Data Entry Standards for Proposals

The Proposals application automates many steps in the proposal process because it retrieves data directly from the Info Center and inserts it into the proposal form.

The Proposals application 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 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 that 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 records in the Info Center 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 that you establish a company-wide process for keeping data current. If you must manually correct or update data when you prepare 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 first set up Proposal Firms. Be sure to establish 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 that 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 need to modify them.
• Whether you plan to use existing merge templates 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 Project Info Center for each project that you want to include on his or her resume. When you create resumes by category, verify that each employee's category narratives are complete and current.
• The 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 that 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 an SF255 Proposal.