A proposal writing team needs a version control system. Even for a small company where you are the sole proposal writer, a good system is essential. During the writing phase, there will be several iterations and modifications of documents. Keeping control of this very dynamic process is the purpose of the version control system.
If there’s a proposal writing team, then one person should be designated as the gatekeeper for the system. Only one person has the ability to go into the database and manipulate the master version or the final product. Imagine the confusion if multiple people accessed the database, pulling documents and editing or rewriting them, and then saving them for others to access. Eventually someone will say, “Hey, what happened to all those changes I made yesterday?”……
A good system needs to be easy to understand and use. It should have functions which limit who can pull documents, manipulate their contents, and save them back to the database. Only one person should be able to work on the document at any given time.
It can use the file nomenclature to indicate its history at a glance. A simple date designation will not suffice, as multiple updates will take place on a single day. Terms such as “draft” or “version 1” only work if the team understands their meaning, and adheres to the strict protocols necessary to control the document version.
The system needs to highlight each change that particular version represents– every single change. A reader should be able to see the latest changes immediate, instead of hunting and digging through old versions to compare against.
Another aspect of a good system is its archiving capability. You should have a version history which tracks all changes to their origin, as well as being able to restore the documents to an earlier version. If you ever need an audit trail of your proposal’s history, the version control system will be your best friend (or worst enemy).