Web 3.0 and the Virtual Proposal Manager, part 2

Web 3.0 and the Virtual Proposal Manager, part 2
from the Government Business Examiner, Donna L. Quesinberry

Meeting planning, an active component of the proposal management experience, encompasses the virtual scheme. Remote workers (even if a proposal shop is available on-site at a client location) are showing up everywhere and they aren’t going to go away. When a proposal manager is on-site, typically three-fourths of their team are on travel.

So just what is the Virtual Proposal Management office? Comprised of home offices, remote offices, loosely associated workspaces (that may include home, office, remote offices and hotel rooms) and cloud computing – the virtual office is anywhere and everywhere simultaneously. With technological advances what they are – the VW Proposal Manager can respond to team issues continuously. This equates to savings because the VW Proposal Manager achieves end results faster, better and more often than not cheaper than their on-site alternative.

Will the Virtual Proposal Manager and their team produce without the oversight of Senior Executives pressuring them to work harder and longer? Statistics say that VW’s actually produce more, with higher proficiency, than on-site personnel. Generally, more aligned to the newest technological trends, VW’s are tech-savvy experts with the latest and greatest gadgets and trend recognition of cloud computing and Web Semantics. These are often the whiz kids of the environment – no matter their physical age. Another proactive factor – the bias of age and human resources is removed. With over twenty percent of VWs being more productive – demographics of age are surprising and beauty isn’t a hiring consideration. Scheduling for Virtual Proposal Managers is fluid and involves peak performance times rather than corporate or traditional performance times. Each human being is different and while Jim may be most productive at 3 p.m., Sarah may be most productive at 2 a.m.

What about teaming, proposal documentation, and face-to-face meetings? The neat ideal of the emergence of the 3.0 Connectivism is that personal meetings can still take place. Kick-off meetings and reviews can still be negotiated in on-site settings, while web cams and webinars allow for active views and responses in real-time. Documentation is easily versioned with check-out authorities in a shared portal relationship. This enhances oversight by providing time stamped automation for check-in and check-outs of documentation all easily reviewed remotely. The newest review processes can span a 24-hour time frame with check-out and feedback conducted as available and without adversely affecting other ongoing work. The VW is productive, proficient and knows his/her bottom-line equates to their responsiveness and performance. There’s no one forcing them to work – they have to answer to themselves – conversely if someone drops the ball, there’s no alternatives to who, what, when, where and why. The answers are transparent.

Virtual capture planning, business development and proposal solution oversight mean enhanced teaming requirements. Trust and ethics are the pabulum in the virtual arena. How do we know team mates don’t share our data – aside from secure shared portals and Intranet protocols? We know because we secure the appropriate documentation, reliability, respect, research and planning that is required to ensure standards and accountability. Safeguarding initiatives becomes our proposal team or shop motto. We become a greater workforce through greater self reliance and the reincorporation of social and professional mores.

The Virtual and Cloud Computing Connectivism and Partnering, involves scores of individuals with new and improved mindsets in as far as the conduct of professionalism. As stated earlier – some severely secure scenarios may require War Rooms with high-end security protocols – but the average solicitation and response doesn’t invoke the need for clandestine team associations. And, the ideal of securing future work – in the invirtual environment necessitates propriety because it results in awards and funding sources to continue work as a professional among Web 3.0 experts and that ‘is essential to their survival.’

The Virtual Proposal Manager is the Nex-Gen professional every company will determine to be a part of their team. Increasingly, the on-site and dedicated proposal shop; will become less and less productive or cost-effective. New efforts will continue to evolve into short burst presentations, where capture planning and business development will be more aligned to best practices for winning, which won’t involve the most intelligence, but– rather the best proposals based on limited information, capabilities to perform requirements and the embrasure of opportunistic bidding. As the competitive landscape morphs from office centric to cloud connectivity – the Virtual Proposal Manager will become the staple of every prospective contract awardee. With the cloud environment housing the future’s goal posts – the end game will be survival of the fittest and in the future – that will mean a virtuoso of Web 3.0 and the New Connectivism – not the “one” desk office environ with a traditional hierarchical reporting authority.

About the Author: Ms. Quesinberry, DonnaInk President, manages a Government (federal and state) and commercial consultancy; she is also a published technical non-fiction and fiction author; university courseware developer and instructor; and a recognized poetess among other pursuits. Donna has appeared on CNBC during the Anita Hill crisis and is a single mum of five wonderful adult children. DonnaInk is a small, woman-owned sole proprietorship, with over 18 years of professional expertise featuring high 90th percentile performance measurements and a 98% win ratio for multiple / diverse clients in 2007and 2008; 100% thus far in 2009.

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