What it's like to start-up a proposal using Privia

Starting up a new proposal using Privia is highly automated. Where you would normally have to create a schedule, execute your process, create your folder structure, and give people access to it manually, Privia does much of the set-up and routing of these things for you.

With Privia all you do is select "New Opportunity" and select a template. The template brings with it the steps in your process and folder structure. Next you fill in some fields (most of which are optional) like the name of the opportunity, customer, due date, etc. Then enter the dates for your milestones. Next add the people who will be working on the proposal (they can be others at your company or outsiders like teaming partners, subcontractors, consultants, or other partners) and assign them their proposal roles. Finally, upload the RFP.

If your template is well designed, it will route files to people along with instructions so that they can get started on their assignments. When the authors log in, the notifications of their assignments, with the corresponding files and instructions, will be waiting for them in their Privia account. When the author completes the assignment, Privia will route it to the next person in the process. Privia will also automatically generate a Gantt chart view showing the deadlines for your milestones.

The downside to all this automation is that it works best if you have pre-configured Privia with the steps in your process. It's the sort of thing that should not be a problem --- you should already know the steps in your process. Many organizations, however, don't have their proposal processes formalized to the point where they can be written down, even though they would rather not admit it. Even if you can write down the steps in your process, is it adaptable enough? Will those steps be true for every proposal? Or when Privia prompts people to give each step a date, will some of the steps be "not applicable" to their particular proposal?

If you want to just start using Privia out of the box, you'll run into this issue. Privia comes with several out-of-the-box templates that are really quite good. However, they probably include steps that you don't normally follow (even if you should). You need to take the time to analyze and modify these templates to match your business processes before trying to use them. And that means you have to have your process formalized to the point where you can write down the steps with enough flexibility to accommodate all of your proposals. Once you have configured your process template and trained your people on it, setting up a new proposal in Privia will be a snap. The difficulties that you encounter getting started will have nothing to do with Privia, but rather everything to do with the difficulties of agreeing to and implementing a formal proposal process.

Once you've configured the process templates and you are ready to start a proposal in Privia, you should also know the schedule for the proposal and who will be working on it. Even if you don't know these things, you can still start anyway and modify them later. But it's better if you can load the template, provide the dates, and enter the people who will be completing the assignments right from the start. Like many things, it helps if you come prepared. Like many proposals, this may be wishful thinking…this is another case where the difficulties you run into will not be a result of the software, but rather of the difficulties of defining a proposal schedule and assignments.

Be careful what you wish for when implementing proposal software, you might just get it. Automation requires structure. And automating a broken process may only produce a broken result faster. It is only the human nature of the participants to blame the software rather than their own process for failure. If you are considering proposal software because the way you do proposals now is broken, no amount of software can save you. Introducing software may give you a vehicle to standardize your process, but if your organization does not have process discipline, the vehicle won't matter.

If, however, you are considering proposal software because you have a mature process in place and want to make it more efficient, you may be ready. If you can define a set of process milestones and have the discipline to apply them to all proposals, then you will find that Privia's tools for handling assignments and status reporting, are effective at improving consistency, increasing efficiency, and helping you do a better job of proposal development. Once you implement Privia, you will find that starting up a proposal is simply a matter of filling in some fields, some dates, and some assignments, and the software will aid you in doing the rest.