It all starts with a Request for Proposal (RFP) from the Government.
RFPs come in many formats and in many different styles. To ensure
compliance, the first task of a Proposal Manager is to break the RFP
down into individual requirements that flow across multiple sections
of the RFP. The best way to do this is to actually cut and paste each
individual requirement into a new document that can then be mapped
to individual paragraph headings for your proposal.
Many times a single Paragraph Heading in a proposal will have to
consider instructions from Section L, Evaluation Criteria from Section
M, and Contract Requirements from Section C of the RFP. There
may also be other information from other Sections of the RFP that
must be considered when writing a certain paragraph of the
proposal. The Proposal Team may also have certain points that they
want to make in each paragraph.
The Proposal Manager Challenge
Experienced Proposal Managers will create some form of a
Compliance Matrix or Annotated Outline prior to starting to write. To do this, they need each line taken out of the RFP and
placed in an easy to use document. The process of taking the text
out of the RFP and breaking it down into individual requirements is
called parsing. Some companies refer to this process as Shredding,
Stripping, or Bursting. After the requirements are taken out of the
RFP, the Proposal Manager can then easily work with them. But it is
a time-consuming and tedious task that is needed to be performed at
the most critical and hectic time during the Proposal Process. The
Proposal Manager has many other duties to perform at this time. It
doesn’t make logical sense to have them cutting and pasting or
typing requirements into a useable document.
The Proposal Geek Solution
Our team uses automated tools to help move the text out of the RFP into a
useable Excel Worksheet. These worksheets are part of our Proposal Analysis and
Planning System. As soon as an RFP is released by the Government, someone on
your team uploads the RFP to our website. Our team is notified immediately and
we begin the tedious task of parsing the RFP into the Excel worksheet for you.
We also number each RFP requirement with the full reference number which
improves communication with the team and helps with the Proposal Paragraph
numbering process. We highlight key words in the proposal such as Shall, Must,
Describe, etc. to ensure every little requirement is easily recognized by the
Proposal Manager. This service is performed in less than 24 hours so that on day
two after the RFP release the Proposal Manager can start using the parsed text
to help them develop the Proposal Outline, Populated Storyboards, Compliance
Matrices, and Writer Instruction Documents.
Our team uses seven different Quality Checks and has another member of the team
do a visual quality check of the work before the worksheet is turned back to the
Proposal Manager. This process frees up the Proposal Manager’s time on the first
day to simply reading and highlighting the RFP. By day two, they are ready to
start mapping all the requirements to individual Paragraph Headings.
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RFP Parsing Service Rates
Parsing is priced according to the number of
pages to be parsed. The typical Sections of
the RFP that will be parsed are Sections C, L,
and M. If you would like additional sections
parsed, please let us know.
Number of Pages |
Rate |
1 to 10 |
$100 |
11 to 25 |
$250 |
26 to 50 |
$475 |
51 to 75 |
$675 |
(average) 76 to 100 |
$850 |
Sets of 25 over 100: |
additional $125 |
Typical proposals are completed within 24
hours. Proposals between 100 and 200 pages
are completed within 48 hours. Time quotes will
be given for proposals over 200 pages.
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