Video Transcript:

Atef Ghribi: Hello, my name is Atef Ghribi from Jama Software. This is a quick overview of Jama Connect’s RFP framework, which provides a simple end-to-end framework for managing an RFP process from intake until bid submission.

The framework defines a set of item types that represent the relevant information to manage and track along the RFP, starting with the RFP requirement as a central item type representing the input received from the customer. From there, we can derive and define the RFP response with compliance status or identify customer clarification needs that can be discussed separately. If a requirement’s not fully met, we can document compliance gaps or keep track of the compliance risks and track their mitigation status. Once changes are introduced by the customer, we can leverage the requirements change request to make sure that all the changes are traced correctly to the RFP requirements, and from there to the responses related to it. This helps provide a full end-to-end traceability during the bid process.

Additionally, another version of the RFP framework includes the traceability of the product requirements, and this is a way to create the traceability to the product specification and engineering space while going through the RFP process. Which makes sure that whenever the RFP is done, full traceability into the product definition is already insured. Of course, all the item types of this template and their relationships are configurable and can be extended to adapt to specific and custom needs and scenarios.

Let’s check how it looks with some sample data. We can already see from the dashboard how this item-based approach will help us keep track in real time of the progress and issues while working on the RFP. And of course, what you see here is just an example of how it might look like, and all of it is configurable and customizable to fit your own reporting need. The projectory on the left side stores in hierarchical structure the data related to this bit, offering users the possibility to collaborate within a central source of truth repository.

We can start taking a look at the RFP requirements, for example, which represent the main input from the customer. By using the list of view or the document view, we can start reading through and exploring the content and deciding which fields from the data model we would like to see. But also, while doing that, we can start seeing the priority status, assign whether clarifications are needed or not, and of course start allocating the reviewing teams which need to go through to review these input requirements.

The item view allows us also, we take on these items, to see all the fields that were defined for the specific item type, and to look at all the meta information. So, things like priority, again, reviewing teams, clarification needed, and the external ID to have the connection back to the customer’s input. We can basically start doing all sorts of modifications and changes here and keep track of those versions and the changes happening within Jama Connect in their version history.

We can of course also start using comments and leveraging collaboration features, so I can start tagging my colleagues here. I just use the right tagging, I can start asking them to please help with the review. Okay? And then, I can ask that this is a question to help my colleagues during the collaboration. Using the traceability features of Jama, we can now derive a new response, or we can relate to existing response items if the answer is already existing. And now we can start step-by-step building the RFP response by making sure that all the requirements are covered.

We can start looking at the trace reviews to check for gaps. So, once we jump to this set and open the trace view, and maybe filter here down to the RFP responses, we can start seeing which of our requirements are not yet covered by an RFP response. But also, we can have saved views which will help us look at the full trace chain of information starting by the RFP requirements, looking at the RFP responses. And also, if we scroll down, we’ll start seeing the compliance risks and the compliance gaps, and start tracking in real time how the progress looks for those. So, this provides a holistic and detailed understanding of the RFP status in real time and enables users to take action if needed.

We can look at the Live Trace Explorer to start looking at coverage numbers and percentages. Specific reviews can be defined here to make sure that we are fully aware of the progress and can check for, for example, a coverage of mandatory requirements versus mandatory plus desired according to the priority assigned to the RFP requirements. This gives us, again, a full overview and understanding of how we are covering the gaps and following the RFP process.

Once the traceability chain is built, users can start leveraging the change requests to assess for impact on the elements that needs to be changed just by looking at the impact analysis review and analyzing the full end-to-end impact of a change. This helps us actually manage and make it easier and faster to manage the change across the whole chain. In addition to comments, users and stakeholders can start leveraging the review center to perform formal reviews, approving or rejecting items, and making sure the feedback is formally documented. Once the response is ready and finalized, users can actually use the export functionality to make sure that we can export shareable documents that we can share with customers. And of course, all these different templates are configurable and can be adapted to the specific required format for responses.

This concludes our demonstration of Jama Connect’s RFP response demo. For more information, go to jamasoftware.com, or reach out to your customer success manager.