ClientLogic Corporation (now Sitel)
Position: Proposal Editor and Webmaster
Location: Nashville, TN.
Time Frame: April 2000 to June 2001
Proposal Editor Accomplishments
As the senior member of a two-person Proposal Team, I was charged with relocating the Proposal Team from the old offices in New York to the company’s new global headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee. With the other team member, I traveled to New York to:
- Interview part-time and contract editors in order to document all operational procedures;
- Identify, catalog, and transfer the Proposal Team’s intellectual property to the corporate office; and
- Identify, box up, and ship the Proposal Team’s hardware, software, and old proposals to the corporate office.
Proposal Team Member Duties:
As a member of the Nashville, Tennessee-based Proposal Team, I was responsible for the following:
- Coordinate all aspects of the proposal process, from the Request for Proposal (RFP) in the Enterprise Business Review (EBR) to the final product.
- Work with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to gather, write, and edit information for the proposals.
- Maintain and organize the Proposal Team’s network-based files and resources.
- Maintain all Proposal Team hardware and software.
- Use Microsoft Word 97 to format text, manipulate cells, and transform isolated bits of information into a complete RFP.
- Use Visio to manipulate and prepare all organizational charts.
- Use Microsoft Project 98 to manipulate and prepare all associated project plans.
- Conform to written response guidelines and development processes.
- Conduct quality assurance testing to verify that digital version of proposals would operate in Microsoft Word 97 and 2000.
- Work with all levels of management as the pricing piece of the proposal was put in place, usually under a firm deadline within a high stress environment.
- Work cooperatively while still being independent.
- Order and maintain appropriate mass-production supplies.
- Produce proposal documents using the highest quality materials available within the Proposal Team’s budget.
- Ship proposal documents to the vendors using Federal Express.
ClientLogic University (CLU)
About six months after transporting the Proposal Team’s resources to the Nashville office and studying the company’s operational procedures for both North America and Europe, I believed that we had an opportunity to streamline and combine our global Request for Proposal (RFP) / Proposal efforts. The conclusion of my efforts was ClientLogic University (CLU), a global Intranet that provides real-time RFPs, proposals, and other strategic data to senior management in 28 global sites.
Demonstration
I created a working online Intranet site that I used in conjunction with a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation to show my direct manager and department head what the company had to gain by storing and archiving the global RFPs and Proposals online via a corporate Intranet site.
Team Building & Project Planning
As a result of my demonstration, company leadership authorized me to build the global Intranet site. I started this process by:
- Configuring and purchasing the appropriate Dell laptops.
- Identifying, hiring, and training a new team member to help with HTML work.
- Identifying, hiring, and training two free college interns.
- Using Microsoft Project 98 to create and maintain the official project plan.
Global Server Functionality & Software
Once the team was built and in place, I evaluated ClientLogic’s technology infrastructure in order to determine how best to deliver the online proposals, documents that often reached into the hundreds of pages with many attachments. As a result, the Web development arm of the Proposal Team pushed the product to market by:
- Using Microsoft FrontPage 2000 for the HTML work.
- Using Microsoft HTML Help technology for the site navigation feature.
- Using Microsoft Visual SourceSafe to maintain the site in a database and keep everyone’s source files in sync 24/7.
Global Security & Access Methods
I guaranteed global access to RFPs and Proposals 24/7 by:
- Working with North American and European IT members to identify and eliminate any technology roadblocks as well as setting up a special URL for external access.
- Working with North American and European IT members to create and automate a weekly password protection program for the site, increasing security.
Site Creation and Implementation
With the team created and the technology infrastructure mapped out, we pushed forward by:
- Working with North American and European Proposal Team members to receive, import, and launch RFPs and proposals online.
- Creating and editing all collateral documentation.
- Expanding the site’s editorial focus, as directed by leadership, to include such items as top client profiles, competitive information, online company brochures, white papers, and so on.
- Maintaining all servers, performing quality assurance testing, and producing weekly site “Hit Reports.”
