About Sumaria Systems

Founded in 1982, Sumaria Systems provides engineering services and solutions to the Department of War and national security customers. With operations across the U.S., Sumaria rapidly delivers capability to our customers. Sumaria’s core capabilities include engineering and innovation, program mission support, information technology, and test and evaluation services. Sumaria is recognized for its mission support, providing analytical and operational services to the Department of Defense and Intelligence Communities, as well as specialized solutions in secure communications, telecommunications, and learning management system sustainment. 

Sumaria supports federal customers through multiple contract vehicles, including OASIS+, ASTRO, Base Infrastructure Modernization (BIM), SeaPort NxG, GSA MAS IDIQ, and STARS III 8(a). The company has delivered more than 1,199 projects, executing complex, global programs across some of the most critical and sophisticated platforms worldwide.

Challenge

Disconnected Files Turned Simple Responses Into Long Cycles

Before adopting GovDash, Sumaria’s capture and proposal execution relied heavily on “old school” methods: manual research, manual shredding, and decentralized files spread across SharePoint folders and email threads.

As the team grew and was distributed across the United States, the pain became more obvious:

Too much manual work fell on the proposal team. Proposal managers were spending days on early-stage work that could have been automated, such as reviewing requirements, structuring outlines, and managing documents.

Content and resumes were inconsistent and hard to track. There was no standard resume template, no easy way to know what was current, and no consistent formatting across the organization. Updating and converting resumes can take anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours, depending on complexity.

Documents lived everywhere. Historical proposal files, resumes, and supporting data existed in multiple locations, with limited visibility across divisions and teams. That made reuse slower and created unnecessary risk when responding under time pressure.

The team also knew the landscape was changing. Larger contractors and government agencies were leaning into AI-enabled workflows, and Sumaria didn’t want to fall behind.

“GovDash was our first foray into AI. Like a lot of people, I was initially really scared of the word AI, but we realized we needed to start getting smart about it.” — Donna Kerstis, Senior Proposal Manager

Solution

GovDash Unified Sumaria’s Proposal Work and Accelerated RFI Responses

Sumaria began piloting GovDash in December 2024 and quickly expanded its use across the growth team. With business development, proposal, pricing, and analysis working together early in capture, the team needed a system that could support a tightly integrated workflow. They started by consolidating contracts and key documents, then used GovDash to handle tasks like document shredding, outline creation, and accelerating early drafts and past performance development.

“We saw value immediately. Once everything was in one place, it was a no-brainer to move forward.”— Donna Kerstis, Senior Proposal Manager

As usage expanded, GovDash delivered a key benefit the team didn’t expect: it unified their processes and documentation across the organization. So much so that the HR team now uses GovDash to search for and use resumes seamlessly.

“Honestly, it’s been a unifier for us. It has unified company documents and processes, and that was an unforeseen benefit.” — Michelle Nixon, Chief Growth Officer

Faster, higher-confidence RFI responses

Sumaria used GovDash to accelerate technical RFI responses while keeping humans in the loop. GovDash generated the initial structure and draft, and SMEs validated, edited, and refined the content to ensure accuracy, compliance, and technical credibility before submission.

For example, a highly technical 13-page RFI that typically took up to two and a half weeks was completed in just a couple of days using GovDash.

• An initial draft was created in about 90 minutes.

• SMEs reviewed, edited, verified, and validated within 24 hours.

• The team scrubbed and submitted the final response in three days.

“We had an initial draft in a matter of an hour and a half,” Michelle said. “Then we gave SMEs 24 hours to review, edit, verify, and validate. We had it submitted in three days.”

Standardizing nearly 400 resumes, fast

During the slower period of government proposal activity this year, Sumaria used GovDash for a significant internal modernization effort: standardizing its employee resume database.

The team converted hundreds of resumes into a consistent template to accelerate staffing analysis and proposal submissions, primarily for IDIQs and scoring-heavy proposals.

“Dash was doing it in 10 minutes,” Donna said, “regardless of whether it was a Word or PDF, and regardless of what format the source resume was in.”

The ripple effects went beyond proposals: standardized resumes also improved HR reporting and made annual resume updates easier during performance appraisal cycles.

Results

Faster RFIs and a Single Source of Truth for Proposal Work

Before GovDash, speed was limited by manual effort and fragmented files. With GovDash, Sumaria accelerated RFI execution and consolidated proposal knowledge into one system, delivering efficiency gains:

• RFI turnaround cut from 2.5 weeks to 3 days for a 13-page technical response

• Nearly 400 resumes standardized into a consistent format, reducing conversion work from hours to minutes per resume

• One place for institutional knowledge, unifying documents and processes across teams and divisions

What’s Next

Sumaria is preparing to deepen its end-to-end proposal execution capabilities as government activity increases in the coming year. With GovDash’s new FedRAMP environment, the team also plans to expand how they connect and centralize artifacts, including CPARS and status reports, to make contract and performance data even more actionable for capture and proposal work.

As proposal activity increases, Sumaria is focused on improving quality and execution across capture and proposal work. Stronger processes enable faster, more accurate responses, allowing the team to stay focused on delivering engineering and IT solutions that support critical national security missions.