The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2015–2020
IBM's analytics raised its big-services bid win rate, worth about $350M.
IBM Research built tools that read RFPs, cost and price bids, and track the pipeline, raising IBM's win rate on multimillion-dollar service deals.
IBM
the move
IBM Services competes for multimillion-dollar IT contracts where many providers submit proposals and a shortlist survives intense negotiation.
IBM Research built an analytical ecosystem that reads an RFP, extracts client requirements and maps them to IBM offerings, then costs, prices and benchmarks the bid.
It also predicts how each deal is likely to move so sales managers can allocate the salesforce; the result was a higher win rate worth about $350 million.
why it works
- RFP review and pricing were slow and inconsistent
- Reading and mapping requirements to offerings can be automated
- Deal-status prediction lets managers steer scarce sales talent
- Measured: a higher win rate worth about $350 million
what transfers
In tender-based services, the winning edge is speed and accuracy in reading, costing and pricing a bid; automating that with analytics can lift win rate without changing the offer.
what came after
The tools became a reusable platform for IBM's bid business and can be carried to other tender-driven industries such as construction, financial services and medical services.
references
- Analytics and operations research increases win rates for IBM's information technology service deals
- Analytics and Operations Research Increases Win Rates for IBM's Information Technology Service Deals
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