Responsive (formerly RFPIO), headquartered in Beaverton, offers their proposal management and automation software, featuring import and export, proposal knowledgebase and answer library, evaluation intake forms, and project management tools (e.g. Gantt chart) associated to proposal tracking.
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VisibleThread VT Docs
Score 10.0 out of 10
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VT Docs is RFP Software for Government Contracting. It supports small businesses to mid-market and large enterprises. VisibleThread's flagship RFP solution, VT Docs, is leveraged across key sectors, including Defense & Space, IT Services, Healthcare, and Engineering & Construction.
1. RFPIO is perfect for searching for specific information when you are responding to an RFP. Search engine is powerful. We narrow our search using several customized filters and know we are getting a thorough search. 2. Excel responses work very well in RFPIO. 3. Typical RFPs that are formatted in Word are challenging to run via RFPIO. We struggle with this. 4. We have yet to master the template.
VT is fabulous to proposal writing as it created for that. It can also be used for ANY type of persuasive or technical writing. If you can write it, VT can help to make the writing better. BUT!!! if you are writing news articles or descriptive writing, this is NOT the software for you. VT works to eliminate fluff, ambiguous words, exaggerations, run-on sentences, improper grammar, misspelled words, sentence fragments, etc. VT also works to eliminate passive writing. As with any software, use it for what it was created - and find something else for the rest.
Acronym finder - the best acronym finder I have used! This creates an Excel spreadsheet with the acronyms and their definitions in an alphabetically sorted worksheet ... AND this worksheet includes actual sentences from the document showing how and where the acronym was used.
Compare documents - WOW! what a wonderful update! You get an Excel worksheet with the 2 compared documents side-by-side showing differences in red and statements with no changes in blue.
Starter compliance matrix (SCM) - again, one of the best SCM-creators I have used. This choice is quick, concise, and the resulting Excel worksheet is easy to manipulate and change.
Reporting and Analytics is basic, you can purchase advanced analytics though
It would have been nice to have a set structure in mind or a example/case study to structure our responses in the most appropriate way, but we are working through that with their stellar support team
Dictionaries - I would like to see more "canned" dictionaries. We create our own, but I know that VT has more that they can supply, giving us more quick turnaround changes (versus always having to start from scratch).
This tool has been fantastic as we have revamped our RFP process. We are much faster and far more efficient.Our win rate is up, but I am not 100% sure this is the cause, but I love to see it. The customer support and training are also fantastic. Thumbs up!
The team at RFPIO is extremely responsive. If I email our account manager or report a bug, I usually hear back within two hours. Additionally, they are quick to make software adjustments based on customer requests and needs. We had a really complicated Excel sheet that their team ended up having to upload for me because of the amount of manual work I was doing. Based on that, they updated the software within two release cycles to make the process more automated, so that future Excel uploads would be more streamlined. I have also had several suggestions implemented rather quickly, and they don't hesitate to reach out for clarification when needed.
I was not involved in the process of selecting RFP360 for our firm, so I am largely unfamiliar with competitors. I am, however, quite pleased with RFP360 as a user, and am confident that my colleagues who were responsible for making the decision were thorough and discerning.
We reviewed many other products but found all of them did not have the extent of tasks that VT had. These searches were over 5 years ago and many of the products reviewed are no longer available. In addition, some software still in existence have merit, just not to the extent we need. I do not want to give anyone a bad rating just because we did not choose them. Again, choose the right software for the right job!
Library Health Dashboard is helpful in reducing time to clean up content but could use additional improvement by showing more granular data instead of a global assessment like good, poor, moderate.
ROI is reduced for us because of additional cost for using AI
Overall, Responsive has significantly improved our proposal process.
We reduced proposal writing time and output. By reducing time, we gained time for work in other areas of proposal handling. I used to need 3-5 DAYS to create an acronym list. Now, with VT, I do the same work in 1-2 hours!
VT is for proposal WRITING and not for proposal HANDLING. Our proposal managers and coordinators do the handling part.
