Company Overview

IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. They help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs, and gain a competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications, and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently, and securely.
IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions, and consulting deliver open and flexible options to their clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity, and service.

The Challenge

When you’re managing the responses to multiple new business proposals, finding the right information can feel like searching for a needle in a digital haystack. That was exactly the challenge facing IBM’s proposal teams in the U.S. Federal Market – until they found a way to turn that haystack into searchable gold.

As IBM’s proposal library continued to grow, their team encountered several specific challenges:

• ● Traditional content management systems couldn’t effectively search their extensive knowledge base
  

• ● Subject matter experts (SMEs) struggled to translate their technical expertise into well-written proposals
  

• ● New team members required months of training to become familiar with existing content
  

• ● Solution architects were limited in how many proposals they could handle simultaneously
• ● Maintaining consistent quality across different business units proved difficult

Years of new business proposals and technical documentation had grown into a massive, but disconnected, knowledge base. Traditional content management systems couldn’t answer nuanced questions like “How do we handle DevSecOps for the Department of Defense in 2023?” The team needed something smarter—a solution that could help SMEs translate technical know-how into clear writing, accelerate onboarding, and allow architects to handle more proposals efficiently.

The Solution

After the emergence of ChatGPT in late 2022, IBM recognized AI’s potential to transform their proposal processes. However, they quickly identified that general-purpose AI tools couldn’t meet their specialized needs. “We needed something domain-aware and purpose-built for federal acquisitions,” James explains. “We couldn’t risk our intellectual property being exposed to public AI models.”

After evaluating various options, IBM selected RohanRFP for its comprehensive approach to federal proposal management. The platform offered intelligent search capabilities that went beyond simple keyword matching, enabling users to find relevant content through natural language queries. More importantly, it provided a secure environment for IBM’s proprietary information while ensuring content remained accessible to authorized users across the organization.

The platform’s ability to combine IBM’s historical content with advanced language models proved particularly valuable. RohanRFP could generate high-quality first drafts that maintained consistency with past successful proposals while adapting to new requirements. Every generated response included links to source materials, enabling teams to verify information and ensure compliance with federal requirements.

IBM implemented RohanRFP by structuring their data into three main categories: proposals (both winning submissions and those that scored well technically), past performance documentation, and artifacts (including resumes, white papers, and RFI responses). This organization ensured the platform could effectively leverage IBM’s extensive experience in federal contracting.

To support adoption, the team developed comprehensive training programs including prompt engineering certification and best practices sharing through a dedicated Slack channel. They established clear processes for content updates, feedback collection, and performance monitoring.

“The key to success was approaching this as more than just a technology implementation,” James notes. “We needed to transform how our teams thought about proposal development while maintaining our high standards for quality and compliance.” This holistic approach enabled IBM to achieve significant improvements in efficiency while maintaining the quality standards essential for government contracting.

The Outcomes

Dramatic Time Savings

The most immediate impact was the dramatic reduction in proposal research and drafting time. “What previously took six days of research and discovery can now be accomplished in about 60 minutes of carefully crafted prompting,” James notes. This efficiency gain transformed how solution architects manage their workload, enabling them to handle multiple proposals simultaneously instead of being dedicated to a single opportunity.

The time savings allowed teams to focus on strategic elements and quality improvements rather than spending days searching through content repositories. The platform’s ability to quickly generate first drafts meant more time could be spent on strategy development and competitive analysis, leading to stronger, more targeted proposals.

Accelerated Employee Onboarding

The impact on new employee training was equally dramatic. “Instead of having them shadow a senior architect for six months, they can start creating effective proposals within their first week,” James explains.

This accelerated onboarding had cascading benefits throughout the organization. New team members could contribute meaningfully to proposals almost immediately, reducing the burden on senior staff. The platform’s intelligent search capabilities meant new hires could quickly access and understand IBM’s vast knowledge base, while maintaining IBM’s high-quality standards even with less experienced team members.

Improved Quality and Consistency

RohanRFP helped bridge the gap between technical expertise and proposal writing. Subject matter experts who struggled with writing could now generate high-quality first drafts that required minimal editing. “Getting past the blank page paralysis is very important for them,” James observes. “When they can create an appropriate prompt and get good output that they agree with, it makes them happier and more engaged in the process.”

The improvement in writing quality was particularly noticeable in technical sections, where the platform helped maintain consistent messaging and terminology across different proposals while allowing for customization to specific requirements. This standardization not only improved proposal quality but also reduced the review and editing cycle time.

Democratized Knowledge Access

The platform’s intelligent search capabilities made IBM’s vast knowledge base accessible to all team members. This transformation was particularly significant given IBM’s extensive content library, which includes thousands of documents across proposals, past performances, and technical artifacts.

“The intelligent search capability was actually our biggest surprise benefit,” James reveals. “The platform’s ability to not only find relevant content but also provide context and source attribution transformed how we leverage our institutional knowledge.” The system’s ability to rank and prioritize search results helped teams quickly identify the most relevant and recent content, while maintaining clear links to source materials for verification.

This democratization of knowledge had far-reaching effects, allowing teams to quickly access successful past proposals, helping subject matter experts find relevant technical content across different business units, and ensuring the organization could better leverage its institutional knowledge across different divisions.

Expanded Capabilities

As the IBM team became more proficient with RohanRFP, they discovered innovative ways to leverage the platform beyond standard proposal responses.

Performance Work Statement Generation

The team developed a method for converting Statements of Objectives (SOOs) into detailed Performance Work Statements (PWSs). “We reverse-engineered the approach,” James explains. “While PWS generation wasn’t an intended feature, we found we could first generate a detailed method and approach from the SOO, then transform that into a comprehensive PWS format.” This innovation proved particularly valuable as PWS responses become increasingly common in federal acquisitions.

Oral Presentation Development

The team pioneered a multi-step process for creating compelling oral presentations:

1. Using RohanRFP to generate a detailed technical approach.

2. Converting the approach into a presentation script.

3. Using the script as a foundation for developing visual presentations.

“While the platform doesn’t directly create slides,” James notes. “It gives us a structured narrative framework that makes the visual presentation development much more efficient.”

Strategic Personnel Matching

IBM developed a sophisticated approach to staffing proposals through RohanRFP. “Our senior editor crafted specialized prompts that could quickly identify candidates based on specific criteria—such as individuals with 10+ years of Department of Defense experience and particular certifications,” James explains.

This capability proved valuable for rapidly identifying qualified candidates for key positions, matching personnel to specific contract requirements, and ensuring consistent representation of staff qualifications across proposals.

Compliance Verification

The team developed methods to use RohanRFP for ensuring proposal compliance with complex federal requirements. They created specialized prompts to verify alignment with RFP requirements, check for consistent terminology usage, and validate technical approach completeness.

Content Optimization

As teams became more experienced with the platform, they discovered ways to optimize existing content for different purposes, including reformatting technical content for different audience levels, adapting past performance descriptions for new opportunities, and creating executive summaries and features/benefits tables from technical descriptions.

“We’re constantly discovering new ways to leverage the platform,” James notes. “The key is understanding that while some capabilities aren’t directly built in, we can often achieve what we need through creative prompt engineering.”

Implementation and Adoption

IBM’s successful implementation relied heavily on strong leadership support and a methodical rollout strategy. They created a dedicated Slack channel for users to share prompts and best practices, while encouraging team members to pursue AI prompt engineering training.

“This isn’t just about replacing humans with AI,” James emphasizes. “It’s about making our teams more efficient and allowing them to focus on high-value activities like strategy and storytelling.”

Key Takeaways

IBM’s implementation of RohanRFP has delivered transformative results that extend far beyond simple efficiency gains:

Quantifiable Impact

Strategic Transformation

The platform has revolutionized IBM’s approach to proposal management in several key ways:

From Knowledge Silos to Democratic Access: Teams now have immediate access to IBM’s complete knowledge base, creating a more agile and responsive organization.

From Process Executors to Strategic Thinkers: By automating time-consuming tasks, solution architects and subject matter experts can focus on higher-value activities like strategy development.

From Sequential to Concurrent Processing: The ability to handle multiple proposals simultaneously has dramatically increased the organization’s capacity without adding headcount.

Looking Forward

As James reflects, “This isn’t just about generating proposal content—it’s about transforming how we leverage our institutional knowledge and expertise.”, The long-term strategic value lies in how RohanRFP has enabled IBM to scale their proposal operations efficiently, maintain consistent quality across submissions, rapidly adapt to changing requirements, and create more compelling proposals.

The success of this implementation demonstrates that AI-powered proposal management isn’t just about automation—it’s about enabling organizations to compete more effectively in an increasingly complex federal contracting landscape. IBM’s experience shows how the right technology, combined with strong leadership and systematic implementation, can transform proposal management from a resource-intensive necessity into a strategic advantage.

As federal acquisition continues to evolve, IBM is well-positioned to leverage this foundation for future growth, setting new standards for proposal management efficiency and effectiveness in the federal contracting space.