List Preferences

Posted in: Help on April 27, 2010

Bidspeed allows you a great deal of control over what you can do in a list.

Adding or Removing Columns

All lists allow you to change which columns are displayed. Here’s how:

1. Click the Customize Button
2. Choose the columns to be displayed
3. Click OK.
4. To remove columns, click the little red ‘x’ at the top of each column.

User Preferences

Posted in: Help on

At Bidspeed, we’ve always believed that software should do what you want it to, not the other way around. In most parts of the application (lists, in particular) we remember everything – where you put your columns, your last search, sort, grouping, and column widths.

You may want to look at a few application wide settings that give you more control over everything. As usual, we’ve tried to keep it simple, so there are only a few settings that may need tweaking.

To change application wide settings, first click “Preferences.” (Upper right corner next to “Change Password.”)

My Account

Most of the settings are self-explanatory. The only one you will typically need to change is the “Full Page Width” setting. If you haven’t tried this yet and you have a wider (or higher resolution) monitor, then you might like it.

You can now change the overall display width of pages in Bidspeed from the standard centered version (800 pixels wide) to a full width version (as wide as your monitor).

Here’s how:

1. Click Preferences.
2. Check “Full Width” box on the Preferences page.
3. Click the Save button at the top of the page.

Full Width Preference

External Opportunities

Posted in: Help on April 21, 2010

So the deal you’re working on ISN’T in FedBizOpps? No problem. From the Home tab click ‘Create a new Opportunity’ and fill out the information. Note that these opportunities will be available ONLY to your account.

After you’ve created the opportunity, it will show up in your watchlist just like all other opportunities, and you’ll be able to attach documents, create tasks, assign priorities, and set important dates. It’s a good idea to attach the document(s) that are related to the opportunity as document on the opportunity.

The Solicitation Number you create is up to you. Our suggestion is to pick something that makes sense – we typically like to include a state prefix in the number – for example: TX-RFP-2054-9877. The text of the solicitation is optional, but we strongly suggest you type or paste at least a summary of the requirements into the summary editor.

On page 2 you’ll notice that you can enter a URL to the opportunity. It’s a good idea to enter a link to the main notification page and NOT the solicitation document, rather, attach the solicitation document to the opportunity as a document, and keep the link as a way to check for updates and amendments. (Remember, Bidspeed can’t check for updates on private opportunities.)

Keeping Track

Posted in: Blog, What's New on April 18, 2010

Selling your product or services to the government can be one of the best ways to transform your business from average to successful. The government is the largest buyer of products and services in the world with the added benefit of being mandated to pay you on time.

Of course, it’s not easy. There is a lot to keep track of. And while success ultimately depends on a great many things, there are two things that are absolutely essential – one: do everything on time, and two: do everything on time.

If you’re like us, there are simply too many individual tasks to do to keep it in your head. You need to write it all down some place. You need to keep track. While we know that there are as many ways to “keep track” as there are things to keep track of – all of them are essentially just a list of tasks.

We’ve just released an update to Bidspeed that promotes “keeping track” to a first class idea. Here’s the important changes:

• There are now 3 types of tasks –
  1. Opportunity tasks: related to items on your watchlist
  2. Contact tasks: related to contacts in your contact list.
  3. Stand-alone tasks: general purpose tasks
• The top-level tab “Tasks” shows you a list of all of them, grouped by the type of task. If you’ve related the task to a contact or an opportunity, you can click on the link and see a link directly related to the item the task applies to.
• You can now create tasks from 3 places:
  1. The main “Dashboard” (Click ‘Create a New Task’)
  2. An item on your watchlist (Click ‘New’ on the list of tasks)
  3. A contact in your contact list (Click ‘New’ on the list of tasks)

We’ve spent most of our time trying to keep it simple because we know that no matter how clever a list of tasks gets, if it isn’t used then it isn’t helpful.

The other major change is that you can see your tasks on a calendar and even move them around on the calendar. This makes for a very easy way to rearrange your day / week / month.

If you’d like to give it a try then you should try Bidspeed and start creating your tasks. It won’t cost you anything for the first 30 days and after that it’s less than $0.63 a day.

Hey, there is a lot to keep track of. Get out there and start keeping track.