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October 27, 2016

Under Pressure to Deliver: When Project Proposals Go Wrong

In this post, we'll talk about common mistakes we see system integrators make in project proposals.

a businessman at a table looking desperate

We work with a lot of system integrators, and have heard a lot of war stories on what it’s like to compete for and deliver on projects. One thing we’ve learned – it’s not for the faint hearted. The demands can be overwhelming.

Preparing detailed proposals and making sure they’re triple-checked before you send them to the customer…for the third time in a week!

Being ultra-responsive to all questions and information requests, no matter the time or day of the week.

And, of course, making sure your pricing is competitive, but that you have some wiggle room in case things start going sideways with the project.

We understand why it looks like some of you haven’t slept in days.

The pressure to deliver proposals that are detailed, accurate, and competitive – in short timelines – can lead to mistakes and incomplete information, which you can be on the hook for.

“Should we have added more buffer space between assembly and testing?”

“Did we include the new conveyors they requested in the budget?”

“Are we confident that ceiling isn’t too low for the robot cell?”

The bottom line is that this is an error prone process and it’s important for system integrators to deliver accurate proposals, so you don’t lose projects you should have won – or worse, you win a project you could never possibly deliver on.

Thankfully, there are solutions out there that can help you respond to proposals and information requests quickly and accurately, so you can be confident in what you deliver to prospective customers. In our next post, we’ll tell you more about how 3D factory simulation software can help.