Cadence by Captus
From opportunity to outcome — in one place, wherever you bid.
Cadence replaces the spreadsheets, email chains, human data gathering and, manual workflows that most bid teams still rely on. It is a purpose-built platform covering the full bid lifecycle — opportunity intelligence, qualification, bid planning, response writing, competitor analysis, and win/loss learning — with AI built into every stage.
Most bid teams are running a multi-million pound programme from Excel and a shared drive. Cadence was built to change that.
The bid management tools that exist were built for US enterprise RFP processes or generic project management. None of them understand UK Government frameworks, APMP methodology, Defence procurement culture, or the specific pressure of a competitive bid team working against a submission deadline.
Cadence does. It was designed from the inside out — by a former bid manager who has spent fifteen years bidding, winning, and losing contracts in this specific market. Every feature exists because it solves a real problem that bid teams face every day.
Not adapted from a generic tool. Designed specifically for Government and Defence procurement from the ground up, with UK frameworks, APMP methodology, and procurement culture built in.
Every AI feature in Cadence uses your organisation profile, bid strategy, and competitive context as its foundation. It produces outputs that are relevant, not generic.
From the moment an opportunity is identified through to win/loss recording and lessons learned — every stage of the bid lifecycle has a dedicated workspace in Cadence.
Built for bid management consultancies and multi-entity organisations from day one. Full role-based access control and organisation-level data isolation.
The Problems Cadence Solves
These are not hypothetical problems. They are what happens in every bid team that is still running its programme from shared drives and spreadsheets.
Monitoring Contracts Finder manually is inconsistent. The right opportunity appears on a Friday and nobody acts until Monday. By then competitors have a head start.
Without a structured qualification framework, the decision to bid is made on gut feel and relationship politics. Bid resource is wasted on unwinnable pursuits.
Win themes, ghost strategies, and competitive positioning exist in email threads and meeting notes. They are never shared, never refined, and never compound into organisational knowledge.
Without a structured storyboard and evidence library, response quality varies entirely by author. There is no consistent methodology and no reusable proof points.
Win and loss patterns are invisible because all the data is trapped in files on someone's desktop. The same mistakes repeat across bids, quarters, and years.
Nobody knows a bid is in trouble until a milestone is missed or a submission deadline is suddenly close. There is no early warning system because there is no single place to see the full picture.
Features & Benefits
Every module in Cadence was built to solve a specific, named problem. Here is what each one does and what it means for your team.
Cadence connects directly to Contracts Finder and surfaces new notices that match your criteria. Each opportunity is automatically assessed against your organisation profile and pre-qualified before your team ever sees it.
A Shipley and APMP-aligned weighted scoring framework across five dimensions — Customer Relationship, Competitive Position, Solution Readiness, Commercial Attractiveness, and Bid Resource. Each score is supported by notes. The system generates a Pursue, Conditional, or No Bid recommendation and an AI-written executive narrative you can share upward immediately.
A full bid programme planner with eight colour-coded workstreams, milestone tracking, action assignment, and a live Bid Health monitor. Every team member knows what they own, what is overdue, and what is at risk — without a weekly status call to find out.
The Question Tracker gives every tender question its own workspace — win theme, discriminators, proof points, evaluation criteria, response structure, word limit, and compliance notes. When the storyboard is complete, Cadence generates an AI first draft that follows your structure, leads with your win theme, and uses your organisation's capabilities and experience as its evidence base.
A competitor library that builds over time. For each opportunity, tag the competitors you expect to face and access their profile — capabilities, known strengths and weaknesses, typical pricing approach, and incumbent status. The Ghost Strategy tool uses AI to generate a competitive positioning plan based on what you know about each named competitor.
When an opportunity is marked Won or Lost, Cadence prompts a structured close-out — confirmed contract value, technical score, commercial score, win factors, lost-to competitor, lost-at stage, primary reason, and lessons learned. This data accumulates into a genuine intelligence asset that makes every future bid decision more informed.
AI Intelligence Layer
Every AI feature in Cadence uses your organisation profile as its foundation — your sectors, capabilities, certifications, strengths, and notable wins. The outputs are relevant to your organisation, not generic. Your team makes the decisions; Cadence does the groundwork.
Each incoming opportunity from Contracts Finder is assessed against your organisation profile. A qualification recommendation and natural language rationale is generated before your team opens the notice.
When your scorecard is complete, Cadence generates a two to three sentence executive summary capturing the recommendation, rationale, and any critical conditions — ready to share upward immediately.
The Bid Health monitor reads across your milestones, actions, questions, CQs, and deadline proximity to generate a status assessment — On Track, At Risk, or Critical — with specific flagged issues and recommended actions.
For each tender question with a completed storyboard, Cadence generates an AI first draft that follows your response structure, leads with your win theme, and uses your organisation's capabilities and experience as its evidence base.
When a buyer issues a clarification response, Cadence analyses its impact on your bid strategy — flagging changes to pricing assumptions, technical approach, compliance requirements, or resource planning.
For each named competitor on an opportunity, Cadence generates a ghost strategy — what their bid is likely to look like, where they will be strong, where they will be weak, and how to position against them.
Organisation Profile
Every AI feature in Cadence uses your Organisation Profile as its context. During onboarding you complete a structured profile covering your sectors, core capabilities, certifications, geographic reach, key clients, notable wins, competitive strengths, and strategic priorities.
This profile is the foundation on which every AI output is built. A response draft generated by Cadence references your actual certifications and case studies. A qualification narrative reflects your actual strategic priorities. A ghost strategy is calibrated to your actual competitive position — not a generic one.
The more complete your profile, the more useful every AI output becomes.
Tag the Government and Defence sectors you actively pursue. AI qualification recommendations are weighted against these targets.
Your capability and accreditation profile feeds directly into AI response drafts and qualification narratives.
Honest assessment of where you are strong and where you are not. Used to calibrate qualification recommendations and ghost strategy outputs.
Your 12-24 month strategic priorities. Used to weight AI qualification scores towards the markets and contract types that matter most.
Pricing
Simple, transparent pricing. No hidden setup fees. Cancel or upgrade at any time.
Standard
The full Cadence platform with every feature included. No tiered feature gates — every user gets everything.
Enterprise
For larger bid functions and consultancies. Every feature available to every user, with enterprise-grade controls and support.
Enterprise Unlimited
For the largest bid operations. Every feature, every user, no limits — with the highest level of support and service.
15% discount for annual commitment. Captus consultancy clients receive Cadence access included during their engagement.
Get Started
Cadence is available now at cadencebids.com. Request access and we will have your organisation set up within 24 hours — including your Organisation Profile, your first users, and a walkthrough of the platform with your team.
Built by Captus. Hosted securely in the UK. GDPR compliant.