A bid with 34 requirements is largely written from scratch, even though the text already exists.
The blocks sit in old bids, in the knowledge base and in personal folders. People hunt for them with full-text search and by asking colleagues who remember them. Anyone who finds nothing writes it again, and the collection gains yet another version of the same paragraph.
34requirementsEach of these points in the bid needs its own section of text.
21existing blocksText for these points already exists in the firm, spread across three repositories.
40 minutessearch per blockFull-text search, asking a colleague, checking against the latest version.
13sections written from scratchWhatever the search misses is written all over again.
Forty minutes of searching per block, twenty-one times over, is what lies behind the 60% less writing effort: new writing is only needed for the 13 points with no existing text.
The 60% reduction in writing effort is this agent's headline figure. The number of requirements, blocks found and search minutes reflect a typical bid and are illustrative, not measured.