How an agency employs and benefits from this system:

A free (agency branded) version of Government Forms Software^® (GFS) is made available to all participating firms via a download from the agency web site.  GFS has over 5,000 users nationwide and is already the industry standard for electronically producing SF254/255's and the new SF330.

The forms are completed and/or updated through GFS and then transmitted as XML and PDF documents electronically to the agencies' server with the just a single click of the mouse.  The agencies form database resides on the agencies own servers running any ODBC compliant database or on a specified secure partition on an Enlightened Software Linux based SQL server.  When received, information from the transmitted forms is automatically parsed into a secure SQL table.  For integration and compatibility with other systems, the required XML and PDF files may be generated by other sources besides GFS and posted manually.

This process is a straight-forward approach that can bring a large number of pre-qualified firms down to a manageable sized list.  Using an integrated evaluation process, administrative personnel can generate their own criteria items for selection committee members who, in turn, use a custom designed Excel spreadsheet to critique the submittals individually and then upload their results back to the system to automatically tally scores and generate short-lists.  A key point here from the firm's point of view is that the forms can actually retain their original format because it plays into how firms tend to market themselves in this industry.  Appearance, neatness and concise information on these forms are crucial part of the process and this system allows firms to retain these qualities during the submittal process.