Product Spotlight: How GreenLight's Compliance Capsule Turns 127 Requirements into 7 Scannable Sections

Federal RFPs are getting longer. A typical solicitation now spans hundreds of pages, with requirements scattered across the Statement of Work, Section L instructions, Section M evaluation criteria, CDRLs, attachments, and amendments.

According to industry research, initial document review alone takes 3-5 hours for a single RFP. One capture manager tracked their team's time on a recent Army task order response: of 340 total hours, 47 went to initial RFP parsing and compliance matrix construction.

That's nearly 14% of total proposal effort just to understand what the RFP is asking.

Today, we're diving deep into how GreenLight's Compliance Capsule transforms this tedious, error-prone process into something you can complete in minutes.

The Problem: Requirements Hidden Everywhere

If you've worked federal proposals, you know the challenge. Requirements don't appear in one convenient list. They hide in:

• Statement of Work (Section C/PWS): Technical requirements and deliverables
• Section L: Instructions to offerors, including format requirements
• Section M: Evaluation criteria that imply additional requirements
• CLINs and Pricing Schedules: Pricing structure requirements
• Attachments: Forms, templates, and supplementary specifications
• CDRLs: Delivery requirements often buried in appendices
• Amendments: Changes that may add, remove, or modify requirements

According to compliance matrix experts, "requirements hide in multiple locations: SOW, PWS, Section L, Section M, CDRLs, and attachments. Extracting them manually requires reading everything."

Miss a requirement, and your proposal may be eliminated. As one documented case shows, GSA eliminated 16 of 18 submissions as technically unacceptable on a $100 million contract—with compliance being a key issue.

The Solution: AI-Powered Extraction and Organization

GreenLight's Compliance Capsule attacks this problem at its root. Instead of leaving your team to manually hunt through hundreds of pages, our AI reads everything, identifies every requirement, and organizes them into a structured, scannable format.

How It Works

Step 1: Upload Your Documents

Drop your RFP documents into GreenLight—the main solicitation, attachments, amendments, everything. Our extraction engine processes PDF, Word, and Excel formats, handling multi-column layouts, tables, and embedded forms.

Step 2: AI-Powered Analysis

Within minutes, GreenLight's AI reads every page and identifies:

• Explicit requirements (shall, must, will statements)
• Implicit requirements (evaluation criteria implications)
• Format instructions (page limits, fonts, structure)
• Submission requirements (deadlines, portals, volumes)
• Compliance certifications needed

Step 3: The Compliance Capsule

Here's where the magic happens. Instead of presenting 127+ raw requirements in a flat list, GreenLight organizes them into seven scannable sections:

1. Overview: Contract summary, scope, and objectives
2. Timeline: Key dates, milestones, and deliverable schedules
3. Pricing: Cost structure, pricing format, and financial requirements
4. Eligibility: Set-asides, certifications, and qualification requirements
5. Insurance & Bonding: Coverage requirements and limits
6. Submission: Portal instructions, format requirements, volumes
7. Scope: Technical requirements organized by area

Each section presents requirements in digestible summaries with links back to source documents.

From Chaos to Clarity

Consider what this transformation looks like in practice.

Before: The Traditional Approach

Your proposal coordinator receives a 287-page RFP with 12 attachments and 3 amendments. They spend the next 5 hours:

• Reading every page of every document
• Highlighting potential requirements
• Creating a spreadsheet to capture each requirement
• Categorizing requirements by type
• Cross-referencing amendments against original text
• Building an initial compliance matrix

After 5 hours, they have a 127-row spreadsheet that requires another 2 hours to verify and organize. And they're still not sure they caught everything.

After: The Compliance Capsule Approach

You upload the same documents to GreenLight. Within minutes, you receive:

• A structured Compliance Capsule with all requirements organized into seven sections
• Each requirement linked to its source location for verification
• Questions flagged where requirements are ambiguous or conflicting
• An executive summary you can share with leadership immediately

Total time: minutes instead of hours. And because the AI reads every page, you have higher confidence that nothing was missed.

The Seven Sections Explained

Let's look at what each Compliance Capsule section provides:

1. Overview

The at-a-glance executive summary that lets leadership understand the opportunity quickly:

• Contract scope and objectives
• Agency and contracting office
• Period of performance
• Contract type (FFP, T&M, cost-reimbursable)
• Key stakeholders and points of contact

2. Timeline

Every date that matters, organized chronologically:

• Questions deadline
• Proposal due date and time
• Oral presentations (if applicable)
• Expected award date
• Performance start date
• Key deliverable milestones

3. Pricing

Everything affecting your cost volume:

• Required pricing format and structure
• Labor category requirements
• Travel and ODC guidance
• Pricing template specifications
• Evaluation approach (LPTA, best value, tradeoff)

4. Eligibility

Requirements that determine whether you can compete:

• Set-aside status (SDVOSB, 8(a), HUBZone, etc.)
• Required certifications (CMMI, ISO, etc.)
• Security clearance requirements
• Geographic restrictions
• Contract vehicle requirements

This section helps you make go/no-go decisions quickly by surfacing gating requirements.

5. Insurance & Bonding

Often-missed requirements that can disqualify:

• General liability minimums
• Professional liability requirements
• Workers' compensation specifications
• Bonding requirements
• Certificate submission timing

6. Submission

The mechanics of getting your proposal delivered:

• Submission portal and credentials
• Volume structure and organization
• Page limits by section
• Format requirements (fonts, margins, spacing)
• File naming conventions
• Required forms and attachments

7. Scope

The technical meat of what you'll deliver:

• Functional requirements organized by area
• Performance standards and metrics
• Staffing and labor requirements
• Technical approach expectations
• Deliverable specifications

Beyond Extraction: Questions and Gaps

The Compliance Capsule doesn't just extract requirements—it identifies problems.

Flagged Questions

When our AI encounters ambiguity, it flags questions for your attention:

• Conflicting requirements between sections
• Undefined terms that need clarification
• Missing information that affects your response
• References to attachments or standards not included

These questions help you prepare for the Q&A period with specific, actionable items.

Requirement Relationships

Some requirements reference others or depend on external standards. The Capsule traces these relationships:

• Cross-references between sections
• External standards and specifications cited
• Superseded requirements (from amendments)
• Conditional requirements based on contract structure

Integration with Your Workflow

The Compliance Capsule isn't a standalone report—it's the foundation for your entire proposal effort.

Go/No-Go Decisions

The Eligibility section surfaces gating requirements immediately. Within minutes of receiving an RFP, you can assess whether you meet mandatory qualifications without reading hundreds of pages.

Proposal Planning

The organized structure maps directly to your response outline. Scope requirements inform technical volume structure. Submission requirements guide production planning. Timeline requirements drive your schedule.

Compliance Tracking

Every Capsule requirement can be tracked through proposal development. As writers address requirements, status updates ensure nothing is forgotten. Before submission, verification confirms complete coverage.

The Time Savings Math

Let's quantify the impact.

Industry research indicates organizations can expect 60-70% reduction in initial parsing time with modern automation. For contractors handling 20+ proposals annually, that's 200-400 hours saved.

At average proposal professional billing rates, those hours represent substantial cost savings—savings that can be redirected to solution development, win strategy, and competitive differentiation.

But the real value isn't just time saved. It's confidence gained.

When your compliance matrix is built on manual reading, there's always uncertainty: Did we catch everything? What if something was buried on page 247?

When the AI has read every page and identified every requirement, that uncertainty diminishes. You're not hoping you found everything—you know you did.

From Extraction to Excellence

The Compliance Capsule transforms the least strategic part of proposal work—requirement extraction—into the most reliable. By automating what machines do well (reading every page, identifying patterns, organizing information), your team can focus on what humans do best (understanding customer needs, developing solutions, writing persuasively).

This isn't about replacing proposal expertise. It's about amplifying it.