Thales and Bid Metrics
Bid Metrics commenced our engagement in 2007 with Land and Joint Systems Thales Australia through a circuitous route. Thales had purchased Australian Defence Industries (ADI) - a fully Australian-government owned defence manufacturer with a long and potted history in the Australian defence space. The company’s favoured status as a government contractor was coming to an end and international competition was closing in. And their capture record in the new world was poor.
The original intention was to review the Bids and Proposals process but after one discussion it was determined that this was less of a priority than the Capture and Develop Opportunities. Legacy practices bore no resemblance to Thales global processes so our scope was defined to focus on this as a matter of urgency.
Overview
BMI was engaged by the Joint Systems Business Group of Thales Australia to assist in finessing existing processes into alliance with Thales global processes: CHORUS. The scope of BMI’s role related to activities undertaken within the ‘Manage Customer Account’ with the commencement point being the Capture and Develop Opportunities process. Over 7 months BMI analysed current practices, defined a gap between these and CHORUS and recommended solutions to meet the gap. We then assisted in implementing these recommendations.
Objectives
- Formalise a Thales Australia Joint Systems Business Group Capture and Develop Opportunities process that improves P1 and P2 scores and focusses all participants on wealth generation.
- Re-invigorate the process to ensure a customer focus is maintained throughout the Manage Customer Account life-cycle
- Ensure the capture of customer activity and history from Market Analysis through to Project Implementation
What We Did
- Familiarisation with Thales University, Thales Australia and Thales L&J pursuit processes and tools.
- Familiarisation with Thales Australia JS Capture and Develop Opportunities process and CHORUS including identification of relevant policies, strategies, frameworks, manuals, plans and procedures and forms.
- Familiarisation with business units within JS and understanding of and alignment with concurrent organisational initiatives.
- Conduct a data gathering exercise with key stakeholders to capture local Capture and Develop Opportunities processes, tools and forms and align them with the Chorus Framework.
- Define outcomes for the process including working with QA to ensure compliance with documentation and reporting/evidence requirements.
- Document processes where required
- In consultation with Thales resources, develop a communications strategy including key messages, and brand and thread these through the processes.
- After acceptance of draft processes, define an acceptance framework for processes within a trial group, gather user feedback and customise processes accordingly.