Working on Workers Day

Time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana. I blinked and 6 months flew by on my broomstick. Christmas came and New Year went. The Easter bunny hopped, the tooth fairy did her stuff and April fooled none of us. And yet, the more things change the more they stay the same. Here I am, working on workers day - if you can call writing work.

Yet, life in the proposal world still rocks. nFold's clients won some big bids lately. One of the deals in the banking industry involved the transfer of 738 people with zero jobs lost. nFold helped our client to turn around a likely loss into a winning bid.

“You went the extra mile. Big bidding is a specialized field and without expertise in this area you setting yourself up for failure - in any battle you need a strong team. I would prefer to have you on my team than my competitors.”

So the mood of celebration is in the air. Bring on more big bids and we'll be ready to sparkle!

Talking about sparkling, nFold recently hosted an event to announce the results of a sales execution survey and launch the latest release of Qvidian proposal automation. As autumn blossoms in SA, the spring release from Qvidian in the US promises even more time saved with a brand new interface that's even easier to use. Come along to our online demos and live lab session in the coming weeks to learn more. Be there or be square. Click on one of these links to register...

Online Demos:

Thursday 15 May 07h30 – http://nfold.celebrations.com/QvidianOnlineDemo1

Tuesday 20 May 12h00 – http://nfold.celebrations.com/QvidianOnlineDemo2

Wednesday 28 May 16h00 - http://nfold.celebrations.com/QvidianOnlineDemo3

 

Live Lab at nFold Office:

Wednesday 4 June 13h30 - http://nfold.celebrations.com/QvidianLiveLab

Sandy got her beach fix last week but she left me behind. How rude! I do hope she lets me out to play again sometime soon. The local APMP chapter is hosting an all Africa round table event on 13 May at Aurecon's offices in Pretoria. Maybe if she takes me along I'll be adopted into a bid team again. Who knows, I might even get to go on an African safari. Watch this space while I brew my magic.

SPACE

Okay you can stop watching the space and come back again later. Still working on getting out of this pesky box. I seriously need a new wand or some more newts for the potion. Bye for now.

On top of the world

I recently flew to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro with one of nFold's best proposal champions, KK Diaz of Rekopane.biz. What a lovely young man! And so clever too.

KK decided to treat his climb as a business venture and create a documentary about the experience to inspire other entrepreneurs to succeed. Now that's the kind of project that nFold is proud to support. Sandy spent some time on candid camera to explain proposal basics. And nFold made our first ever cash donation to the project. In the past, we've donated our time to worthy projects like this, but at last we can afford to put some money towards growing the future. Keep on walking KK.

Meanwhile, back at the proverbial ranch, Team nFold continues to sparkle. Dheshnee, Graham and Janet all passed their APMP Foundation exam this week, bringing the total number of bid network members to achieve this global badge of honour to 14 of the 30 consultants in our network and almost one fifth of the total in SA. Plus, Sandy Pullinger has now trained 37% of all local members certified at foundation level and ALL of them passed. WOW!!! I stand on my broomstick amazed. Onward and upward. Sandy tells me she's decided that nFold people sparkle. And if they don't sparkle then they're probably not nFold people.

 

As we gallop towards the end of the year, nFold has planned so spend a day at the pool in early December to celebrate a big year. We're growing fast and have the scars to prove it. Rather than buying tacky gifts for our top customers, our plan for year-end is to pack a Santa's shoebox for each of them, take a photo and make a beautiful card for each one. Shhhhhhhhh! Don't spoil the surprise.

 

Maybe you want to put a smile on a poor child's face too this year. If you want to join the fun, be sure to pledge a shoebox here: http://site.santashoebox.co.za/. There are 100,000 kids in the mix and almost 7,000 still without a shoebox. Show you care. I know we do.  

You can teach an old dog new tricks!

It’s always a good thing when you get a chance to visit an old friend that you haven’t seen in a while.  So what a treat when I got a surprise invitation to visit Scylla Gardiner at her new home-away-from-home, Paracon.  I flew in and parked my broomstick next door in the Nicolway shopping centre. Handy, very handy!

Scylla tells me she joined Paracon (part of the Adcorp group) in February this year to formalise a bid management function for the company and several of its subsidiaries.She's been learning a heap of new tricks, even if she seems to be quite a young rascal.

So, there we were, sitting chatting about the challenges (and fun) of setting up processes, creating new proposal templates and guidelines, getting to know many new brands and the general excitement of starting something new when all of a sudden Scylla pulled a rather strange face…

Why the face, you may ask yourself? I know I did! The realisation had suddenly hit Scylla that, even though she’s been in the proposal writing game since before the continents drifted apart (I personally didn’t realise she was THAT old), she is still learning something new about bids and proposals every day. I assured her that this is a very good thing and I’m sure you would all agree. That put her mind and her face at rest.

After the four compulsory cups of ‘bid management fuel’ (also known as coffee) and lots of talk about concentrating on improving both proposal quality and our own skills in the proposal profession, I had to unfortunately take wing.  Us witches have quite the social calendar. Until the next time...let’s remember to keep on learning those new tricks. Woof!  Wag! Pant!

Flying off the handle

I'm not angry, but I literally flew off the handle of a camera stand at the Executive Summaries master class that nFold hosted in February. Here I am with global proposal star Jon Williams who presented the session. Glowing praise flew in as fast as my broomstick.

"The energy was great. Content was relevant and plain excellent."
"Straight to the point.  Lots of passion."
"Jon was fantastic. Content was relevant."

Jon taught us all about the role of executive summaries, how to structure a good one, and touched on the sections of proposal related to the executive summary. He used some great examples and stories to bring the show to life. If the executive summaries in your company suck, it's a pity you missed out on this one.

nFold really made the most of Jon's time in sunny SA. He presented on the topic of "Auditing Proposal Quality" to the local chapter of APMP. The benchmarking technique he showed us is easy to implement and very effective.

Jon also mentored Sandy to become an accredited trainer for APMP Foundation level under the banner of Strategic Proposals. 6 more people passed the foundation exam, bringing the total number of local APMP members to achieve this globally recognized standard, up to more than 50.

Jon had lunch with a bunch of people from the nFold bid network before heading back to snowy London. Brrr! I bet he misses the sunshine.

And now for something completely different, to quote Monty Python. I haven't seen much of Sandy or Theresa lately. They've been up to all sorts of mischief. nFold has projects waltzing in so quickly that Johan Strauss would have a hard time keeping up with them. They were even too busy to move into new offices. So I never got a chance to paint those walls. Sigh. Maybe sometime soon...

I finally caught up with Sandy helping new customers use Qvidian. She took me along to her latest Qvidian training session. Here I am, getting up close and personal with some of the delegates. I bet their proposals are whizzing out of Qvidian as fast as you can say Wendy Word.

Ha Ha Ho Ho Hee Hee Hee

'Tis the season to be jolly and the laughter of the man in the red suit is rather catching. Fa la la la la. I've been twirling around on my broomstick at high speed for a few weeks, spreading proposal magic here and there. And now it's time to celebrate not only the end of the year but our glorious successes. Bring on the bubbly!


In October, Sapphire Logistics won a bid to provide fulfilment services to one of the largest oil companies in South Africa. nFold was given a proposal to check and transform over a weekend in August. We improved the readability statistics, edited the executive summary and enhanced the layout within less than a week. “There is no doubt that a large part of our success was a result of nFold’s ability to turn a good proposal into an incredible proposal. Thank you for your amazing work on such a tight time line. The final result was even better than expected.”, said Graham Wooding, MD of Sapphire Logistics.

Another reason to celebrate, is that Jon Williams, Proposal Star Supreme, will be visiting South Africa in 2013. Jon has worked live proposals with many big companies in countries around the world. Anyone who saw his keynote address at our first ever local APMP conference in 2010 will remember Jon's quirky British humour, charisma as a presenter and his experience in both procurement and proposals. I do hope he brings my friend Proposal Panda to visit us again. He eats shoots and leaves but is great company all the same.

Check out this Youtube video of Jon in action in 2010 and watch this space about his 2013 visit:

http://youtu.be/gslDcKi6hs8

Last but not least, nFold has had such a great year that we're ready to move into a bigger office. One small step for nFold, one giant leap for proposal magic. All our systems bounce around in the clouds, so the move will be more virtual than physical. But do take note of nFold's new switchboard number: +27-10-125-0123. And make a point of popping in for a quick potion as soon as we've settled into our new digs. I'll be painting the walls bright colours. Let me know if you can think of better colours than azure, chartreuse and tangerine. I bought some rainbow stockings to match. Watcha think?

Last chance saloon

Next week I will be making a guest appearance at the third annual APMP conference in SA. All proposal and sales and new business development people eager for my autograph - oh and to "Raise your Game" - must register this week. You snooze you lose! You're in the last chance saloon...click here to book now: events@apmp.org.za. Spread the word like wild-fire by bush telegraph before it's too late.

Neil Philipson, with one 'l', is the current chair person of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals in sunny South Africa. He's SO excited about the line-up. Here I am looking over his shoulder while he shares the programme with me on his zooty ipad. Doesn't he look excited?

Other than my distinguished and humble self, there will be no less than TWO international guest speakers. Rick Harris, executive director of APMP international, will be making the keynote address. He has oodles of global business development experience. Chris Kaelin from Switzerland will be yodelling too - all about putting the sizzle back into proposals. But wait, there's more. For a copy of the programme, visit www.apmp.org.za. The conference is cheaper for members - at only slightly more than the cost of a meal for 2 with wine at a local restaurant, it's a positive steal. To check out the calibre of previous international guest speakers, click here to find out some more great reasons to become a member of the APMP: Colleen Jolly and Jon Williams promote APMP Membership at 1st APMP SA Conference.

Neil says Theresa Monoyoudis has been the key driver behind the conference. I overheard her make no less than 90 phonecalls last week to check up on members and to promote the conference. In the last few weeks she only flew off the broom handle once while knocking off all the items on the lengthy 'to do' list to make such a great conference happen. But luckily I wasn't to blame for the mishap. Close shave! And within minutes Theresa the cheer leader was her usual enthusiastic self. Go T Go!


Neil has no reason to climb the walls about the conference. But he has a day job at PDNA that makes him responsible for winning engineering projects worth billions. So there are never enough hours in a day. Since he handles it all without breaking a sweat, I decide to climb the walls for him. Or does it look as though he's encouraging me to fly off the handle? What do you think?

Hakuna Matata

I spent the last few months as a silent observer in the Vodacom bid management office. While I had coffee with their team this morning, the words made famous by the Lion King came to mind: "Hakuna Matata...it means no worries." What a wonderful phrase indeed. I have decided that is now my new life motto.

This ICT procurement business is quite complicated. With all sorts of requirements from sms bundles to providing entire communication solutions for customers, the life of a bid specialist is chaos, just chaos I tell you. Although at Vodacom the chaos seemed quite organised.


Here I am, lying on my back under a proposal file, hiding while the Vodacom proposal team independently go about doing what they do best.

So what have I learnt here? Zen and the art of proposal management. Here are the top 8 ways of finding your ‘hakuna matata’:


1. Bring your jovial presence to the office before you forget you have it. Walk in singing or telling a knock knock joke.

2. Have regular coffee sessions as a team to talk about absolutely nothing in particular but everything at the same time, a conversation may come in handy at same point.

3. Always have an emergency proposal kit. Flu medicine, vitamins and shifty looking regmaakers pumped with caffeine.

4. Create a wrestling tag team, tap them in when necessary.

5. Find time to eat and drink.

6. Ask for help, you never know how many people are willing to jumpstart your car.

7. Keep true to your objectives in your life, your career. Don’t get your priorities twisted.

8. And my personal favourite; when in doubt say a spell or two! You just never know…

And there you have it. As a proposal manager, remember there are no problems just ways to deal with life. The bid specialists at Vodacom remember this. And look how relaxed they seem.

The Road to Hell

My plan to write more blogs didn't happen in 2011. And it's a bit late for new year's resolutions in March 2012, don't you think? They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I suppose I'm on my way there with Chris Rea. But then, as a witch, maybe that's where I was headed anyway.

I'm sure you're bursting with curiosity to know what I've been doing on my proposal journey since visiting Colleen in Washington. Well, it all began with an evil cat.

I visited Kirste Webb in the US. She planned to take me to Tennessee and Maryland . It's all a blur. One day I was watching her work, when her cat mistook me for a mouse. I soon showed him not to mess with me and my broomstick.

Kirste introduced me to Beth Wingate before the US conference of the APMP. I helped Beth to stuff bags for the conference. I made sure there were a few spiders in them.

Beth then gave me to Inas Younis from Egypt. She took me home on a magic carpet. At last I was back in Jozie, after 6 months away. I was delighted to find that in my absence, nFold was recognized by Strategic Proposals as Partner of the Year for 2010. I was devastated that Proposal Panda got to pose with my nFold family for the photo instead of me.

Panda had just been to visit Aurecon. Their team won the first ever nFold Proposal Award in South Africa. Here's a happy snap of Sonja Jansen Van Resnburg from Aurecon, accepting the award from my hero, Dr. Tom Sant. It was a pleasure to meet such a proposal guru. My knees wobbled when I took the photo.

Tom spoke at the 2nd local APMP conference in 2011, was a judge for the first proposal award, he did some exec sessions and he told more than 250 sales people how NOT to commit the 7 deadly sins of proposal writing. Then he had a little holiday in the sun. I hope he visits us again soon.

nFold celebrated 10 years in proposal pioneering with some special customers. What a milestone! Keep rocking nFold.

A whole lot more happened in 2011 and 2012 started off with a jolly loud bang. But I was inside my box napping at the time. And that's where I'm going now. See you next time. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Welcome Wendy Word

I’m a proposal pioneer and the official mascot of nFold in South Africa. My name is Wendy Word and I apply my magic skills to proposals that win you business. Join me on my journey in search of proposal excellence. My best friend is Sandy Pullinger and you can contact her at sandy@nfold.com if you want me to visit you, or if I get lost on my journey. I can’t wait to meet you and your team. Here you see how excited I am by the speed at which I’m flying around the room. There was no full moon available.