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Defense / Government Contracting

Cutting RFP Review Time by 80% While Keeping Data Fully Secure

A defense contractor was drowning in RFPs but could not use cloud AI because of security requirements. We automated qualification while keeping every byte on-prem.

The Challenge

Evaluating each government RFP meant hours of manual review to see if the opportunity matched capabilities, certifications, and past performance.

Most of that effort went to opportunities they would ultimately decline, wasting scarce senior team time.

Strict security constraints ruled out external AI services, so automation had to live entirely inside their environment.

What We Built

An automated RFP intake that parses requirements and maps them against the contractor's capabilities, certifications, contract vehicles, and pricing parameters.

A qualification scorecard with narrative reasoning that highlights matches, gaps, and pursue/pass recommendations.

An air-gapped deployment blueprint so the entire workflow runs on their infrastructure with zero data egress.

The Transformation

Before

  • Hours spent manually reviewing each RFP.
  • Senior staff time consumed by initial qualification.
  • Many hours wasted on opportunities that did not fit.
  • Evaluation criteria applied inconsistently.
  • No way to use AI tools due to security constraints.

After

  • RFP qualification reduced from hours to minutes.
  • Senior staff focus on high-probability opportunities.
  • Clear, consistent evaluation criteria applied every time.
  • Complete data security with air-gapped operation.
  • Scalable system that grows with opportunity volume.

Results

  • RFP review time reduced by 80%.
  • 15 hours per week reclaimed for business development.
  • 10% improvement in win rate by focusing on best-fit opportunities.
  • 100% of data remains on-premises.
  • System processes dozens of RFPs per month.

Why It Worked

We encoded their unique qualification rubric directly into the automation, so every decision follows the same logic senior staff used manually.

By designing for air-gapped infrastructure from day one, the team gained speed without compromising security compliance.

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