APMP in the Defence and Space Sectors

Can you tell us about your background and your current role?

I'm working as a Business Development Manager and Bid Manager. Currently, I am responsible for the international sales of IT services to international organizations such as NATO, Frontex, European Union bodies, European Space Agency, as well to defence and space sector entities.

Can you describe your journey getting into Bid Management?

My journey to becoming a Bid Manager wasn't obvious. I graduated in International Economic Relations. During my studies, I was interested in defence-related affairs. At that time, I participated in many conferences and seminars on this issue. In fact, I wrote my thesis on the defence industry in the Russian Federation. During my studies I undertook internships in different types of defence bodies and had the pleasure of working in one of the NATO headquarters.

After graduation, I started my career in the defence industry as a Strategic Analyst, where I was responsible for the analysis of global defence market. During that period, I learned to recognize and estimate the value of international markets. At one point, I received an offer for a job in the IT sector, where a small group was being formed to handle business development for the defence market. It was a completely new market area for me, so I was happy to accept it.

Some projects take many years to deliver. How long, in your experience, can it take between initial invitation and the product going into service?

During one of the conferences, I heard a speech from a Silicon Valley representative: ‘if you want to do real business and have a high rate of return, do not carry out defence projects.’ This is a very true statement. To achieve success in the defence and aerospace sector it takes many years to develop a product or service; the defence sector certainly doesn't provide quick and high profits such as the civilian sector. But it is certainly a stable and solid sector, which provides growth for years.

The entry threshold to this sector is very high. Not every company is able to meet the formal requirements (e.g. security clearance) of Ministries of Defence, international institutions or space agencies. For IT services, this process is much shorter, ranging from 2 to 4 years.

During this period, it is necessary to build the company's awareness, forming a team, and gaining the client's confidence in its credibility and quality. Let us not forget about R&D projects for the defence and aerospace sectors. In both cases, especially in the space sector, the programmes or projects are carried out for several years or sometimes even decades. Thus, the bidding process is appropriately extended from a few months up to 1-2 years.

There are several acronyms: RFI, RFP. What is a typical process for your industry?

All these processes are applied in the defence and aerospace sectors. Request For Information (RFI) is most often used by contracting authorities who do not have fully specified requirements for the final solution. They look for already existing solutions on the market and tailor them to their own needs. After an RFI, the ordering party usually announces a Request for Proposal (RFP) where you have a race between black horses that are able to offer the most suitable product or service.

In your experience, how large are the teams when producing documentation and how is that process managed?

I can't give just one answer, because it all depends on the scope of the project.

I had the pleasure to prepare offers on my own due to their structure and scope did not require the participation of many people. Naturally, the offer was checked by a member of my company before sending. At the same time, I participated in the preparation of offers where several companies were members of the consortium and required the involvement of a large number of people. Among the members involved in the preparation of the offer were not only lawyers or finance specialists, but also IT system architects, programmers, SMEs from cloud solutions, and space technologies.

In total, it was the work of over 40 people. They had to be properly coordinated to meet the client's formal conditions and provide the technical part that met the request for proposal. Most of the responsibility fell on the primary contractor - the company I worked for - to ensure that the quality of the offer was at the highest level.

You recently passed the APMP Foundation training and exam. Can you tell us about your decision to take that certification?

For a quite long time I was looking for a certification to demonstrate my Business Development and Bid Management expertise; I started looking for a certificate that would meet my requirements. That's how I discovered the APMP training and exam. I read the leaflet and watched the available recordings of the preliminary lessons. Additionally, I followed the list of entities using APMP and discovered several companies from the defence and aerospace sectors, which confirmed my belief that it is worthwhile to undertake the training and obtain a certificate.

The APMP methodology itself should be scalable to the bid processes that each Bid Manager intends to undertake in the future. Because in the case of small companies, for example, it is difficult to establish so many roles responsible for preparing an offer. Personally, the key points concerned the bid management process itself, especially in terms of preparation techniques.

Each of us are challenged with involving people who deal with different work on a daily basis, but their contribution to the bid, especially the technical part, is vital. APMP presents several tools that facilitate cooperation with experts, enable both smooth preparation of proposals and preventing them from being distracted from their work.