Patent ID: 7996441

Claim:
A method for managing proposal related tasks and proposal related data for an entity using an enterprise proposal management system, wherein the proposal related tasks include one or more tasks for managing a proposal lifecycle and the proposal related data include data stored in one or more data repositories derived from one or more of past, present, or anticipated proposal opportunities, the method comprising: receiving information describing a proposal opportunity that includes a solicitation for one or more bids at the enterprise proposal management system; developing business strategies for the proposal opportunity using the data stored in the data repositories, wherein developing the business strategies includes: providing information relating to whether the entity should pursue the proposal opportunity; storing the information describing the proposal opportunity in the data repositories as a data abstraction associated with the proposal opportunity; and generating a win theme associated with the proposal opportunity based on the information describing the proposal opportunity, wherein the win theme compares relative strengths associated with the entity and one or more competitors having abilities to respond to key issues associated with the proposal opportunity; developing a proposal to be submitted in response to the solicitation if the entity pursues the proposal opportunity based on the developed business strategies, wherein developing the proposal includes: developing a bid amount or cost estimate associated with the entity delivering the proposal using the enterprise proposal management system and the data stored in the data repositories, wherein the enterprise proposal management system launches a bidding process that displays one or more forms to develop the bid amount or cost estimate associated with the entity delivering the proposal; and generating a score denoting a likelihood that the developed bid amount or cost estimate will result in the entity winning the proposal; controlling delivery of the proposal if the entity wins the proposal, wherein controlling delivery of the proposal includes interacting with the data stored in the data repositories to coordinate one or more areas associated with the entity delivering the proposal; and automatically updating the data abstraction stored in the data repositories to include information relating to one or more of the developed business strategies, the developed proposal, or the delivery of the proposal.