Real-Life Communication
You operate your own small photogrammetry business called Ace Photogrammetrics.
You are always looking for contracts with businesses, governments or other
organizations that are in need of photogrammetry services.
This often
means that you must prepare written proposals stating your interest in performing
the work. Since you are competing with other photogrammetric services, it
is important that your proposal is very well written. The contract is usually
awarded to the bidder that the government or the organization decides will
do the best job at a price that is affordable.
The local government
in your area has recently sent out a request for proposals (RFP) asking for
bids on a photogrammetric project called Wild 'n' Wet. The RFP is coded RFP
AC87.
They want maps of 60 square acres of marshland that are going
to be used as a theme park and wildlife reserve. The project is to be completed
in three months and the total budget must not exceed $16,000.
You decide
to write an RFP consisting of five main sections.
- The executive summary comes at the beginning and summarizes your proposal.
- The procurement section identifies how you intend to take the photographs
and how you will deliver them. After thinking about this for a while, you
decide that you will need to subcontract with Aerial Images, a company offering
aerial photography services.
Their aerial photographer tells you that to
get the right kind of photographs, they will need to fly their plane at a
height of 1,000 feet and will only fly in clear weather with no clouds or
smoke. They suggest using color film and delivering the maps as photo enlargements.
Their
total price for doing this aspect of the work will be $7,500. You estimate
that this phase of the project will require six weeks to complete, as you
will have to wait for appropriate weather conditions to take the photographs.
- The ground control section comes next. The aerial photographs have to
be translated into ground coordinates. You do that by measuring known points
on the ground. Points that you can find and measure on the ground also appear
on the photograph.
You decide that you and your assistants can do this yourselves.
You decide to charge a flat rate of $40 per acre. You decide that this section
will require three weeks to complete.
- You decide to provide digital photographs, since they are more accurate.
Digital photographs are computer-generated images.
In this section, you
will explain the rationale and process for producing digital photographs.
Aerial photographs have distortions due to the camera lens, tip and tilt,
or the relief of the land. Aerial photographs can be corrected by scanning
them into a computer and then using special software to correct the distortions.
When
you key in the orientation of the photograph and the elevations of the ground,
the software will then determine mathematically where the pixels (tiny dots
of color used in digital graphics) should fall. You then move the pixels to
the correct location and the distortion is eliminated.
Your software
was costly, and using it correctly requires a lot of skill. You decide to
charge $650 for this service. This will take you about 10 days to complete.
- You have to include a budget. Your budget will indicate how much you will
charge for doing the project. You will have to include the expense of subcontracting
with the aerial photographers as well as your charges for ground control and
digitization.
Since your business also has to make a profit, you decide to charge
an additional 10 percent in addition to the total expenses. You are also required
by law to collect a seven percent tax.
Writing a proposal of this nature
is a lot of work. You will start by creating an outline and summarizing the
key information that will appear in each section of the outline.
Write
your outline now.