OneTeam Government Contracts Blog

Have you ever worn a black hat?

In GovCon, a Black Hat Review (Black Hat) is one of the color team reviews typically conducted during the capture phase. It is a formal process to 1) analyze the top competitors’ likely strategy and 2) identify solutions to improve one’s own strategy and positioning.

A Black Hat Review is one of the best tools to include in your capture and proposal management toolkit, as it allows you to think like your competition and expose the strengths and weaknesses of your team and your competitors.

Summer is here and while everyone is planning their vacation, OneTeam developers have been busy updating features and adding new functionality to our integrated pipeline, capture, and proposal management platform. Here are the highlights of our June 14, 2021 software release.

A meatball chart or capability matrix is often used by a prime contractor to evaluate potential  partners and check for capability gaps. The proposed contract’s PWS (performance work statement) becomes a list of 'capabilities’ that is organized into a tabular format.  Each potential teaming partners is sent this capability table or matrix, and asked to identify which capabilities their companies can provide or has provided. This has become the de facto method for teaming partners to communicate their company capabilities and contract experience.  

But does a simple capability check give you enough information to build a winning team? 

Congratulations! The RFP has finally dropped! As a capture manager, you identified a contract opportunity and spent 1 to 2 years building the winning team. You developed and executed a capture plan and you shaped the procurement. Now, you breathe a sigh of relief as your part of the job comes to a close, or does it?  

Does the capture manager step aside as he or she hands over the job of winning to the proposal manager?    

Many GovCon businesses rely on a GovWin subscription to supplement their business development (BD) team and build their BD pipeline or portfolio. There are other intelligence gathers, but it is the largest government contracting intelligence platform and has thousands of subscribers. A subscription is a major investment and allows users to identify government contracts early in the procurement cycle. GovWin collects data from thousands of procurements each year and packages that data into an easily accessible, searchable database. Experienced BD professionals know GovWin is a useful tool to help them execute their company’s strategic plan. But is having the GovWin subscription enough to win more government contracts?  

How many people in your company are involved in your response to a government RFP? Your business development team (BD team) may include capture managers, marketing staff, proposal managers, proposal coordinators, editors, writers, subject matter experts, and graphic artists. But you have an extended team, who need to be well informed and integrated with the BD team to complete their support tasks easily and quickly.

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.