Responsive (formerly RFPIO)

Avantages

The functionality and ease of use. It is easy for us to assign it to some other people that we need in collaboration with the project

Inconvénients

None so far, we are still currently exploring some other functionalities and integrations but so far we dont have any issues with it

Avantages

Responsive is the best tool I've used so far and I've tried a couple. It's intuitive, clean, and they are always adding features that are easy to learn and enhance user experience vs. takeaway. I have also enjoyed their new certification program. It has really helped me to utilize the tool better for myself and company.

Inconvénients

Price, but the sales team is a pleasure to work with and have been very helpful in meeting us where we are.

Avantages

Mainly the project management capabilities of the product. The first step of vetting an RFP always takes time, but with Responsive your hard work is rewarded with automation after you get the ball rolling.

Inconvénients

Building the database wasn't as intuitive as I would have liked, though the custom fields being able to be facets alongside tags is a great feature for those who are used to a traditional folder structure.

Avantages

I like how seamless most things are, I like the review workflow, I like that many things are customizable for the organization

Inconvénients

While most things are seamless, there are still some issues with linking the modules. We often try to find projects in the Recommended search that should be in our archive but these two entities are separate. Also there are spacing issues and formatting issues upon export. Merge tags also seem to add random spaces or make adding text around the merge tag difficult and time consuming. I've tried to float some of these issues to responsive but often they have just let me know that that is a known function of the software.

Avantages

Responsive has an easy to use and easy to learn UI, which makes it easier to onboard new members/teams to the tool. It provides us an opportunity to create and leverage an answer library and collaborate with multiple teams at the same time, helping save a lot of time. Another great aspect is the value for money that the tool provides, compared to similar tools available in the market. Lastly, the account management team is very helpful and responsive (pun intended) and it is always a pleasure to work with them.

Inconvénients

The answer suggestions that the tool provides while working on a questionnaire are incorrect a lot of times because sometimes the tool does a simple keyword match and because of the nature of questions, although the keywords may match, the answers suggested do not match the question at all. During such times, we rely on the human expertise and experience to search for the correct answers in the library.

Alternatives envisagées 

Qvidian

Pourquoi passer à Responsive (formerly RFPIO)

Value for money, simpler UI, great account mgmt team,

Avantages

Responsive is one of the best RFP tool I have worked on. Any functionality from RFPIO is top notch be it a UI, export functionality, AI response. I will say RFPIO is the best tool for RFP responses.

Inconvénients

Some time import of Ariba file doesnt work as it fail to take drop done. Also word template for response also some time create issues.

Avantages

- Very user friendly
- Smooth transitions between tabs and sections
- Lots of options for sorting and filtering
- "Collections" feature is extremely helpful

Inconvénients

- Copy and paste function sometimes doesn't work properly
- When I'm in a Q/A pair, I'm unable to see what (if any) collection the pair is a part of. You can see this with the tags, so I'd like to see it with collections as well

Avantages

> Supporting team collaboration through clear assignment of sections/questions/tasks
> Clear dashboard function that shows the tasks, progress and status of each question
> The export function helps to create bid documents with a uniform look/formatting.

Inconvénients

It is not possible to
- search for possible Q/A-pairs in all completed projects (that are not part of the Answer Library)
- reliably update the source file
- to import read-only word/pdf-files with preset text-boxes to fill

It is difficult to collaborate with clients and/or vendors on an RFP, if they have more than one question to answer.

Avantages

1. Quick Access to Relevant Content: Responsive AI has made it easy to find the most relevant materials for any proposal. This reduces time spent searching for content, improving efficiency and consistency.
2. Improved Consistency and Accuracy: Responsive has helped standardize language and style across different proposals, ensuring that branding and messaging remain consistent. It also reduces errors by providing content that has been vetted for accuracy and relevance.
Reduced Proposal Turnaround Time: With streamlined access to content, automated suggestions, and faster assembly, Responsive content libraries has significantly shorten the proposal development cycle.

Inconvénients

I understand that the AI references the Content Library, but I would also like it to include responses based on information from documents uploaded to the tool.

Avantages

There are many options for organizing the Content Library, from tags, to collections, to multiple responses to a question, and more. The project management feature is also useful, especially the option to invite guests to collaborate and not require them to make an account.

Inconvénients

There are many minor glitches, which after contacting the support team, usually get fixed in a timely manner, but after a while I don't want to report every little thing and wished that the QA team would catch them before going into production. Also the customer care team is hit and miss, and we faced some communication issues when it came to billing.

Avantages

Responsive's AI add-in has been a game changer for our team. The AI add-in not only helps speed up the response but also automates a lot of redundant tasks that the team had to perform.

Inconvénients

Reponsive has recently changed their licensing model. The current licensing model doesn't support scaling without breaking the bank.

Avantages

It is fairly intuitive and have most of the features that I want. Definitely easier to use than another other similar product I've used.

Inconvénients

Would like a little more sophistication in some functions such as excluding certain items permanently from the duplication report. I also still manually load excel workbooks because the program has problems properly sorting complicated worksheets.

Avantages

I love how Responsive has centralized our proposal process. It's much easier to manage multiple RFPs simultaneously, and the version control is excellent.

Inconvénients

It took some time to fully understand the platform's capabilities and navigate the interface.

Avantages

The feature of Responsive that multiple collaborators can work on an RFP simultaneously is amazing. Also, the features like the content library, review, etc are very useful.

Inconvénients

Everything almost is perfect about the tool. I don't feel there is a drawback.

Avantages

I like it’s user interface, and the use of AI.

Inconvénients

I do not think the question matching is as good as it could be.

Avantages

Ease of proposal creation, and the ability to have an easily accessible and up-to-date content library.

Inconvénients

We had some initial issues with answers not uploading correctly. It was resolved with the customer service team.

Avantages

I love the various tags, I also appreciate the ability to add questions sets and answers to the library for a reviewer to vet and then place for the entire team to use.

Inconvénients

Sometimes charts and pictures do not retain the quality resolution

Avantages

The extensive repository and auto-answer functionality

Inconvénients

User interface can be improved better and more AI features are required which will help faster and accurate completion of RFP

Avantages

I like how it acts as as repository for our Q&As and can also help with projects.

Inconvénients

I don't like the lack of functionality around custom fields. For my company it is really important the AI doesn't give wrong info based on wrong product version.`

Avantages

It is Easy to use

It is Simple

Get the job done

Inconvénients

There are no extra or advanced features like reporting or Searching capabilities.

Avantages

the consolidation of resources and the ease of searching and retrieval

Inconvénients

No cons so far. One suggestion for improvement could be the integration of AI-driven search queries. This would allow users to receive suggestions based on asking questions rather than relying solely on keyword-based searches.

Avantages

The RFP tool features and functionality are good and responsive. And the tool is customer supportive.

Inconvénients

The development and responsive of the tool

Avantages

RFP and workflow management becomes very easy with this tool. The content library and review cycles has helped out team a lot

Inconvénients

There is no particular drawback. This tool has helped us a lot

Avantages

Repository for all responses, ease of use, filtering

Inconvénients

Updates to the database of responses needs to be constantly maintained

Avantages

It is very easy to use and makes the business process management effective.

Inconvénients

The user interface could be improved. deployment process can be improved.

Avantages

The progress tracking is nice and the ability to tag people for help on questions is useful.

Inconvénients

The search is terrible. It constantly misidentifies what I'm searching for and shows completely unrelated results. Searching for answers is our main use case for this tool and it fails pretty miserably. I waste a lot of time in Responsive looking for things that should be straightforward.

Its always a crapshoot importing documents, a lot of time it messes up identifying the right questions and answers and i've lost track of how many times the answers get exported to the wrong cell.

Avantages

Great way to effectively store, and track over time, responses to RFPs, Security Reviews and Questionnaires. It's great for knowledge management and makes it easy for our team to answer deep security questions.

Inconvénients

Full text search still feels janky and unreliable compared to tags and filters.

Avantages

The best feature is that it standardizes answers across the enterprise. No more "winging it" and hoping you're not misleading the client,

Inconvénients

The usefulness of Responsive depends on how much effort you put into setup and upkeep. If your colleagues don't keep it up to date, it is less valuable.

Avantages

Must say that the workflow management gets really better using this tool. The tool gives option to manage the workflows which has really helped me

Inconvénients

The interface or the user facing side could be updated as it feels a bit old school

Avantages

Ease of Use and Integration into Word/Excel. Automated/Template Answers

Inconvénients

The GUI is a bit clunky, but easy to use.

Avantages

Import and export is a game changer. I like the Slack integration.

Inconvénients

The UI can hide features in unusual areas.

Avantages

The ability to quickly enter a search string and get a result that I may need on a call or need for an RFP. Having that info quick and ready to go is important.

Inconvénients

We have to spend a good amount of time curating the content and this is not a product fault but It highlights the importance of having a resource responsible for this maintenance

Avantages

It provides a consolidated tool to manage all of our RFPs. Promotes collaboration and allows us to finish lengthy RFPs in a quick and diligent manner.

Inconvénients

Wish there was a more compact view that I could control what is shown in the UI

Avantages

knowledge base search was great and the only dificuylty was finding one among many

Inconvénients

tough UI finding one among many from time to time

Avantages

One central location to share information.

Inconvénients

Data management capabilites, limitations of user capabilities, exporting of data, user experience.

Avantages

Ease of Use, continuous improvement pushed in CI/CD from the cloud.

Inconvénients

a) PowerPoint better integrated in the solution to also compose slide decks presentation for RFI responses, or business development pro active proposal. It however then first need a function that can search per slide into presentations of the repository.

b) an ability to moderate the answers of completed RFP in the same sequence as they appear into the RFP... for now all the Q&A of an RFP are mixed, which makes the moderator nervous in changing its focus on a series of related Q&A instead of getting them in the logical order

Avantages

RFPIO has helped streamline the RFP process in our organization. We are able to include more SMEs in the RFP process with little to no training. The previous software we used, was very hard to figure out and manage, which resulted in necessary people not wanting to engage with the tool because it was too complicated. RFPIO changed all of this for us and has made it easy for our teams to collaborate.

Inconvénients

We had some issues integrating with Salesforce, and the reporting aspect is still not what we want it to be. We have custom roles, and because we only use SSO we cannot 'impersonate' other roles for training and development purposes.

Avantages

The ability to upload our customer templates and answer on the fly, and then download the completed template. Very intuitive to find responses to questions in the library. Auto tagging Questions & Answers in templates.

Inconvénients

There were a few bumps in the new version and a bit of a learning curve but overall a very good software for our needs.

Avantages

RFPIO's answer library is a miracle with great features. The library provides a way to assign different owners and keep individual Q&A pairs updated in real. Access to our stock answers saves our users and SMEs hundreds of hours each quarter and affords them more time to devote to their primary job functions while spending less time on researching technical responses.

Inconvénients

RFPIO is great for small to moderate sized teams. For larger organizations who complete 20 or more RFPs per month with multiple RFP teams working at the same time, multiple, parallel instances of RFPIO may be needed to best suit those needs on a grand scale.

Alternatives envisagées 

Qvidian

Pourquoi passer à Responsive (formerly RFPIO)

Ease of use, simplicity of platform relevant to our team's needs...and COST!!

Avantages

RFPIO has the best document import in the business. It's flexible enough to handle almost any format of document, but still offers plenty of time-saving shortcuts. The export functionality is also very good--it almost always results in a clean, tidy document.

I also love the flexibility of the Answer Library. Features like merge tags, intelligent tagging, custom fields, collections and categories mean that the Library is more than capable of handling just about any business case you can throw at it.

Inconvénients

My computer tends to have some latency issues when trying to work with large projects, and everything takes maybe just one more click than I'd like, but I also think that the payoff there is an interface which really does not need to much explanation for end-users.

Avantages

RFPIO is the amazing tool for task management as well as for workflow management as we in our team has multiple tasks that are assigned independently to other resources and these tasks can be automatically monitored by team lead.Similarly workflow management helped us to follow the pipeline that we built for each iteration of task.

Inconvénients

E-signature feature of this tool is not upto the mark also it don't provide more varieties of docs in customised documents section but we can create different instances of the same using valid methods.

Alternatives envisagées 

Qvidian

Pourquoi choisir Responsive (formerly RFPIO) 

The workflow management features of these tools were not as smooth as that of RFPIO tool.

Pourquoi passer à Responsive (formerly RFPIO)

As per our current requirements we were looking for a tool with best task management and workflow management tool and RFPIO tick all the boxes.

Avantages

Generally speaking, everything about this software is incredible. My absolute favorite feature of RFPIO is the Answer Library, specifically the Recommendations toolbar, and how accurate it is. I'd previously worked with Microsoft Sharepoint, which offered no such functionality, and working on proposals was way more tedious and time consuming than necessary. RFPIO fixes that.

Inconvénients

Sometimes RFPIO has a hard time formatting certain files - which is understandable, seeing as different clients present different RFP formats. My two biggest issues are that certain tables, especially in Word format, have to be formatted in "Table Properties," rather than simply being able to click on a cell and making it a Question, Subquestion, etc.

Secondly, I'm often presented with situations where the client's designated answer space is in the same column as the question, just a row down. I don't believe RFPIO can recognize this yet.

Avantages

The ease of collaboration across the company and the ability to manage the RFP process in a far more streamlined fashion than previously. RFPIO allows the user to search for just the right content with ease. RFPIO has truly changed the way we do business -- for the better.

Inconvénients

Nothing, really. Whenever I have had an issue (all minor) with how the software works (for instance, a notification I wanted to turn off), the RFPIO team helped me with a workaround. It really works extremely well for us.

Avantages

Being able to view an Overview of a project is impactful for proposal managers, showing the completion status, flags etc.

Inconvénients

For large projects, RFPIO is not ideal. Too much clicking to get to sets of questions. Not enough formatting options for ingestion, for example, we receive a lot of RFPs with varying types of checkboxes, RFPIO cannot accommodate this. Its too cumbersome for large RFPs for the proposal manager. For the responders, I believe its more helpful.

Avantages

The UI on RFPIO is so sleek and elegant, but more importantly, it's incredibly intuitive. Our goal for purchasing this product is to find something that will scale for us as we expand into different verticals, but also that will be easy for non-writer teammates to pick up. I have no doubt that RFPIO is the perfect choice to grow with us.

Inconvénients

Nothing, really. Still figuring out the integration into our template, but that's just lack of time on my part, rather than a flaw in the software itself.

Alternatives envisagées 

Qvidian

Pourquoi passer à Responsive (formerly RFPIO)

I actually went into the evaluation process as a formality, ready to commit to Qvidian, which I knew from other jobs. I was not prepared to be so wowed by RFPIO, its ease of use, and how simple it was to implement into our operations. My mind was completely changed!

Avantages

The Answer Library is by far the most useful feature for our team. Automatically capturing these responses, and manually tagging them with metadata makes search and retrieval easy - and also narrows results in suggested answers significantly making it easy to find what you are looking for (as long as it was capture in a previous project).

Inconvénients

We have no really managed to use this as an end-to-end solution yet. It is designed to use that way, but many of our Styles were incompatible with system fonts when we began using the product.

Alternatives envisagées 

Qvidian

Pourquoi passer à Responsive (formerly RFPIO)

The features and pricing more closely aligned with our needs.

Avantages

RFPIO has changed the way we do RFPs. Instead of subject matter expects dragging their feet and complaining about yet another RFP, they are excited to help out. This is due to the great answer library, recommendation engine, and great interface.

Not to mention that they have a great customer success team which always lends a friendly hand when need be.

Inconvénients

The software is only as good as the data you put into it. If you don't take care of the library, the system won't be nearly as good.

Avantages

RFPIO is flexible and powerful and saves us time. It allows us to fully manage our library of responses, as well as attachments and projects, with easy visibility into what is going on. Even better it allows multiple divisions of our company to manage everything in one system!

Inconvénients

There is nothing we don't like about RFPIO.

Avantages

RFPIO has helped my team save tons of time and resources. We often complete functional requirements in excel spreadsheets. Being able to match thousands of requirements to previous responses in an hour really helps save time for our responders and lets us focus on other aspects of the RFP.

Inconvénients

Unfortunately, there is a lot of work that has to be done to format the information outside of the system to meet my team's standards. Sometimes we avoid using the system to it's full potential just avoid the export to word process.

Avantages

Answer library, smart file upload functionality

Inconvénients

Assigning questions to different authors is not very clear cut. I find that I need to assign all questions to all team members involved on a response so that they have visibility on the entire project. Otherwise, they can only see the specific questions that are assigned to them.