Sofon Proposal Organizer is more than a simple proposal generator. Per their website "Sofon Proposal Organizer takes care of requirements analysis, product configuration, three dimensional product visualization (when applicable), calculation of sales prices and margins, calculation of cost, generation of complete multi-level bills of material and routings and the production of all relevant documents including proposals, contracts and any internally required document."
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 …
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.
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.