Twittering along

6/17/2009

Posted by Jon
Vic, my wife, has recently taken to using Twitter, currently very much the ‘in’ thing amongst her circle of friends.

For those of you not in the know, Twitterers (twits?) send short text messages from their phones to the website, describing what they’re up to at any given moment in time. Frankly, I don’t really get it: I can survive without knowing what folks are up to on a hour-by-hour basis.

Yet it has provoked me to ponder the potential of this and other technologies to help when developing proposals. With the right security, it might really cool if all of those working on a proposal team had a window in the corner of their PC, in which messages popped up at regular intervals from others on the team. (”Just heard from the customer that…”; “Don’t forget to…”; “Anyone know how…”; “I’ve just had a good idea…”).

Twittering? Instant messaging? A blog open to all those working on the deal? Anyone out there already using these or other collaborative technologies to share information quickly between the members of the team working on a proposal?

10 Comments

matt

3/25/2016 05:22:20 pm

I’ve certainly used IM clients for just that kind of thing. It’s especially useful when the team are scattered across different locations/offices.

Currently we use MS Sharepoint to store the working version of the document. Lots of people have read access, so they can review the latest version and provide feedback, but only a select few can upload those revisions. Sharepoint can also “ping” alerts to folks when, for example, a new version is uploaded so they can take another look…

Graham Ablett

3/25/2016 05:22:29 pm

Hi Matt
Interesting to see your comments to Jon’s blog entry. I think that there’s definitely room for a cool tool that incorporates a doc repository, messaging and best practice hints and tips to guide the proposal team through the process. I’m not sure that there is one tool that combines all of this functionality at the moment, designed specifically for use on proposals. What do you think about the idea?
Graham

matt

3/25/2016 05:22:42 pm

Good question ! I’ve seen proposal gereration tools where you kind of check some boxes and it sucks boilerplate text from a repository to create a first draft, but wasn’t greatly impressed. As we all know, in order to succeed, a proposal should be a bespoke document – even if created from some “standard” building blocks and customised.

The more I use it, the more I like Sharepoint. The pretty seamless integration with Word, Excel & Outlook (that we pretty much all use anyway) that you get from it being MS mean that we can get all benefits of a repository (so long as it’s set up so one can search effectively) and “work room” layered on top of tools we already use, rather than a whole systems.

Like Barbara, I believe that the more we can get whatever systems we use to assist us, the more time we can spend actually focussing on creating winning proposals, rather than searching for text you know you’ve written before, making sure you request and collect the input / comment from appropriate folks, and all the other stuff that seems to take so long…

Maurice

3/25/2016 05:23:02 pm

We’re using Yammer internally. Yammer is like Twitter for corporate environments.

Barbara Esmedina

3/25/2016 05:23:12 pm

We also use Sharepoint, we have a lot of programmers so our Sharepoint portals are pretty sophisticated. There are individual portals for different departments and projects. We can collaborate, leave notes and messages that are sent to those that subscribe, generate complex reports, automatically log and track entries, lots of features including an extensive library of attachments used in RFPs. We are a small (500 employees) company that completes with very large companies, so we try to automate everything we can.

matt

3/25/2016 05:23:23 pm

The other thing, of course, about Twitter is the potential issue of “mixing of business with pleasure”. I do have a Twitter account, and aFacebook one, but keep these for non-work related contacts and “chatter”, work stuff “lives” on LinkedIn. There’s certainly been a lot written about this topic, and I don’t really feel the need for all my business contacts to know my trivial tweets (nor do I want them to, actually). I suppose one could have multiple accounts, but that would complicate things.

Finally, while I’m sure many of us work remotely and may not be subject to the restrictions of being on a corporate internet connection, many companies block access to such sites, preventing their use…

Jeff Elkins

3/25/2016 05:23:32 pm

[Warning: Topic Drift] I also had to choose which social networking outlets were for work and for play, and agree with your assessment of Facebook vs. Linkdin. But while I /often/ tweet trivial things, I try to maintain a professional persona on Twitter and save the beer-drinking-frat-party pictures for Facebook (totally joking, for those who don’t know me – there are no pictures :-). My brother, a social networking expert, says that it’s all related, however. Stories abound about people who have lost jobs because of Facebook. And Bozeman, Montana received some attention recently for their job requirements – they want the passwords to all of your social media sites! Story here: http://tr.im/p9MP

Barbara Esmedina

3/25/2016 05:23:43 pm

We also use an automated tool like that Matt mentioned, that uses a dialog box of options to create a first draft for proposals (not RFPs). They are SmartDocs and the one I designed is pretty sophisticated. Our sales people have support for RFPs, but were expected to do proposals on their own. They are not writers and do not have the software skills to turn out a polished document. Our SmartDoc allows them to choose any combination of products, with options to include a cover letter and executive summary. In a few seconds it spits out a beautifully formatted document with cover letter, cover, TOC, illustrations, pricing, and it reads as a hhighly personalized document. Much better than what they were trying to produce on their own. It is possible to do certain documents this way and get very good results. Depends on the skill of the person designing the document. This also lets the sales people and proposal writers focus their efforts on the things they do best.

Jeff Elkins

3/25/2016 05:23:55 pm

I was drawn to Twitter by industry colleagues, so began my tweeting life there on the “work” side of my online interaction. I found that it can be used a number of different ways, and can be an excellent tool for professional education and networking. I recently blogged about the benefits of Twitter for busy people: http://tr.im/mkCF

As an independent consultant I am often reduced to using email as the only collaboration tool! I also love Sharepoint, but the preponderance of FREE social-media programs like Twitter, Biznik, and Ning.com (a recent discovery for me, and I’m already in love with the possibilities) that include chat, discussion forums, shared resources and workspaces, etc., will actually make digital collaboration second-nature among new members of the workforce, and will greatly reduce ramp-up time when building virtual teams.

Rita Palanjian

3/25/2016 05:24:10 pm

@JeffElkins – thanks for the article. Looks really good.

I’m addicted to tweeting. I use it for both personal and professional use. It’s amazing how many doors open up in your knowledge management. However, I would not recommend tweeting for proposal teams; it could be a disaster if a key message was to get out to all team members and few didn’t see or respond to a tweet.

I do like instant messaging for proposal teams, however, that wouldn’t work effectively if half the team is traveling or at not at their PC’s. I like social networking sites and technology… I have used SN collaboration tools for my proposal teams, and have been somewhat successful.

I think the key job relies on the Prop Mgr. or Bid Mgr. in getting the buy-in of the team. He/she needs to invest the time to lead by example, teach, and encourage those people that don’t want to get on the bandwagon.

Is it worth my energy – YES. Social networking is not going away anytime soon. And it is the collaboration platform going forward.

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BJ Lownie and Jon Williams are the co-founders of Strategic Proposals.

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