Data Entry Standards for Proposals

The Proposals application automates many steps in the proposal preparation process because it retrieves proposal data directly from the Info Center and inserts it into the proposal form. Proposals does not reformat or correct the data. It inserts data into the proposal exactly as it appears in the Info Center record.

This means that how your firm's staff enters data in the Info Center directly affects how that data displays in the finished proposal. By developing and adhering to a set of data entry standards, you can ensure that all of your Info Center data meets the criteria you require for your proposal text, and you can eliminate the need to modify data after you have inserted it into a proposal.

Changing or manipulating data after it has been inserted into a proposal form does not update or reformat data in the Info Center.

To ensure that your company's Vision data is suitable for use in a proposal, follow these guidelines.

• Establish a company-wide style for each data type. This ensures that all staff members enter data in the same way. Inconsistencies can arise because, for example, the accounting staff and the marketing staff each create or update Client, Contact, or Vendor Info Center records and enter data differently.

  The company-wide style could instruct employees to enter telephone numbers in a specific phone format, such as XXX.XXX.XXXX or (XXX) XXX-XXXX. It can instruct employees to always spell out addresses and company names without abbreviations so that complete names and addresses display on proposals.

• Because current information is important, Deltek recommends establishing a company-wide process for keeping data current. If you must manually correct or update data when preparing a proposal, note the changes and be sure to correct or update the data in the appropriate Info Center record.

• If your firm uses the 254/255/330 Proposal application, you must set up Proposal Firms beforehand. Be sure to set standards for setting up Proposal Firms so that the data in these records is consistent.

• When you receive a Request for Proposal (RFP), review it immediately to verify that you have all the data, templates, graphics, narratives, and resume information you need. If the RFP states that responses must follow a specific format, review your company's merge templates to determine whether or not you must modify them.

• Whether you plan to use existing or modified merge templates, test them before you use them.

• Resumes focus on the person's job experience. Be sure that each employee is listed on the Team tab in the Projects Info Center for each project that you want to include on his or her resume. If you are creating resumes by category, verify that each employee's category narratives are complete and current.

• Vision's SF254/SF255 and Custom Proposals applications draw your company's project experience data from the Project Info Center, not the Opportunity Info Center. Look at the Project Info Center record for each project you want to use, to confirm that it contains the information requested and that all data is accurate. Review project descriptions and other narratives.

• If you create an SF330 proposal from an opportunity, Vision populates the proposal form with data from the selected Opportunity Info Center record. Review and modify your opportunity records before you use them to create SF330 proposals.

• In the Project Info Center, only the Primary Client can be marked Confidential.

  If another Client is listed as the Owner on the Clients/Contacts tab, they appear as the Owner in Blocks 8 and 9 of a 255 Proposal.