Cadence by Captus
The only platform that thinks the way your bid team does.
Cadence is an integrated bid management platform built exclusively for Government and Defence suppliers. From AI-powered opportunity discovery through to one-click branded export — everything your bid team needs, in one place, built on genuine sector expertise.
Every organisation bidding for Government and Defence contracts is running their bid programme from Excel and PowerPoint. Cadence changes that.
The bid management tools that exist were built for generic project management or US enterprise RFP processes. None of them understand UK Government frameworks, APMP methodology, Defence procurement culture, or the specific workflow of a competitive bid team working against a submission deadline.
Cadence does. It was designed from the inside out — by someone who has spent fifteen years bidding, evaluating, and winning contracts in this specific market. Every module, every field, every export template reflects how Government and Defence bids are actually won.
Not adapted from a generic tool. Designed specifically for Government and Defence procurement from the ground up.
Cadence monitors Government tender portals continuously and pre-qualifies opportunities against your criteria before you even open the notice.
Opportunity data flows from Salesforce into Cadence automatically. Bid outcomes flow back. No double entry, no gaps.
Every document Cadence produces — qualification briefs, storyboards, bid plans — exports in your company's own branding, ready to share immediately.
The Problem Cadence Solves
The organisations that win consistently in Government and Defence are not using better spreadsheets. They are using better processes, better intelligence, and better discipline. Cadence systematises all three.
Monitoring tender portals manually is inconsistent. The right opportunity appears on a Friday afternoon and nobody sees it until Monday.
Without a structured framework, bid decisions are made on gut feel and seniority rather than evidence. Bid cost is wasted on unwinnable pursuits.
Win themes, discriminators, and competitive positioning exist in email chains and meeting notes. Nothing is shared, nothing is reviewed, nothing compounds.
Response quality depends entirely on who is writing that week. There is no consistent methodology, no reusable proof points, no quality baseline.
Win and loss patterns are invisible because all the data is trapped in files on someone's desktop. Every bid starts from scratch.
Turning bid data into a presentable document for leadership or a client review means hours of reformatting in PowerPoint or Word. Every single time.
The Platform
Cadence is built as a set of integrated modules covering the full bid lifecycle. Use the modules you need, when you need them. Everything connects.
AI-powered scanning of Government tender portals via our data partnership with Contract Finder Pro. New notices are automatically assessed against your criteria and pre-qualified before your team ever sees them. Alerts land in your inbox — and in Salesforce — the moment a relevant opportunity is published.
AI PoweredA Shipley and APMP-aligned weighted scoring framework across five dimensions — customer relationship, competitive position, solution readiness, commercial attractiveness, and bid resource. PWin estimate. Qualitative assessment. Automated pursue, conditional, or no-bid recommendation. One-click executive brief export in your company's branding.
Core ModuleA full bid programme planner with eight colour-coded workstreams, an interactive Gantt timeline that adjusts automatically when dates change, status dashboard, milestone tracking, and a live today marker. Everything a bid manager needs to run a programme without a separate project management tool.
Core ModuleAPMP Body of Knowledge-aligned response planning for every tender question. Win theme construction, discriminator testing, proof point capture, compliance matrix, graphics plan, and a fourteen-point best practice self-assessment. The methodology that consistently produces higher-scoring responses, built into every question.
Core ModuleStructured competitor analysis using the Bidder Comparison Matrix methodology. Ghost strategy planning. Incumbent identification from live award data. Competitive position assessment per opportunity. Turns scattered intelligence into a coherent strategy your whole team can execute from.
Phase 2A structured framework for stress-testing your bid strategy by thinking like the competition and the evaluator. Identify weaknesses before the ITT is submitted rather than after the result. The module that experienced bid teams know is essential but rarely have a systematic process for.
Phase 2A reusable library of proof points, case studies, past performance records, CVs, and supporting evidence — searchable and retrievable at the storyboard stage. AI-assisted retrieval suggests the most relevant evidence for each question. Your institutional knowledge, finally organised and accessible.
Phase 2Win rate tracking over time. Qualification score versus outcome correlation — the data that tells you which opportunities your scoring framework correctly predicts. Bid cost analysis. Pipeline value. Pattern recognition that makes every future bid decision more informed than the last.
Phase 3AI Intelligence Layer
Every AI feature in Cadence addresses a specific, real problem in the bid workflow. The AI makes recommendations. Your team makes decisions. That is the only way AI adds genuine value in high-stakes procurement.
Continuous monitoring of Government tender portals. New notices assessed against your criteria profile automatically. Relevant opportunities surface in your pipeline before competitors have found them manually.
Each incoming opportunity is scored across the five qualification dimensions using your organisation's profile as context. A natural language assessment explains the reasoning. Your team reviews and confirms — the AI does the groundwork.
Historical spend patterns, recent contract awards, published strategic priorities, and known incumbent positions — all surfaced automatically for each opportunity. The intelligence that used to take an analyst half a day, ready in seconds.
The AI reads the ITT question text and checks your storyboard against it. Missing compliance requirements are flagged before writing begins — not discovered in a red team review three days before submission.
When your storyboard needs evidence, the AI searches your Knowledge Library and surfaces the most relevant case studies and past performance data. The right proof point, found in seconds rather than minutes.
As win and loss data accumulates, Cadence identifies which qualification scores, buyer types, and bid approaches correlate with wins in your specific market. Intelligence that compounds with every bid you run.
One-Click Export
Every Cadence export is generated in your company's own branding — your logo, your colours, your identity. Upload your brand guidelines once during setup and every subsequent export reflects them automatically. No reformatting. No template hunting. No excuses for not having the brief ready.
Qualification briefs, competitive intelligence summaries, black hat review outputs, and executive presentations — generated as fully formatted, branded .pptx files ready to present without modification.
Storyboards, bid plans, compliance matrices, and response frameworks — exported as structured .docx files in your organisation's document style, ready for the writing team to work from.
Bid trackers, Gantt plans, qualification scorecards, and resource models — exported as fully functional .xlsx workbooks that your bid manager can use and share without rebuilding from scratch.
Salesforce Integration
Cadence integrates natively with Salesforce — the CRM used across the Government and Defence supplier market. Opportunity data flows in automatically. Bid outcomes flow back. Your commercial and bid teams stay in sync without manual updates or duplicate data entry.
When a Salesforce Opportunity reaches your configured stage, a Cadence bid workspace is created automatically — pre-populated with account, contact, and value data.
Qualification scores, PWin estimates, and bid status updates flow from Cadence back into the Salesforce Opportunity record in real time.
When Cadence identifies a pre-qualified opportunity via the AI intelligence layer, a new Salesforce Opportunity is created and assigned automatically.
Key bid events — qualification decisions, review completions, submission confirmations — are logged as Activities on the Salesforce record, providing a complete audit trail.
Cadence win rate, bid cost, and pipeline data surfaces in Salesforce dashboards alongside your commercial metrics — one view of business performance.
Available on the Salesforce AppExchange — discoverable by the entire Salesforce ecosystem of Government and Defence organisations.
Platform Preview
Cadence is currently in development. Platform screenshots and demo videos will be added here as the product launches. Register your interest below to be among the first to access the beta.
Pricing
Simple, transparent pricing. No hidden setup fees. No per-user penalties for involving your wider team. Cancel or upgrade at any time.
Essentials
Core workflow tools for smaller bid teams getting started with structured bid management.
Professional
The full Cadence platform for active bid teams with a consistent pipeline of Government and Defence opportunities.
Enterprise
For mid-tier suppliers with a dedicated bid function who need the complete platform and Salesforce integration.
15% discount on all tiers for annual commitment. Captus consultancy clients receive Cadence Professional access included during their engagement.
Early Access
Cadence is currently in development and accepting expressions of interest from early access users. Early access subscribers receive founding member pricing, direct input into product development, and priority onboarding when the platform launches.
Register Your InterestNo commitment required. We will be in touch with launch details and early access information.