Twenty5

Navigating the intricacies of government contracting in the aerospace and defense sector is no easy feat. While preparing requests for proposal (RFP) to secure government projects, one of the key challenges is to estimate the costs of what it takes to deliver and then put forth pricing that ensures profitability as well as a good chance of winning. The biggest stumbling block here is facilitating streamlined collaboration among various stakeholders using multiple siloed systems for accurate pricing and estimation. Engaging in continuous meetings and managing an overwhelming volume of spreadsheets often turns into a formidable task just to get the vital data needed for bid submission.

This is where Twenty5 steps in. Offering a solution for integrated project pricing and estimating (iPE), the company cuts through the chaos. iPE by Twenty5 is an intuitive, enterprise-grade software designed to help companies bid with confidence. It works seamlessly with a company’s existing project data, enabling the creation of accurate and competitive bids quickly, regardless of the project type—be it development, manufacturing or service-related.

“Our software oversees the entire workflow to ensure you can produce effective bids. We leverage performance history to help anchor current bids in past performance and provide tools to both simplify and enhance the estimating process,” says Magnus Bjorendahl, co-founder and CEO.

A significant advantage of the software is its seamless integration with SAP, a system extensively used industrywide. With 16 years of experience in SAP within the aerospace and defense sector, Bjorendahl recognized a unique opportunity. He understood that to construct a robust system for pricing and estimation, leveraging SAP’s capabilities was essential, given that it houses all pertinent data. Furthermore, SAP also provides a cloud innovation platform that enables companies to run the Twenty5 solution hosted in a secure cloud environment.

Today, SAP’s integration not only empowers companies to bid more assertively but effortlessly converts the bids and proposals generated into executable projects with just a single click. This swift transition from sales to delivery, offering a comprehensive end-to-end business process, is fundamentally what distinguishes Twenty5 in the niche.

All bids generated by Twenty5’s iPE software comply with the regulations outlined in the U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFAR). The stipulations ensure that when a bid is submitted, companies can substantiate all provided figures through a basis of estimates (BOE), demonstrating they have prior experience with similar projects.

The software also incorporates continuous learning into its bid management process. With each new request for proposal (RFP), the company actively develops derivative works based on previous experiences. This accumulated historical knowledge provides a solid foundation for better estimates when working on government RFPs. It positions companies to not only win bids but execute and profit from these projects, balancing compliance with commercial viability.

Advanced features like version management, scenario analysis and comparative tools further allow for efficient bid tracking and revision. These crucial layers of internal scrutiny ensure each bid goes through a thorough review and the necessary signoffs from the organization’s hierarchy.

Success in bidding can manifest in two ways—securing an opportunity through a reasonable bid or ensuring substantial financial returns with a strategically higher bid. Twenty5 introduces a third dimension to optimize and sharpen the bidding process—by combining artificial intelligence with expert knowledge.