Government solicitation analysis, built around your business.

What should a solicitation analysis cover?

Start with the complete request, rather than the opportunity headline. A short description can sound like a good fit while the underlying documents introduce staffing, delivery, experience or submission requirements that change the decision.

Separate the work the buyer wants performed from the instructions for submitting an offer and the criteria used to evaluate it. These are related, but they answer different questions. A technically strong response can still leave a submission instruction unanswered.

• Opportunity facts: the issuing organization, solicitation identifier, stated deadlines and place of performance.
• Scope: deliverables, technical tasks, service levels, staffing and the period of performance when stated.
• Response instructions: required volumes, attachments, formats, page limits and submission method.
• Evaluation: the factors and evidence the buyer says it will consider.
• Company alignment: relevant capabilities, eligibility information, experience and unresolved gaps.
• Review items: unclear passages, missing documents, conflicting dates and assumptions that require confirmation.

How CanAdd analyzes a solicitation

Begin by completing your company profile with accurate capabilities, NAICS codes, relevant status information and past performance. Company-specific analysis is only as useful as the information available to it; a missing qualification in the profile is a question to investigate, not proof that your company lacks it.

In the Solicitation Analyzer, provide the solicitation documents using the supported upload flow. CanAdd processes the document text and evaluates it with your company context to produce a Contract Intelligence Report. Use the report to prioritize review, then compare important findings with the original documents.

The report brings together a solicitation overview, an assessment of fit, risks, capability gaps, extracted requirements and review items. Source section or page references are included where identifiable. A reference helps you locate the basis of a finding; your team still needs to confirm the interpretation and completeness.

How to read the report without losing the detail

Read the executive assessment first to understand the overall direction, then inspect the reasons behind it. Focus on requirements that could change whether you pursue the opportunity: mandatory eligibility, hard deadlines, a required technical capability or evidence your team cannot yet supply.

Next, work through the requirement list and compliance matrix. Treat every important finding as a review task: find the original passage, compare it with your company evidence, and decide what action is needed. An item with low confidence or missing information should stay unresolved until you can verify it.

Finally, turn capability gaps into specific next steps. Instead of recording only ‘staffing risk,’ identify which role needs confirmation, who will check availability and when a decision is due. Keep the business decision separate from the model’s recommendation.

Prepare the documents for a useful review

Use the current version of the solicitation and keep its attachments and amendments together in your review process. Confirm that the text is readable and that tables, schedules and appended instructions have not been omitted from the material you provide.

Document extraction can lose information from scans, complex layouts or images. Check important numbers and dates against the original file. If a document is missing or unreadable, do not assume a summary has accounted for it.

When an amendment arrives, identify which source version changed and revisit the affected findings. A report based on an earlier package should not be treated as a current assessment merely because the opportunity title stayed the same.

When an analyzer helps—and what stays with your team

For a small contractor, the first benefit is a more organized initial review before spending proposal-writing time. For a capture lead, it provides a common starting point for discussing fit and gaps. For a proposal manager, extracted requirements help structure the response and the review checklist.

CanAdd is decision support. It does not determine an agency’s acceptance of your offer, certify compliance or predict an award. Fit describes alignment with the available company and solicitation information. Your team remains responsible for source review, pricing, final approvals and submitting through the required channel.

If you only need a general summary, a basic document reader may be sufficient. A company-aware workflow is useful when you also need to connect the request to your capabilities, review the gaps, and carry the requirements into proposal preparation.

Fictional training example

A network-support opportunity that needs one more answer

Imagine a fictional network-support request and a contractor with relevant maintenance experience. The initial review finds a strong technical match, but the company has not confirmed the requested coverage schedule.

The useful output is the unresolved decision: can the contractor deliver the required coverage with evidence and a workable cost? A favorable summary alone does not answer that question.

Your review checklist

• Confirm the solicitation identifier, version and current amendment set.
• Check that all supplied documents were readable and relevant attachments were reviewed.
• Verify deadlines, required files and submission instructions in the source.
• Review mandatory eligibility separately from desirable capabilities.
• Match the report’s important claims to source passages and company evidence.
• Assign an owner and due date to every decision-changing gap.
• Record your team’s bid decision and revisit it when the source package changes.

Free CSV worksheet. Opens in Excel or Google Sheets. No account required. Sample entries are fictional; replace them with your own source-checked details.

Frequently asked questions