal development and review
  • Shared Proposal Asset Libraries (such as Past Performance, Forms and Templates, Boilerplate, and Graphics)
  • Stage-Gate Management Process and Activities
  • Task/Work Request Management
  • Shared Calendaring
  • Real time Reporting/Drill Down
  • Platform support for Integration with external CRM, ERP and HR systems
  • Highly configurable actions and workflow
  • Leverage SharePoint data, security and administration.

New Features in v2.1

This version has been extensively upgraded.  Below I highlight three key enhancements.

IDIQ Management Hub

This new module provides a single place for users to go to see, contribute, and act on work across many IDIQ vehicles and Task Orders.  From one place you can post task orders to different vehicles, see Task Orders across vehicles and their stages and drill down into the working sites, see and respond to partner and business unit expressions of interest (surveys), get reporting across vehicles that aggregates the information or that is comparative.

Below is a screenshot of this module (click to enlarge).

image

Enhanced Partner Engagement Sites

In v2.1, each Partner has their own site where they do their work and engage with you.  From here they can view new Task Orders, submit their expressions of interest, and review previous EOI’s and your response.  In addition, in v2.1 we’ve added support for partners to submit “future opportunities” that you can then centrally manage.  These opportunities can be reviewed and moved into Watch Lists and eventually into the appropriate Task Order when it is released.

Below is a screenshot of the new Partner Site (click to enlarge).

image

Increased Flexibility with new configuration wizard: Features Designer

All of the modules of the solution have been enhanced to make them even more flexible so that you can configure the solution to meet very specific needs.  For instance, you may want to configure vehicles and their processes to be slightly different.  Or, you may want the Proposal Working sites to be different.  Using CorasWorks configuration wizards, power users are able to make changes on the fly without affecting the overall system.  A new configuration wizard added in v2.1 is the Features Designer.  This allows power users to very easily turn on and off features of a module with a click or re-arrange their navigation with drag and drop.

Below is a screenshot of the Features Designer wizard (click to enlarge) for an IDIQ Vehicle site.  Note that the Watchlist, Pipeline, and Vehicle Library are greyed out.  To enable the feature just click the light-bulb.  You can change the names and drag and drop items to rearrange the navigation.

image

With v2.1 – Comprehensive AND Flexible

If you are interested, watch the demo for the webcast mentioned above.  This will show you the comprehensive feature set of the solution out of the box.  However, it is the flexibility of this solution that really makes it work for customers.  In our implementations, we always start with our “base solution” and get the customer up and running quickly.  Yet, every customer at the end of the day is different.  It is typical for each Business Unit and often each Vehicle to need changes that allow users to optimize their work.  The unique configurability of the solution leveraging the CorasWorks wizards supports this.  Thus, with this solution you get the best blend of commercial off the shelf software that can be easily configured as if it were custom.

william

William Rogers | No comments | Tags: , , , ,
24 Apr 2013
Capture and Proposal Management • Federal Government Contractors • IDIQ Task Order Management • Project and Program Management

Mastering the Core Federal Government Contractor Work-Stream

Its been almost 3 months since my last post.  No, no vacation.  Instead, I’ve been heads down supporting implementations with our Federal Government Contractors.  I’ve also been working on a suite of solutions being launched over the next few months that focus in on the core activities of Federal Contractors.  Sure, you’ve probably heard about Sequestration and Federal budget cuts.  This is putting even more pressure on our FC customers to get more efficient and effective.  So, we are helping by “productizing” solutions and pre-integrating them to increase the competitiveness of our customers.

In this article, I am going to cover the 3 activities that make up the “core work-stream” for the folks in this industry.  A work-stream is a set of “loosely coupled” activities that build on each other. They are independent activities but necessary elements to deliver the result.  Even if you are not a Federal Contractor you might find it interesting since at the heart of any industry, its participants have a set of solutions/activities that represent their core work-stream for success.  So, as you read this, think about what your core work-stream might look like.

Now, to Federal Government Contractors.  Below is a graphic depicting the core work-stream.  It consists of three activities (the ones in blue).  If you do them well, you’ll succeed; if you don’t, you hurt your chances of success.  They are different.  They are usually managed by different people.  They have different outputs.  They are managed by different metrics.  Yet, effectively, in this industry, they represent the critical path that transforms opportunities into money in the bank.

image

Over the last year, we’ve worked with customers to build out each of these three activities as separate “productized” solutions that can be part of one, integrated work environment. Below I’ll list each solution as it relates to each of the three activities of the core work-stream:

CorasWorks Capture and Proposal Management v2.1

This solution is used to manage the process of capturing business including the development of the proposal and the maintenance of all of the Proposal Assets that support the process.  It is a Stage-Phase-Step process that can be managed to be most effective.  This is the key first piece to get you going.

CorasWorks IDIQ Task Order Management v2.1

About a third of Federal Contractor business now comes through IDIQ/GWAC vehicles.  If you won a single award contract or a multi-award IDIQ, you then will want to process those task orders that come in.  With multi-award IDIQs you have to respond quickly, often with Teaming Partners, in order to really win the business.  You need to master the art of collaborative work that is fast, efficient and effective.

CorasWorks Project, Portfolio and Program Management for Delivery v3.2

So, now you have won the business.  You need to deliver on it.  This is where our PPM solution comes in.  Our solution focuses on helping the users to get the work done in a collaborative manner.  The key is the solutions flexibility which enables users to modify the solution to do very different kinds of “project” work.  Some may have tasks and classic GANTT.  While others may be just about collaboration and reporting or represent Programs of multiple activities by customers, employees, and partners.

The Core and the Supporting Activities

The core activities are the core.  You must do these well.  Surrounding these are a host of other activities that help to make you successful.  A very small list might be:

  • working with HR for recruiting
  • working with Contract Administration to get SOWs with teaming partners
  • managing an overall CMMI or ISO set of policies
  • integrating with CRM that is your database of opportunities and contact tracking
  • working with Legal
  • Partner Engagement
  • Customer Engagement
  • training
  • knowledge management and open collaboration
  • marketing activities
  • solution innovation management
  • executive and management dashboards, reporting, and drilldowns
  • integration with Financial systems/ERP

Using CorasWorks each of the above can also be added to your environment as supporting activities.  Each adds value.  However, to say it again, you need to get the core elements working properly to make money.

What Shape is Your Core In?

Most people can use some help with their core work-stream.  Many can use a lot of help.  Those that have been around for years usually have good practices, but, aging systems.  The possibilities for systems/tools have changed over even just the last 5 years.  With flexible systems such as CorasWorks on SharePoint you are able to extend and enhance existing systems or replace them quite quickly and cost effectively.  If you have the feeling that you are stuck with legacy, fixed, custom coded systems and may be missing the boat to staying competitive – then, there is a good chance that this is the reality.  If you are young and growing but need to put core work-stream systems in place, then, you can step to the front of the technology stack.  However, you will still need to go to work on learning and developing the right processes and practices.  It helps to have systems like CorasWorks’ where you can get started with a simpler approach that is also cost-effective and then change the system to adapt as your people and organization grow and learn.

No matter which situation you are in, with the competitive pressures of today and the foreseeable future, it is critical to continually make sure that your core is in good shape.

william

William Rogers | No comments | Tags: , , ,
31 Jan 2013
Capture and Proposal Management • Federal Government Contractors • Work Management

The Power of CorasWorks Rollups–10 Years Later

It really amazes me.  We are coming up on our 10 Year anniversary on February 7th.  We first introduced the term “rollups” in 2003 with our first technology product the CorasWorks Rollup Suite.  This week I was on a call where the customer was trying to solve a seemingly intractable problem around Proposal Management that was killing her teams productivity.  In 30 minutes the solution was in place.  Effectively, it was a rollup: classic CorasWorks, same problem, and, still the best thing since the Post It note for SharePoint business users.  In this article, I’ll give some background on the “rollup” and explain how it solved this customers problem who needed to see new information and act on it from across 100 Proposal Sites.

The Rollup

We invented the Rollup in 2003 to meet a core issue with SharePoint.  SharePoint 2003 focused on an Enterprise Portal.  With that, on the side you had this capability to have these little team sites.  But, there was no connection between the two except the ability to see a listing of the sites one level down from the portal.  We knew that at the end of the day, the collaborative sites would be the key to creating collaborative work management solutions for business and that this is really where the productivity is.  We knew that they’d have deep hierarchies and that people would want to share and work in those little team sites.  BTW, in 2003, other collaborative products like eRoom also saw the world as a bunch of disconnected sites (rooms), so, the siloed approach of SharePoint 2003 team sites was not alone.

So, in order for us to build the business solutions we needed as part of an inter-connected work environment, we created the “rollup”.  This technology allowed you to very easily create a display that would allow you to connect to information anywhere across the SharePoint environment (across data types, lists/libraries, sites, site collections, and web applications).  Accordingly, from a single display you could see any content from across SharePoint – filter it, search it, contribute and act on it. Effectively, what we did is separate the end user display and actions from the data.  You could now work from anywhere and anything could be at your fingertips.  What business users got was convenience, visibility and productivity.

Quickly, the CorasWorks rollup display became the standard for connecting to distributed information on SharePoint.  It was used in three key scenarios: a) to cross-connect to information in other sites and get work done and b) to connect to a number of similar types of sites, like projects or proposals, and aggregate the information and c) as the core grid-style display to build collaborative business applications where users could see, contribute, and act on information in a structured, business context.

Over the years, our approach has matured a lot.  We now just talk in terms of web-based business applications and custom displays.  The capabilities are multi-tier with Wizards at the Display level and to automate work with CorasWorks actions.  Our displays can connect to external information and mash it up.  And, more and more…

Yet, fundamentally it is still about enabling people to work with information across the distributed work environment that is SharePoint.

Our Proposal Management Scenario

Now, roll the story 10 years ahead to this week.  I was on the phone working with a Program Manager for an organization where we are implementing an IDIQ Task Order Management solution in a business group.  This PM also has a team of people that drive and manage RFP proposals.  While we were talking she told me about a pain point with the proposal work and asked if we could help.  Here is the background:

  • They have another place (a Site Collection) where they are doing proposal development in native SharePoint (we haven’t gotten to upgrading this to CW yet)
  • They have 6 Business Groups
  • Each Business Group has their own section
  • Each business group manage their own Proposals
  • Each proposal has its own site
  • Each site has a document library with about 8 folders representing different parts of proposal work
  • Each folder has documents in it or could have documents in it

In order to know what is new, i.e., what is going on and what needs to be done, a Proposal person (on her team) has to go into each proposal site and check all of the folders.  You could say that they could get emails, but, unfortunately, that is if email notification is enabled, if her person gets it, and, if they see it and remember.  If you miss something, it is your fault for missing a deadline.  So, her team does a tremendous amount of navigating and checking.

So, what she asked for was a magical way for her team to have a single Dashboard/Work Console where they could go to one page to see all of the new documents that have been added or modified across all of the Business Groups, Proposal Sites and Folders.  And, she wanted her people to be able to act on them from the Work Console (like pop off emails, change status, etc.) without going anywhere else.  Tall order?

If took me about 30 minutes.  We deployed a CorasWorks Work Console.  We dropped on a Display (formerly known as a “rollup”).  We cross-connected it to the various business groups and configured it to pick up the appropriate information across the proposals and the folders.  Viola, all of the new work in the last 7 days was in the display.  Then, I had her go in and customize the display to meet her needs and create a couple new ones that sliced and diced the information differently.  We then added some actions to automate her work.

To say the least, she was amazed and wanted to jump off the phone to show her team.  I hate to say it, but, I’d estimate that 80% of SharePoint users think that they need to navigate around from site to site looking for information.  They have to go somewhere to do work.  It seems ridiculous given a work environment 10 years later.  But, most people think of SharePoint as siloed sites that you go to.  That is what the Internet is – right?  The ability for our little, old “rollup” to make this huge pain go away is just awesome.

If you know of anyone that is experiencing this type of pain, then, have them call the CorasWorks Solution Hotline at 1-866-580-3115 and just have them ask for relief from work druggery.  We’ll take care of the rest.

Smile

william

William Rogers | No comments | Tags: ,
31 Jan 2013
Legal Work • Project and Program Management • Work Management

CorasWorks for Legal Work Management on SharePoint

In addition to everything else, we are doing quite a bit of work these days within the Legal departments of organizations and for Law Firms.  The standard needs of this department for legal matters, ad hoc requests, and case management fit well with the CorasWorks Work Management capabilities.  I’ll briefly cover a few examples in this article.

Matters Management – a 3,000 person Non Governmental Organization (NG0) used CorasWorks to create their Legal Matters Management process.  The work was done by a CorasWorks partner using our off the shelf framework.

Case Management – we are completing a project for an Arbitration Case Management system for an association.  This system is really a service to the legal community where they can request arbitration cases and then the arbitrator can manage the cases.  It is Case Management as a service.

Claims Management – we support a Law Firm that has built an extensive Claims Management system for insurance claims.  This office of this global 1,000 attorney firm does 80% of its business managing claims for Insurers.  It is a large system with thousands of claims.  A key part of this solution is its 360 degree Dashboard that puts all of the information about a claim, and all of the actions people need to do, at the fingertips of the attorneys.  The system was built by our customer and a CorasWorks partner specializing in Legal systems with support from us.

Leverage CorasWorks in your in house Legal departments

It is clear that our Work Management framework is a good fit for a lot of the work done by Legal departments.  In most organizations (vs. Law Firms), the Legal department is one those under-served departments that are low on the list of enterprise IT priorities.  But, if your organization is already using CorasWorks, you may want to look at re-purposing it to address needs of the Legal department.  Many of the needs of the Legal department are rather straight forward from a CorasWorks perspective.  And, the capabilities we provide are pretty slick when compared to many of the Legal products out there that are usually based upon legacy technologies and targeted at law firms and tend to be overly complex for an in-house legal department.

Legal Project Management – A Next Step In Innovation…

With that said, I also see a new area of innovation by CorasWorks for in-house legal departments and law firms.  Over the last few years, innovative and leading legal teams are starting to adopt a structured Project Management approach to large legal cases.  It makes sense.  Part of this is driven by a shift to fixed price work, part is just the idea that legal cases can be better managed.  I’m looking for some opportunities to apply our Project Portfolio Management solution to this need – any takers?

william

William Rogers | No comments | Tags: , , , ,
31 Jan 2013
Capture and Proposal Management • Enterprise Shared Application Services • Federal Government Contractors • IDIQ Task Order Management

IDIQ Task Order Management as a Shared Service on SharePoint

We are doing a lot of work enabling Federal Contractors with IDIQ Task Order Management solutions.  When we first got going with this solution a year ago we focused on the IDIQ/GWAC center that was managed at the Corporate level.  Very quickly it started to integrate with the Capture and Proposal work.  Then, it moved out to serve the needs of the business groups.  Today, we are enabling most of our customers in a Shared Services model powered by CorasWorks within a SharePoint work environment.  I’ll talk about this.

Larger Federal Contractors usually have a Proposal Center.  They may have a corporately managed IDIQ/GWAC center.  The problem is that these capabilities only address the top of the pyramid.  The rest of work, that happens at the Business Group level, is usually very, very ad hoc using the tools of email and excel.

The nirvana is to get each group what they need but to do it in a way that enables corporate standards and operational leverage.  For years, organizations have lived with a pendulum that swings between centralization and decentralization.  With each swing somebody loses.  Effectively, our Shared Services model strikes a working balance that supports both centralization and local optimization.

With our Shared Services model we usually go through a few phases of adoption as follows.

First, we usually take care of the Corporate level.  This entails putting in or augmenting the Proposal Center and often adding in the core IDIQ Task Order Management capability.  We then integrate the IDIQ work into the Proposal System and other enterprise systems including CRM (often Deltek GovWin CRM), their Contract Administration system, and HR recruiting systems.

We then enable corporate to serve up IDIQ Task Order Management to the business groups.  The key is that each business groups needs to have it slightly their way.  Their needs often differ from Corporate (usually much deeper where they have to do most of their own proposals and be concerned about downstream work – after they’ve won), between business groups, and, even between IDIQs (like the reporting requirements and the Partners they are working with).

Accordingly, what we provide is a standard, base IDIQ Task Order Management solution.  This can then be cloned and customized to meet the needs of each business group and even down to the IDIQ level.  Yet, it is all part of your enterprise shared application service and also of the shared SharePoint work environment.  So, corporate capabilities can be standardized and made available as part of the Shared Service to the business groups across the enterprise.  Examples are Proposal Requests and Management, Gate Reviews, Supporting Processes (such as HR Staffing Requests and Conflict of Interest checks), Standards (CMMI, PMO, Partner Onramping), and Knowledge Repositories (such as Pricing, Forms, and Past Performance that are shared with security and in context).

It sum, it becomes a standardized, integrated, yet, distributed and locally optimized system.  You might say that it is a system of systems.  The key is that Corporate is not completely in control.  Corporate has enabled the business groups to have flexibility.  The business groups can optimize the way they work, but, do it within constraints that maintain control and the ability to centrally manage the shared infrastructure.  It is truly amazing what results you can achieve when you hit the right balance between the needs of business groups and corporate.

With this shared services model you get the best of both worlds: central control and standardization, but, the ability for the business groups to get what they need to optimize their work.  And, of course in this model the cost is far lower to support and deliver what users need across the board.

If you visit our Federal Contractor micro-site and review the case studies you’ll get a sense of how this approach has worked with different customers of different sizes and with different solutions.

william

William Rogers | No comments | Tags: , , , ,
31 Jan 2013
Federal Government Contractors

New Solutions and Case Studies for Federal Contractors

We continue to enhance our support for Federal Government Contractors.  We just updated the Federal Contractor microsite section of our web site.  Assuming that you have been there before, press CNTRL-F5 to refresh the content.

We now highlight 5 solutions for Federal Contractors.  We have 6 new Case Studies for a total of 10.  The solutions are:

  • IDIQ Task Order Management
  • Capture and Proposal Management
  • Program, Project and Portfolio Management
  • Idea and Innovation Management (new)
  • Shared Services Work Management Environments

For an overview of our Federal Contractor vertical in 2012 and solution plans in 2013 see the following article:

CorasWorks’ Federal Contractor Business Grows 75% in 2012 Fueled by Accelerating Industry Competition–Review and 2013 Plans

Do More With Less and Do More for Less

The new solutions and case studies are evidence of our core message to Federal Contractors which is how we enable them to Do More With Less (the competitive business value) and Do More For Less (our cost improvement value proposition).  As we invest in this area and “standardize” the solutions, our value proposition just gets stronger.

The key is that CorasWorks on SharePoint is a platform approach that is enabling Federal Contractors to get great leverage through a Shared Services model.  Once you have the platform in place, any and all of the solutions we offer or that you build can be dropped in, natively integrated, re-purposed, enhanced and extended.  It just works.

Make sure to look at the 2 case studies under “Shared Services Work Management Environments”.  These given a sense of how this approach has worked for a 1,000 person and a 20,000 person organization.

william

William Rogers | No comments | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
13 Jan 2013
Capture and Proposal Management • Federal Government Contractors • IDIQ Task Order Management

CorasWorks’ Federal Contractor Business Grows 75% in 2012 Fueled by Accelerating Industry Competition–Review and 2013 Plans

In 2012, we started our Federal Government Contractor practice.  Federal Contractors (including Aerospace & Defense providers) have been a significant part of CorasWorks’ business since we began in 2003.  In 2012, we created a dedicated team to focus on this industry and build and deliver industry specific solutions.  With the increased competition in this industry in recent years and the threat of the Fiscal Cliff and Sequestration in 2013 – we figured it was the perfect time to engage deeply and help our customers Do More for Less and drive their competitive position.  We focused on solutions for the internal operations of Federal Contractors.  In this article, I do a review of our work in this industry in 2012 and provide you with a heads up of our plans for 2013.

2012 in Review

  • Our business with Federal Government contractors for internal use grew 75%, making it our fastest growing industry segment last year
  • We served a broad group of Top 100 Federal Contractors such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Rockwell-Collins, HP Enterprise Services, Booz Allen Hamilton, BAE Systems, Serco, Chenega and Salient.
  • We focused our industry-specific solution investment in solutions for Business Development (BD) Operations, particularly IDIQ-based activities for Prime and Sub-contractors – a major area of intense competition in 2012 and going forward.
  • We expanded our BD solution set to integrate with existing Proposal Development applications and introduced solutions for Capture & Proposal Management providing comprehensive visibility and process management for BD operations
  • We began the process of cross-industry pollination, by bringing solutions from other industry customers into Federal Contractors such as Idea Challenge Management and Work Management for Engineering and Resource Planning and Program Management/Delivery based upon the CorasWorks Project Portfolio Management solution
  • We continued to expand our footprint in the Federal Government (Military and Civilian) with large deployments in the Navy, Army, Air Force and Marines that enables Federal Contractors to leverage CorasWorks on SharePoint to deliver more competitive services and systems to their customers.

We learned a great deal more about the industry, the solutions, and the way of working within Federal Contractors over the year.  It is pretty clear that the internal operations of Federal Contractors have a lot of room to benefit by increased efficiency and effectiveness.  The BD area of IDIQ work was a real winner where most customers have a) older, legacy systems or b) nothing but email (NBE).  We’ve taken this segment to a new level in terms of lower cost and higher efficiency and effectiveness.  The best testament of our success with BD solutions and in other Federal Contractor business functions are our Customer Successes.  You can read about these by looking at articles of this blog (See Category of Federal Government Contractors, with 9 articles, or by a specific solution Category) or reading about our Solutions and Case Studies at our Federal Contractor micro-site of the CorasWorks web site.

What’s Ahead in 2013

Sequestration still looms. Continued increase in competition is a fact.  To help you compete, we are pushing our Collaborative Work Management solutions for Federal Contractors forward in 2013 in the following areas:

  • We will continue our focus on solutions for BD Operations.  Here you simply have to be at your best.  We will continue to move our IDIQ oriented solutions forward to make our customers the top in internal efficiency and effectiveness and the robustness of partner engagement.  We are also deepening our integration and support for Capture & Proposal Management activities and integration with third-party legacy applications for CRM (notably Deltek GovWin’s CRM), ERP, HR, and Contract Administration.
  • We are “verticalizing” the CorasWorks Project Portfolio Management solution to more specifically support work for Program Management, Delivery and Operations in Federal Contractors (what you do after you win the business – the downstream activities).
  • We are deepening our presence in the Engineering business function by bringing Engineering solutions from other industries into the Federal Contractor space, such as Engineering Work Management, Configuration Management, Idea and Innovation Management, Resource Planning and Demand Management.  This need is being accelerated as our customers start separating their services business from their systems businesses and are looking to set new benchmarks in the management of globally distributed engineering resources.
  • We will continue to expand our set of solutions for cross-functional activities with corporate functions such as HR, IT, Finance, and Legal and cross-pollinate these solutions into our customer base.
  • We are putting new programs in place to help our Federal Contractor customers build CorasWorks competencies internally that help them be more competitive when delivering solutions to Federal customers that leverage SharePoint – a growing segment of the services sector.

CorasWorks – At Your Service

In 2013, it is not going to get any easier to win business or deliver it profitably.  The way to succeed is by getting better and being more innovative.  As part of this we feel that you truly do need to a) eliminate the noise of redundant, ad hoc, wasted activity, b) break the silos, and c) provide the visibility and embedded collaboration to focus resources when and where you need it.

As innovative leaders in Collaborative Work Management solutions on SharePoint and with our focus on Federal Government Contractors we can help you get you where you want and need to be – more quickly, at less cost and with less risk.  We look forward to serving you in 2013.

william

William Rogers | No comments | Tags: , , , , , ,
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