Services
Hutchins & Associates Inc. is a Veteran owned small business providing support to companies competing for new business in the federal market place. With a major focus on aerospace, C4ISR, ECM, and UAVs, we have assisted companies in developing winning strategies, capture plans and proposals for nearly two decades. Our services run from business capture and proposal management, to systems engineering and operational analysis, with many offerings in-between. We apply well-vetted processes to ensure products get out the door on time, and that they are rigorously compliant.
Capture Strategy Development
H&A provides senior strategists and technical subject matter experts to facilitate development of comprehensive capture strategies. The H&A strategy development process includes exploration and documentation of the following topics:
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Campaign objectives
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P(go)
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Business Capability Assessment™
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Acquisition environment
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Customers and values
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Key decisions and timing
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Decision makers and values
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Advisors and issues
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Critical success elements
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Competition analysis
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Communication planning
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Offer
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Position to Win
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Discriminators
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Baselines
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Gap analysis and head start
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Teaming
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P(win)
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Strategy, themes and messages
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Campaign tactics
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Campaign management metrics
Proposal Management
We employ a template driven, systems engineering process to develop our proposals. While we have a structured process, we do not insist our clients adopt it in total, we adapt to our client's processes, procedures and culture. Our Proposal Manager and Capture Strategist work closely with the capture leadership to ensure the ongoing campaign and communications plans are fully synchronized with the proposal, to ensure maximum opportunity to communicate effectively and appropriately with the government’s source selection team. H&A provides proposal planning and management services in three major areas.
Proposal planning and kickoff
H&A provides senior strategist services to augment existing client capabilities by reviewing the status of the on-going proposal development process and developing an executable proposal plan focused on delivering a compliant proposal.
Proposal Management
H&A provides a proposal team augmented as required by a senior strategist to support development of proposals. This includes supporting preparation of program baselines, developing a proposal outline and leading the client proposal team in development of successively more mature proposal drafts. The Hutchins & Associates, Inc. team will prepare for Pink, Red and Gold Team reviews of the evolving proposal and prepare the proposal for production and delivery.
Evaluation Notice (EN), Final Proposal Revision (FPR) and post award transition support
Following proposal delivery, H&A provides senior strategy and proposal management support to assist in developing responses to Evaluation Notices, Oral presentations and Final Proposal Revision.
Program Management
H&A provides senior program management expertise to support management of the complex dynamics of multiple product line project formation, organization, decision making and program execution. We conduct analyses of alternatives, technology surveys and risk assessments to assist in formulating program approaches and to establish a foundation for program scheduling and cost estimation. We assist in creating life cycle strategies and plans that further corporate growth objectives, ensure maintenance of a viable and competitive vendor base and substantially reduce the time required to deliver cost effective products. Our team will assist in deconstructing broad strategy statements into subordinate Integrated Master Plans (IMPs) and Integrated Master Strategies (IMS) that will result in timely accomplishment of the strategic plan. In support of project execution, H&A will conduct analyses to support assessment of complex technical, budget, and regulatory problems.
We will assist in transitioning functional organizations to Integrated Product Team (IPT) organizations when required by evolving customer sets. When required, we will create and deploy effective communication, data collection and metric management tools to support IPT management and control of program operation.
We will support coordination with Government agencies and organizations to ensure efficient program execution and guide development of work packages and tasking documents for test facilities, logistics and program support organizations and assist in creating integrated customer management teams to review status. Our associates will support formation and management of government / industry support groups to ensure frequent and open communication, engage all parties in early problem identification and resolution and create opportunities for effective teaming.
Program Planning and Control
H&A will assist in formulation of program control systems that integrate program cost; schedule and technical performance measures using earned value techniques and early warning mechanisms. We will develop and deploy Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to measure progress against plan and to assess gains made through process improvement. H&A will provide a complete PC based tool kit that projects values for each KPI over time, collects appropriate data to status accomplishment versus plan, and provides concise “at a glance” program status information. We will train personnel in tool use and maintenance and ensure that KPI tracking and variance analysis is institutionalized.
H&A will assist in developing timely reporting processes that deliver accurate status data and facilitates periodic program status reviews and provide insight and advice concerning critical event timing during the course of program execution and propose timing and content for program evaluations. We will identify critical program issues and impacts, define and collect metrics that quantify progress and isolate problems, and ensure that program evaluations use these metrics to validate progress and to surface and resolve issues early, when they may be resolved with minimal cost or schedule impact. We will suggest tailoring initiatives so that each evaluation reflects the maturity of the program or processes being reviewed. When issues are identified during evaluations, we will support development of work-a-rounds or recovery plans that entail minimum cost and schedule disruption. H&A will produce records of all program evaluations.
Business and Financial Management
H&A will assist financial managers in planning, organizing, directing and controlling financial activities such as investment, procurement and use of funds across the enterprise.
Our approach applies general management principles to the financial resources of the enterprise. H&A business and financial experts will assist in translating program technical content into financial requirements and executable budget plans that are mapped to appropriate budget categories. We use Zero Base Budgeting (ZBB), Should Cost, Cost As Independent Variable (CAIV) and Budget As Independent Variable (BAIV) techniques to define best value solutions. We will assist in institutionalizing techniques such as ratio analysis, financial forecasting and cost and profit control to support the financial planning and control necessary for effectively obtaining and using funds while exercising control over finances. Our team will conduct analyses required to support investment decisions including investment in fixed assets and working capital decisions
Systems Engineering and Technical Program Management
H&A will support definition, documentation and implementation of an effective system engineering and engineering management process to guide design, development and production of new or modified systems and equipment. We will assist in rigorous definition of operational requirements and decomposing these requirements into actionable system, functional and performance specifications. Our team will support structuring progressive design reviews, developing test and evaluation master plans, and conducting critical test readiness reviews including ready-for-test assessments and first flight readiness evaluations. When required we will assist in developing vendor technical requirements and statements of work and support vendor proposal and quote evaluations.
Integrated Logistics Support Management
H&A logistic support experts will assist in every aspect of putting new systems into operation, including traffic management and total asset visibility functions. We will assist in developing life cycle support plans that optimize operational readiness while controlling operations and maintenance costs. We encourage formation of Operator Interface Teams and manage and facilitate their operation for our clients.
