Octant Insights
Welcome to Octant’s blog. We will share our thoughts on the intersection of business development (capture management, proposal management, IDIQ task orders) and effective use of software automation. Whether you are a capture manager or proposal manager looking to learn more about the latest in BD software applications in the #govcon space, we promise fresh insights, though-provoking ideas, and engaged commentary.
Spring Cleaning Your Proposal Processes
May 2, 2022 by Octant Best Practices Team
Have you thought about spring cleaning your business development (capture, bid, proposal, and IDIQ task order management) lifecycle processes? It really doesn't matter which workflow tools, such as SharePoint for Proposal Management, Office 365, K2, Nintex, and bamboo, or which industry-recognized processes like Shipley or SM&A you use to manage the business development life-cycle. The point is that you review your capture, proposal and task-order management processes. Here are some ideas to help you get started.
Benefits of Using a Style Guide
April 25, 2022 by Octant Best Practices Team
Applying Editing Techniques Throughout the Writing Process Will Improve Your Proposals
April 16, 2022 by Octant Best Practices Team
The Importance of Automating Workflows
April 4, 2022 by Octant Best Practices Team
Storyboarding the Process
March 21, 2022 by Octant Best Practices Team
Basics of Marketing Competitor Analysis
March 7, 2022 by Octant Best Practices Team
The Basics of Brainstorming
February 7, 2022 by Octant Best Practices Team
Proposal Disaster Recovery
January 24, 2022 by Octant Best Practices Team
Eliminating Fluff From your Proposal
January 17, 2022 by Octant Best Practices Team
Making an informed bid/no-bid decision
December 20, 2021 by Octant Best Practices Team
Steps to Developing a Work Breakdown Structure
December 6, 2021 by Octant Best Practices Team
What is the Difference Between a Nondisclosure Agreement and a Teaming Agreement?
November 22, 2021 by Octant Best Practices Team
From Capture to Proposal: It's all part of the plan!
November 8, 2021 by Octant Best Practices Team
What is a proposal management plan? It is the roadmap developed by the proposal manager and based on the capture plan that provides guidance about the opportunity and the win strategy for the other proposal team members.
Use your artifacts to develop proposal templates
October 25, 2021 by Octant Best Practices Team
You have a document repository full of capture and proposal artifacts from previous bids you have pursued. Take advantage of that information to save time and money by creating templates for future bids.
Prepare for a successful proposal debrief
October 11, 2021 by Octant Best Practices Team
An important proposal management best practice is to request a debrief from a Federal Government customer no matter the outcome. Win or lose it is important to have the assessment of how your proposal was rated by the evaluators to understand how to improve your future submissions. The advice provided in this article will help federal contractors successfully navigate a debrief.
A Capture plan is a plan to win
September 27, 2021 by Octant Best Practices Team
Implementing and maintaining a capture plan for each bid opportunity is important to help make intelligent bid/no bid decisions and to help position you to win the contract. This article describes the necessary information to include in a capture plan.
Tips on how to build a business development pipeline
September 13, 2021 by Octant Best Practices Team
There are many ways to develop a business development pipeline to grow your business. Some are more obvious than others. Learn what it takes to create and implement a robust business pipeline.
Implementing a Task Order (TO) proposal process: Part 4 – Using the artifacts from previous bids to streamline future bids
August 30, 2021 by Octant Best Practices Team
You won an award on the ID/IQ contract and have successfully bid some of the task orders. Odds are that the task order requests (TOR) you have been responding to are consistent regarding some of the requirements they include. Whether you realize it or not, you are building a wealth of information, and these artifacts are useful in streamlining your process when bidding future task order opportunities. Some of the ways you can use the artifacts include...
Implementing A Task Order Proposal Process: Part 3 - Having a Repeatable Task Order Proposal Process is CRITICAL
August 16, 2021 by Octant Best Practices Team
Larger companies have the resources and funds to maintain separate proposal centers and proposal software tools designed to respond to the various types of bids, such as recompete proposals, strategic bids, and quick IDIQ Task Order responses. You may assume this advantage also makes bidding Task Orders easier and places less strain on their ability to bid. That is not necessarily true. There are certain aspects of pursuing the Task Orders that affect large and small bidders alike and this article will discuss them.
Implementing A Task Order Proposal Process: Part 2 - Next Steps
August 2, 2021 by Octant Best Practices Team
You have to plan to bid and win your share of these task orders (TO). You need to put the same time and effort into pursuing a TO as you do any other bid opportunity. Making business development and capture management part of your TO pursuit process is critical to your success. The following points are important activities to include in your process to pursuing (and winning) TOs.
Implementing A Task Order Proposal Process: Part 1 - Getting Starting with Task Orders
July 19, 2021 by Octant Best Practices Team
The Federal Government has several different names and acronyms to describe multiple award contracts. The typical IDIQ-type contract is a public bid for a long-term contract (generally five years) with multiple awards given to meet specific product or service requirements order when the requirement becomes known. In other words, an ID/IQ contract is used by government agencies to purchase future goods and services at set prices when a need for those goods or services arises. What isn't known at the time of the ID/IQ award is exactly when or how much a customer will order; the TOs provide this information.
It Is Possible to Stay Within Your B&P Budget!
July 6, 2021 by Octant Best Practices Team
What exactly is a bid and proposal (B&P) budget? It is the money your company allocates to cover the costs of bidding a solicitation. It includes all activities associated with that specific bid starting with pre-RFP business development or capture work through proposal development and submission and ending with the contract award.
Octant Insights: Capture and Proposal Artifacts
February 7, 2015 by Octant Best Practices Team
definition: ARTIFACT: 1a : something created by humans usually for a practical purpose; especially: an object remaining from a particular period (Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/artifact) Now, I'm not trying to compare anyone involved in business development, capture, or proposals to cavemen. Wait…maybe….let me think, no, never mind, yes, I was right the first time; I'm really not doing that. Instead, let's focus on the artifacts.
