SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Innovations Research Phase I project will develop and demonstrate the feasibility of an electronic architecture that supports the processes associated with an RFP life cycle. An RFP life cycle begins with the development of an RFP, progresses through an analysis of resultant proposals, and continues beyond the contract award. The resulting new architecture, called PASAPS, will enable computer supported collaborative work amongst many organizationally and geographically diverse entities involved in the RFP life cycle. PASAPS will help to reduce inconsistencies and inefficiencies that currently exist due to several complex factors. The proposed approach integrates strong security with an SGML tagging system and with emerging Web technologies to allow for collaborative authoring, review, and approval of RFPs as well as analysis and comparison of proposals. As the users and processes change during the RAP life cycle, the PASAPs architecture will change to meet the needs of the users. The proposed approach will rely heavily on existing technologies and products in order to meet compatibility and affordability requirements. The overall goal is to improve the quality of RFPs and consistence of proposal analysis. PSAPS will help to achieve this goal in a cost effective and responsive manner.

Keywords:
CSCW RFP SGML Web Analysis Authoring Collaboration Proposal

For large Air Force acquisitions, complex Requests for Proposals (RFPs) are developed and the resulting proposals evaluated. Processing these documents is difficult and time consuming. The PreAwrd Systems Acquisition Processsing System (PASAPS) will streamline the RFP lifecycle by providing tools that capture and use knowledge from dispersed authors, reviewers,and evaluators. Through proven client-server and emerging Standardization General Markup Language (SGML) technologies, PASAPS will permit Air Force personnel to create documents containing internal structure. Document Type Definitions (DTDs) will define structure for RFPs and other documents. Capturing realationsips and meta-information within documents will result in more coherent RFPs and consistent, defensible evaluations. During Phase I, Frontline Solutions developed PASAPS requirements and verified feasiblity of using SGML and a distributed architecture. During Phase II, three development cycles will result in a prototype, pilot and fieldable system product. Frontline Solutions has substantial experience using this development process to ensure user acceptance. PASAPS will improve efficiency and facilitate process improvements because internal associations within RFPs will be easlily accessible. PASAPS will be the basis for a commercial product which provides large document lifecycle support. The initial commercial product will target complex legal contracting.