How to Boost the Security of GovCon Team Permissions, Data, and Documents

Security has been a very important topic for GovCons since 2017, when the government issued requirements for compliance with NIST 800-171, a set of guidelines that outline the processes and procedures to safeguard Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).

Traditional Best Practices

This started a wave of conservation and questioning of the security of company data, tracking who has access to documents, and how and what data needs to be protected.

Proposal Managers must also abide by company cybersecurity standards presented in Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). Balancing security requirements while juggling numerous tasks and producing a winning proposal is no small task for a Proposal Manager, it requires approved processes and a state-of-the art software solution.

OneTeam’s Best Practices and Solutions

OneTeam is a technology platform that was born and built in the cloud, specifically designed for GovCons to ensure data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. OneTeam’s collaborative cloud-based BD platform supports Proposal Team Management by the Proposal Manager as previously detailed in the blog post - "Is Organizing Your GovCon Proposal Team a Monumental Task? OneTeam Can Help!".

A Proposal Manager controls access to the BD data in OneTeam thru multi-layered permissions and access levels, designated by the Capture or Proposal Manager. As an integrated BD platform, OneTeam ensures that secure team collaboration starts in the capture phase and continues throughout the proposal development process. The Proposal Team is able to collaborate securely in OneTeam because of the following controls:

• Internal proposal team members are determined by the Capture or Proposal Manager and assigned at the opportunity level. If internal personnel are not included in the list of Contacts for an opportunity, they do not have access to view the opportunity.

• Teaming Partners or Subcontractors must be invited to participate in a specific opportunity – which only provides access to specific data in that opportunity.

• Teaming partners must register for a free OneTeam account, which is available through the invitation process, and create their unique login.

• Teaming Partners can only be assigned as Reviewers or Writers for Proposal Content and only access their assigned content.

• Proposal Managers can designate specific documents, tasks, notes, or assignments as Private to limit viewing by subcontractors.

The graphic and narrative below present an overview of the five key features in OneTeam that permit you team to collaborate securely.

Internal Team Access

Each OneTeam User company has Company Administrators that control and assign users and their permission levels in OneTeam. These internal users are then available to be assigned to specific opportunities to support the capture or proposal process. If a user is not assigned to an opportunity, they will not have access to the opportunity data, and cannot participate as a Writer or Reviewer for that opportunity.

Inviting Teaming Partners

The Capture and Proposal Manager also have easy access to remove a user as an opportunity. If a user needs to be permanently removed from OneTeam, a Company Administrator Inactivates the user to remove their access from OneTeam.

During the Capture phase of the BD Lifecycle, the Capture Manager may have selected Team by evaluating team members using the Team and Capability Matrix functions of OneTeam. Capture Managers invite Teaming Partners to discuss teaming with a secure Invitation sent through OneTeam Communication. Teaming partners will also be able to respond to Data Calls.

Unique Logins

Invited Teaming Partners or Subcontractors, are then prompted to set up a free OneTeam account. The Teaming invitation will contain a link to OneTeam with an automated account set-up process. Subcontractors have limited access to opportunity information, and never see any financial data, P-Win rates, B&P amount, profits, or revenue projections. They also cannot view notes, tasks, or documents that are marked as Private (see below) and do not see other Subcontractors, until they are all selected as Teaming Partners. If a teaming partner does not receive a Teaming Invitation Request, they cannot ever access that opportunity in OneTeam.

Assign Partners as Writers or Reviewers

Teaming Partners will be permitted to participate in the proposal process as Writers and Reviewers. They can also complete assigned Data Calls, complete a Capability Matrix (if designated to complete it), and add notes for the team. A contact from a Teaming Partner cannot view the opportunity in OneTeam until the Company has been invited to participate in that opportunity, and that contact has been added to the Teaming Partner contacts.

Restrict Access with Private 

The Proposal Manager and Capture Manager can also maintain security and control access to opportunity documents and data using the ‘Private’ checkbox, to restrict access to those on the internal team only. Most files that are uploaded are by default marked as Private. The Proposal Manager can easily change this setting at the document or task level. 

OneTeam Benefits

• Company permissions control level of access for internal team members.

• Subcontractors can only view limited non-financial related information.

• Remove access from Subcontractors quickly after proposal submission.

• Limit Subcontractor access to designated users.

This is the 2nd in a 10-part series How GovCons Easily Save Time with OneTeam Proposal Automation. This series is based on the eBook GovCons Save Time with Proposal Automation, which contains the entire series with additional bonus content. Download your free copy of the eBook.

OneTeam is a complete, secure, cloud-based collaboration platform for GovCons to track, qualify, capture, propose and win more contracts with fewer resources by streamlining and automating processes. OneTeam was designed and developed by a federal government contractor to address the lack of resources and time, as well as the pain associated with winning government contracts.