Government contractors face a set of unique challenges due to the nature of their work. The main challenges can be identified as the time and efforts that go into finding work, the need to comply with guidelines that can differ from one government agency to another, and the sometimes challenging relations that exist between competitors that can end up working together as a contractor and subcontractor on the same project.
Most government contractors can benefit from using the right solution to manage the entire contract life cycle, from the moment an opportunity is identified to the moment a project is completed. Unfortunately, most business solutions are not tailored to the unique challenges of government contractors. This is why it is important to select a comprehensive and industry-specific government contract life cycle management solution.
Tracking a project from the moment the opportunity is identified boosts win rates. Gathering information on proposals and results could help you improve the way you build proposals and also allow you to identify the best opportunities in function of the projects you have won in the past.
Data might also show that a specific project is not worth pursuing because the profit margin would be too small. However, you would not be able to make an informed decision without the right contract life cycle management tool.
Overall, using a contract management tool would make your organization more flexible, more efficient and improve your margins.
What should you look for in a contract life cycle management solution?
The right contract life cycle management solution should be comprehensive and flexible. Here are some of the features you should look for:
- Integration into market intelligence tools to gain insight into current contract opportunities.
- Built-in tools to manage new opportunities your business plans to pursue, with an ability to manage the proposal and bidding process.
- Relationship management features so you can easily communicate with suppliers, partners and subcontractors.
- Tracking of all your current business activities, including your active proposals and active contracts besides being able to track every task performed in the context of your active contracts.
- Integration with the other tools you need, such as your calendar, your email, Microsoft Office or your data backup solution.
- Visual data features so you can easily get an overview of your current activities, review activities over a period of time and understand your performances at a glance.
- Advanced security features since you might have to work with sensitive data. The right solution should use encrypting or allow you to grant access to sensitive data only to users who need this information.
- Compliance is another thing to look for since everything you do as a government contractor has to be in accordance with the guidelines set by government agencies. This includes how you build your proposal or keep your accounting records just to cite a few examples.
Choosing the right management solution
Look for a contract life cycle management solution built with government contractors in mind since compliance, relations with partners and the need to track opportunities and access market intelligence are unique to your industry. You should also look for a system that is designed to grow with your business as you get more contracts.
In the end, the perfect government contract life cycle management solution can help you make better bid or no bid decisions, manage your projects and your projects more efficiently, get more contracts and more importantly, achieve better profit margins.
Get a closer look at JAMIS Prime’s CRM solution, fully integrated into its Cloud ERP system, giving growing businesses a seamless solution to help win more business, gain more visibility into key business intelligence insights, and take control of the contract lifecycle.
