Frequently Asked Questions About SET™
Frequently, there are recurring questions from companies interested in SET™. Below are answers to these commonly asked questions. The answers to the questions should help you better understand SET’s value as hybrid business
development, capture management and proposal development tool to your company.
You may have additional questions as well. We welcome the opportunity to answer them. Just complete the Question Form below, and we will gladly respond.
As a hybrid business development, capture management and proposal development tool, SET is discriminating and complementary to any existing business development tool and/or service that your company has already made an investment in. Since SET provides so much capability, we are almost positive that growth-focused companies such as yours (particularly those seeking to win prime solution-based contracts) will see its value.
2. Will this impact our current business development lifecycle framework and/or methods?
The answer is “no.” SET is discriminating and complementary to any existing business development lifecycle framework and/or methods that your company currently uses. SET is hybrid business development, capture management and proposal development tool software that facilitates collaborative competitive pursuit analysis and enhances enterprise value creation. Essentially, it is a “Thinking Tool” that provides input to any existing business development lifecycle framework and/or method that your company might be using to help your company get to its next win. If anything, SET is an enabler of any current business development lifecycle framework and/or methods that your company uses. In addition, the on-demand version of SET does not require any form of interface or customization to be of immediate benefit to your company.
3. We have several 3rd party consultants supporting us with business development lifecycle activities. How are they impacted?
Third party consultants are sometimes necessary to help your company get to its next win. At some time or another, your company will always need them. The benefit of SET, though, is that it helps your company to prepare in advance easily and affordably so that 3rd party consultants are better positioned to help your company be successful (i.e., get to the win) when they arrive and start to bill your company. You might even need less of their time because SET allows your company’s own internal business development team easily to do the things that costly 3rd-party consultants are hired to do. In addition, SET helps reduce dependence on 3rd party consultants’ overtime because it builds a data lake of “crown jewel” competitive intelligence and intellectual capital specific to the company, which is easily accessible to support the next competitive pursuit.
4. Can different business development lifecycle support functions leverage SET at the same time?
The answer is “yes.” You can have many different business development lifecycle support functions working on the same opportunity in SET at the same time, doing different things (e.g., conducting a competitive assessment, building a staffing model). You can also have different pursuit teams work on different opportunities at the same time in SET. There is no limit to the number of personnel that may use SET at any one time.
5. Can my teaming partners and other vendors participate in the use of SET?
The answer is “yes.” The use of SET is permission-based. The company’s SET Administrator establishes what any one user can access in SET on an opportunity-specific basis, whether they are a company employee, 3rd party consultant, teaming partner, or vendor.
6. Can SET interface with my pipeline management tool or other business development lifecycle tools?
The answer is “yes” for either the enterprise on-demand or on-premise versions of SET. This will require Solutioneering, Limited Liability Company (LLC) collaborating with your company to customize application program interfaces.
7. If my teaming partner is a subscriber to SET, can we share artifacts between our respective instances or can files be uploaded between companies using SET?
The answer is “no.” What any company has in SET is proprietary to that company. It is the respective company’s “crown jewels,” as we like to say. Assuming two companies both subscribe to SET and are teaming partners with signed teaming agreements and non-disclosures of agreement, they may download and share via email at will any information that they have in SET with the other. However, the capability for direct logical interface between any two or more companies subscribing to SET purposely does not exist.
8. What security and privacy controls are in place today?
The enterprise on-demand version of SET is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS). It uses Amazon Cognito for two-factor authentication. SET is penetration-tested on a weekly basis using Amazon Inspector, which is an automated security assessment service that helps improve the security and compliance of applications deployed on AWS. SET is also penetration-tested by a separate 3rd party on a quarterly basis.
In addition, Solutioneering, LLC, highlights in Release 7 of its “Solutioneering Cybersecurity Policy,” dated 14 October 2021, the “Solutioneering Cybersecurity Integration Framework,” which is being actively implemented for SET.
The on-premises version of SET uses the security controls of your company regardless if SET is deployed in your company’s own private cloud (e.g., AWS, Azure) or sitting on your own enterprise’s internal servers.
9. Is our data protected and partitioned just for our firm?
Upfront, if your company uses the on-premises version of SET, this definitely is not an issue. You are behind your company’s own firewall.
If your company uses the AWS-based enterprise on-demand version of SET, the answer is “yes.” Just as no other individual has access to your personal or company email account to read your correspondence, no company has access to another company’s instance of SET and its data. What any company has in SET is proprietary to that company. It is the respective company’s “crown jewels.” Plus, the use of SET is permission-based. The company’s SET Administrator establishes what any one user can access in SET for a specific opportunity.
10. Is there a mobile version of SET?
The answer is “no,” although SET is mobile-friendly on devices such as iPhone or iPad. Making a mobile version of SET is part of its current Technology Road Map, and it is a pre-planned product improvement.
11. Who retains Administrative Controls?
Administrative Control is maintained solely by the System Administrator that you assign to oversee SET for your company. The use of SET is permission-based. The company’s SET Administrator is the only individual that can establish what any one user can access in SET on an opportunity-specific basis whether they are a company employee, 3rd-party consultant, teaming partner, or vendor.
12. What makes SET a proven tool?
SET is built on a solid foundation. SET is a patent-pending enterprise on-demand or on-premise software automation of the Solution Engineering Framework™. The framework has enabled many hundreds of millions of dollars in competitive wins at the federal, state, and local as well as international levels since its inception in 2015. It has enabled large systems integrators; large audit, advisory, and professional service firms; large information technology (IT) companies; and mid-size and small professional service firms, and IT companies alike win competitive pursuits. Now these same types of companies are also subscribers to SET because they see how SET enables them to better win competitive government bids and recompetes and increase company value.
There is a book titled “Solution Engineering” that describes the framework’s application. A course is available that teaches about the framework as well as a formal certification exam to allow any interested party who has taken the course to become certified in application of the Solution Engineering Framework. There is even a consultancy around the framework’s application.
SET’s four key principals brought more than 100 years of collective business development, capture management, pre-proposal planning, proposal development, client delivery, innovation, solution development, software system development, and executive-level management experience to the creation of the SET hybrid business development, capture management and proposal development tool.
13. Is it easy to learn how to use SET?
SET’s intuitive interface and built-in tutorials make it easy to understand how to use SET to win a competitive pursuit. Once you understand how to use SET, it is easy to train business development professionals, capture managers, and proposal managers to use it on their own as well.
14. How is SET made available?
SET is available as either an enterprise on-demand or on-premise installation. On-premise installation may require some customization. SET is suitable for either AWS or Azure private Clouds with on-premise installation as well.
15. What is the cost to use SET?
The cost to use SET depends on whether you elect to use the enterprise on-demand or on-premise installation version.
16. How many seats do you get with a SET annual license?
Regardless if you subscribe to either the enterprise on-demand or on-premise installation version of SET, most companies will have an unlimited number of permission-based users per opportunity who are able to use SET. In instances where subscribers to SET are very large national or global companies with numerous business segments and many tens of thousands of employees or more, licenses of SET are by business segment.