With the growth of private label brands, CPG manufacturers are often called upon to respond to a bid request. Companies that respond fastest, with the most complete, accurate and attractive offer gain significant advantage. Yet rarely is the bidding process simple, and the response process consumes considerable time and energy. To reduce this expenditure, improve accuracy and increase the odds of success, better control of the response process must be achieved.

Some common issues are:

• COMPLEXITY - Due to increasing product complexity and changing regulatory requirements, RFP responses are more complex and detailed than ever before. Manually assembling all the necessary information is a lengthy and highly error-prone process.
• INEFFICIENT COLLABORATION - Without an environment for collaboration, developing response specifics can be very time consuming. Collaboration tools often incorporate complex interfaces which lock-out all but specialists, limiting or slowing valuable input from sales, marketing, manufacturing, and suppliers.
• ISOLATED TECHNOLOGY - The information required to generate a response almost always resides in multiple systems that aren't linked or synchronized, so information retrieval is slow and users are never sure which version is most accurate. Generation of the final proposal often involves manual re-keying resulting in increased risk of error and reduced productivity of highly skilled knowledge workers.

Dramatic improvement in bidding process efficiency is possible when the following strategies are applied:

1. Establish a central knowledge base to manage all product lifecycle related information.
2. Use role-based interfaces and templates to make it easy to gather, organize and validate response information through automated workflows to internal and external participants.
3. Integrate the knowledge base with enterprise applications, such as ERP/MRP systems, and desktop applications, such as Microsoft Word and Excel, in order to automatically generate proposal responses using pre-defined templates.
4. Track and monitor processes to develop best practices.

The benefits of taking this approach include:

• FASTER RESPONSE TIME - RFP information can be gathered, organized, and packaged into presentation format far more quickly.
• REDUCED ERRORS - No need for manual re-keying as all information is moved electronically.
• INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY - Less time required of knowledge workers to complete a bid response.
• ENHANCED CREDIBILITY - Customers have greater confidence when responses are fast, complete and accurate.

Lascom CPG has been deployed by CPG manufacturers to substantially improve their bidding processes. Lascom CPG's automated workflow engine enables enterprise collaboration and maximizes process efficiency. Everyone involved in the process can quickly and accurately access key information and participate in the process. Management has an unparalleled opportunity to monitor the process and develop best practices.