How to Save Time by Quickly Automating Data Calls

A Data Call is a tool that a prime contractor uses to gather information/data about the team, including subcontractors or teaming partners for a specific opportunity. Data Calls asks for specific information and may include: 

• Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and Teaming Agreement (TA) 

• Capability Matrix 

• Company History 

• Certifications – ISO, CMMC, CMMI 

• Facility Security Clearance level 

• Key Personnel qualifications 

• Years of experience in technical areas 

• Company size and locations 

• Socio-economic status & certifications 

• Specific customer and contract information 

• Retention rate

Traditional Best Practices 

A typical process is for a Proposal Manager to send one or more Data Call documents to a point of contact (POC) at each subcontractor and the prime contractor company. Usually, documents are emailed to POCs and then completed and returned via email. For only one or two teaming partners and a few Data Calls, the process is not overly difficult or complex. But when requesting multiple Data Calls from dozens of subcontractors for a large IDIQ contract vehicle bid, the process and organization of responses can be overwhelming and often require a dedicated Data Call Manager.

The Proposal Manager monitors email, retrieves the completed Data Calls and then files them in an appropriate location to be used for content development at a later time.  This process does not ensure secure team collaboration, due to emailing company sensitive information.

OneTeam’s Best Practices and Solutions

OneTeam automates the Data Call process with a workflow for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and pdf documents. Proposal Managers view the Data Call Dashboard to track all Data Calls, and see a real-time color-coded status of each Teaming Partner and Data Call. OneTeam does not email Data Calls, but rather provides the workspace where the Prime contractor and Teaming Partners securely manage and collaborate on Data Calls, capture strategy, and other BD activities. The graphic below and following sections provide an overview of three key features in OneTeam that support the Automated Data Call process.

Upload Data Call Templates

The Proposal Manager uses the Data Call Dashboard of an opportunity to manage all related Data Calls. Data Call templates, including NDAs, Teaming Agreements, Pricing Inputs, and data requests can quickly be managed in the Dashboard.

Assign Due Date

OneTeam distributes a Data Call notification to the selected POC or all teaming partners, and for a POC for the internal company, who have been given permission to complete Data Calls. The Data Call documents are not emailed to POCs. Instead, an email is sent and includes a link to the Data Call, due date, person who assigned the data call, and their email address.

The Proposal Manager assigns a due date and time for the Data Call In the ‘Distribute to Team Members’ window that opens. This due date is displayed in the email the recipient receives and in the Data Calls Dashboard.

Select Recipients

The Proposal Manager selects the companies to receive the Data Call by selecting the company name. The Proposal Manager cannot distribute a Data Call to the same company multiple times by accident – team members who have already received the selected data call are grayed out, and data calls can only be sent to the selected team member(s).

OneTeam Benefits

• Proposal Managers create opportunity-specific Data Calls and upload the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or pdf documents to the opportunity record.

• OneTeam automatically distributes a Data Call notice via email to the Primary Contact for the potential or selected teaming partners.

• Data Calls are not emailed, but a link is sent to allow teaming partners to complete the Data Call in OneTeam. This keeps company sensitive information from going through the email system and protects a company’s competitive advantage.

• Each Data Call document can only be sent once to a teaming partner.

• The Data Call dashboard shows a color-coded status for each data call – Distributed, Submitted (by teaming partner), Accepted (by sender), or Rejected (with reason provided by prime).

• Teaming partners will also receive email notices when Data Calls are accepted or rejected with the link to complete the Data Call if it was Rejected.

  
  

This is the 4th 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.