OneTeam Government Contracts Blog

Discover how Whitespace Innovations moved from a spreadsheet-based system to OneTeam's integrated capture and proposal management software platform to support their growing list of small and large businesses. Whitespace mentors more than 100 government contractor clients in the US, UK, Sweden, and Australia. In this video, Austin Boyd, Chief Executive Officer, Fred Fagan, President, and Alex Johnson, Marketing Manager discuss how Whitespace Innovations implemented OneTeam and discovered this powerful asset to support their clients. 

Where do you fall on the capture management spectrum – have you been a capture manager for years or is this your first solo capture? Do you have well documented proven capture processes to train new employees, or is your company’s process left up to individual capture managers? Do you have a document repository with capture templates or do you search past opportunities trying to find a blueprint for what to do and where to start?

The burden of winning government contracts often rests on the shoulders of proposal managers. They manage writers, reviewers, inputs, deadlines, and hundreds of details on multiple bids at once. Proposal managers need proactive strategies to ensure a proposal is compliant and compelling, and ultimately leads to a win for their company. 

We create and access a seemingly endless supply of data and information every day. In government contracting, opportunity capture management often includes sensitive or proprietary information such as rates structures, labor pools, teaming strategies, and current bids. But some information from government customers requires additional safeguarding procedures.

In March 2020, OneTeam's Chief Technology Officer and computer software engineer, David Marconnet, created the website Bama Tracker to compile COVID-19 data from the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH). One year after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, Marconnet continues to compile ADPH data and add new features. Bama Tracker is updated daily and provides statewide and county charts, maps, and graphs as well as vaccine data.

As employees retire or change jobs, how can you retain the capture knowledge or corporate memory that often leaves with them? As a government contractor (GovCon), you have invested time and money to ensure your Business Development employees gather a treasure trove of contacts, meeting notes, strategies, customer insights, and competitor knowledge, all in hopes of expanding your business. But have you invested in documenting this information so it can be transferred to the rest of your organization? How do you know where to start?

Effective color team reviews – as painful as they can be for writers to hear, and for Proposal Managers to coordinate – are a critical part of how to bid on government contracts. The proposal development process starts with capture management and integrates the BD team as you build a compelling bid.  Without these important steps, we can fall into the trap of writing a great story about the wrong subject, or start to “drink our own Kool-Aid,” or simply fail to “answer the mail,” as it’s called. Color team reviews guide us in how to respond to government RFPs.

Everyone in the federal contracting business knows that pulling together a proposal requires a symphony of players, all with different strengths and expertise to cover different areas of the proposal.

No matter your size or socio-economic status, there will be times where you need to either work as a subcontractor for another company or find great companies to subcontract your work out to. This is true for all government contractors and GSA Schedule holders.

We all know a robust pipeline is critical for growing your federal contracting business, but have you thought about what a robust business development pipeline means for your daily operations?