Responsive vs. Sofon Proposal Organizer

Responsive is well suited for bid response teams and organizations that often respond to RFPs, but also for organizations looking to have access to information from their large library of documents, presentations, and images using AI and a chat bot that serves their internal organization to respond to clients faster and more accurately

Incentivized

In my opinion, the most valuable characteristic of SPO is that by answering simple questions a very complex product can be configured; therefore the scope of delivery is defined very well. In addition, SPO has great flexibility to manage prices and costs. However, SPO is configurator of parts that allows incorporating basic design rules for their selection. SPO is not a optimised for developing complicated engineering design rules.

• Manages structure responses well
• Manages permissions from the various users that access the solution
• Allows for a global deployment with built in language capabilities
• Allows for 100% visibility into the RFx process for all stakeholders
• Allows for ease of answering via ML that has been built in

Incentivized

• Sofware works correctly with no crashes
• Sofon's support is quick and efficient
• User-friendly interface
• Easy maintenability
• Wide range of Sofon products allows for expanding the software scope

• Analysis Tools: although what is provided is quite good, there is definitely room for improvement. For instance it would be nice if it were easier/quicker for each evaluator to record their notes/comments when scoring, and to be able to search through those notes/comments later. Also, it would be really helpful to be able to annotate/mark-up the actual responses (highlight, underline, circle, call-out notes, etc.), with such mark-up tracked by evaluator, and with the option to hide/show mark-up.
• Results Analysis, Reporting, and Presentation: in my opinion, this is the only area of weakness in RFP360. There are very limited options, after scoring/evaluation of responses is completed, for generating reports, graphs, charts, etc. to be used in evaluating results and presenting to the end client. I've always had to export the scores and use Excel to create the necessary visuals for final analysis and presentation.
• Complex Questions: RFP360's ability to handle complex RFP questions (e.g. involving tables, charts, multi-part answers, graphics, etc.) is limited, and existing capabilities in this area are fairly cumbersome to navigate and use.

Incentivized

• Give us an easier way to configure from an admin point of view
• More reporting possibilities

We'd be sunk without Responsive. The sales motion would slow way down in several places, and that's just unacceptable. AND I love the product. It helps me do my job efficiently. The Responsive team is GREAT. Support is getting better. The Product and Customer Experience Team is so knowledgeable and willing to help with new features and troubleshoot what's going on. It's an all-around great experience. Not to mention starting over - I can't even get my head around that.

Incentivized

Generally speaking the company is satisfied with SPO; knowledge on how to use SPO and on how to code in the product have been developed, and has led to good results. In addition, customer service provided by Sofon is efficient and quick. Finally, SPO guarantees that product -specific knowledge stays in-house, reducing the risk of 'knowledge leakage to competitors.

Very easy to navigate and use. Very intuitive user interface

Incentivized

If I cannot solve a problem, then I reach out to Support and they are ON IT. They always solve the problem and get back to me immediately with an answer. Our customer support person who is assigned to us (we have had several) are responsive and helpful. We have asked them to sit in on meetings and help socialize the tool.

Incentivized

We were able to complete an RFP during our free trial. We were already leaning toward RFPIO but that pushed us over the edge.

I didn't select a tool, so I'm not sure what else is available in the market beyond Loopio, which we used previously. It's been at least 2 years since I last used Loopio, so it might be inaccurate at this point, but Responsive's AI seems much better at providing a specific answer to your question and is less general.

Incentivized

The previous product we used was developed by ourselves so my experience is very limited. I can say that having a software like SPO we can configure the product without any programming experience and this makes things faster and better. Moreover, I can say that MS Office compatibility is a strong point.

• Increased revenue - with our ability to respond to more proposals, we have seen amazing return on investment.
• Compliance oversight - the system allows our national complaince team to review answers and ensure that responses are inalignment.
• Content and brand management - RFPIO allows our marketing and design team to better manage our visual and written brand.
• Faster timeline - we have been able to take a process that used to take months into a much shorter process.

Incentivized

• Fast lead conversion
• Increased sales representatives effort