Web App Helps Bell Helicopter Cut Proposal Time

By Chuck Moozakis

Bell Helicopter has rolled out a Web-based proposal management app in a bid to respond more quickly to requests for information issued by overseas governments.

The manufacturer is using Ventro Corp.'s temporarily named collaborative commerce application to replace its old paper-based proposal process, said Eric Nuckols, e-business manager for Bell Helicopter. The app was known formerly as NexPrise ipTeam; the name was altered when Ventro purchased NexPrise last summer.

The previous process required Bell to manually compile all the documents, drawings and other specs potential customers needed, Nuckols said. The completed proposals were then physically mailed or sent via overnight couriers to purchasing officials.

With the new application, Bell has eliminated both the time spent compiling as well as sending the completed proposals. Finished bid packages are now uploaded to a Bell-managed, SSL-encrypted secure Web site where prospective customers download them for review, Nuckols said.

"One of the reasons we went with this application was to let us work with foreign governments and other buyers in different time zones," Nuckols said. "They log in, do their review and when we come in the following day we can respond much more quickly."

The app, which runs at Bell's data center on a Unix server, is accessed by 50 users who create proposals that can encompass dozens of documents and include information from a variety of suppliers. The app lets Bell include high-bandwidth drawings and other engineering documents that were difficult to transmit via e-mail, said Dianne Barron, Bell's commercial marketing proposal manager. "We have huge files and they couldn't be sent via e-mail" due to bandwidth constraints and security concerns. "So we would have to cut a CD to include with the proposal, which meant additional time. Now all we have to do is put it on the app," she said.

Nuckols said Bell and parent Textron Inc. are now evaluating the application to determine how it can be used to link the company with the vendors that supply Bell with parts needed to manufacture helicopters. That decision should come early next year. If the app were used, it would be made part of a private marketplace Bell now operates to market used corporate helicopters.

The Ventro collaborative app is priced between $25 and $250 per seat per month.