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PMAPS

Score5.2 out of 10

10 Reviews and Ratings

What is PMAPS?

PMAPS is a proposal management platform and is available as installed software or in a cloud-based version.

Categories & Use Cases

Don't Let the Price Tag Sway You...

Pros

  • Preview of the Question and Answer
  • Ability to categorize by main topic and sub-topic

Cons

  • It would be nice to be able to filter out categories even further than main topic/sub-topic
  • partial keyword search
  • More refined search ability

Return on Investment

  • Increased efficiency
  • Better responses
  • More organized
  • Better customer service

Great efficiency-increasing tool

Pros

  • Searching for boilerplate material--PMAPS allows you to search by keywords, as well as filter by categories (e.g., implementation, training, company information, etc.) I set up all the categories, subcategories, audience types, etc. We used to spend a significant amount of time searching for previously written information, but now we can find it within seconds. I only use it to search for information stored within PMAPS, but you can also set it up to point at other places to search for information as well.
  • Manage proposals--PMAPS has a dashboard that lists all of the proposals I'm working on as well as key information that I want to have available for each of them. You can decide what information you want to show on your dashboard (I use mine to show due date, production date, review date, salesperson for proposal, etc.) It is very convenient to have all of that information available at a glance. PMAPS also has a built-in calendar that will show you key dates for all of your proposals.
  • Generate custom documents--PMAPS allows you to set up templates that you can use to generate documents. You can set up forms that allow yourself or other users to specify what information should be included in that document, and then PMAPS will generate the document based on how users respond to the questions (e.g., what references to include, what products to list, etc.).
  • Word Replacement--PMAPS allows you to set up codes that will automatically be replaced with the correct term when you generate the proposal. For example, in our boilerplate information, any place where I would want the final proposal to say the prospect's name, I use the code <>. Those codes are automatically replaced with the prospect's name for that proposal when either I generate a document or when I simply select the icon that searches for and replaces codes.
  • Easily edit boilerplate documents--PMAPS allows you to easily edit boilerplate information. You can select a document one at a time, or you can select a whole bunch of documents at once (simply by doing a search and/or filter to limit the results to the documents you want to edit) and download them onto your computer, edit, and then re-upload.
  • Store material--PMAPS allows you to store Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF documents.

Cons

  • Storing and managing proposal assignments--PMAPS will store your actual proposal document and allow you to send off assignments to other writers/contributors. However, we've had some issues with it crashing a lot in the past and no longer really use that feature, instead just storing the proposal document on our own computers and sending out assignments via email. I *think* they may have fixed that in this current version . . . I've only tested it out a little bit and had good luck so far, but nothing extensive.
  • Downloading multiple documents--As mentioned in my earlier comments, you can easily download lots of documents at once. However, instead of having to search and filter my results to get the exact right combination I want to download, I would prefer to be able to do a slightly more broad search and then use a checkbox to select the ones I actually wanted to download, if not all. But that's a pretty minor thing.

Return on Investment

  • Work far more efficiently
  • Better finished proposals (as we can spend more time tailoring the proposals and writing new material that needs to be written, rather than all our time looking for content already written)
  • Better sales proposals (our sales proposals used to be very generic, now are more specific to the offering and prospect)

Agile & adaptable

Pros

  • The tool allows insertion of all or part of an answer, and tracks this use by writer, date and RFP. Not all proposal tools offer this capability.
  • Administratively, the tool is very flexible/agile. I've been able to help different teams set up fields/processes to meet their unique requirements without inconveniencing other teams. I have also set up temporary fields to track progress on short-term projects.
  • Bundling of the documents for export/review is also quite handy. I've recently been able to share this capability with a few colleagues on the team who could use this feature, rather than having to request from the admin each time they need an export.
  • Reporting is flexible as well. I also like being able to export into excel directly from search results.
  • Help desk support is usually pretty quick. My users in different countries have varying levels of admin rights on their computers, different operating systems, browser versions, etc. When one of them has an issue, PMAPS Support is usually able to pinpoint the cause pretty quickly.
  • The ongoing webinars they offer monthly are great to either learn something new, or get a refresher on something you haven't done in a while.
  • User permissions are pretty flexible as well. Admins don't have to assign users to a pre-set level of rights. Permissions can be tweaked per user.

Cons

  • The Viewer: we understand its purpose, its benefits, and its limitations as set by its interaction with Microsoft Office. However, it does seem to be inconsistent from user to user. For instance, I seem to never have an issue; however, others seem to have malfunctioning Viewers every few weeks. Its "sensitivity" is probably the single complaint my users have.

Return on Investment

  • Consistent messaging/branding worldwide, whether responding to a large global RFP or a smaller, in-country RFP.
  • Employee efficiency - most of what they need is in PMAPS, rather than having to search older RFPs, repeatedly request SME assistance, frequently source questions to other colleagues.
  • Soon we'll be saving more time for the bid writers by using a PMAPS feature which will enable the quicker assembly of smaller SOWs or unsolicited RFPs.

PMAPs WebPro: A RFP Coordinator's Lifesaver

Pros

  • PMAPS allows me to store the questions and answers from RFPs, ensuring that if a similar question is asked on a future RFP, I save time because I'm able to quickly pull up the answer from the PMAPS database.
  • I love the cloud! In a few steps, I can upload the Excel or Word questionnaire and then select both the question and answer and voila...I've just created a new record!
  • The program is extremely user friendly. Using key words to search for an answer is that much easier when I can use various filters.
  • The database allows me to quickly locate answers for questions I'm asked by other departments.
  • I can use PMAPS to keep track of the RFPs I've worked on, their titles, the products offered, the sales persons involved and a host of other helpful information. This also makes it so much easier to run reports.

Cons

  • There are times when I'm having a problem and I call the general line and have to leave a message and then wait for someone to call me back. I'd like to be able to speak with a live person every time.
  • I'd like to see the program handle Excel documents with the ease that it handles a Word document.

Return on Investment

  • With PMAPS WebPro, I am able to provide better customer service to other departments because I can quickly access our rich database to respond to their questions.
  • PMAPS WebPro helps me complete RFPs quickly because I have most of the answers I need at the touch of a button.

Proposal Software that gets you to the point in a blink

Pros

  • The Keyword Search feature keeps me from remembering "What category did I put that response in?". Typing in one or two words or the full sentence really helps me to quickly track down the response I am looking to use. Extremely helpful and gets me to the data in a blink.
  • The insert option gives you several ways to get the content you found into your response. I absolutely love the fact the I can select part of a record and copy and paste it into my document. This allows great flexibility in creating a custom response while using a strong foundation.
  • I use main dashboard page as my project tracker. Everything that I work on that pulls content from company, product, support, and implementation categories, get's listed here. I have one source that stores all my approved content and I don't worry if the text is still valid, the expiration date feature lets me know when to have my content re-approved.
  • Tracking the response feature is a huge time-saver. When you add a new answer to the system, you can identify which proposal the answer was used in, which helps me to find past proposal documents that use a similar line of questioning quicker, enabling me to re-purpose content, quicker, enabling me to finish my response quicker.

Cons

  • Inserting new content is time consuming. Adding one question and response is not, but when you have 20 new responses to add, and adding each one individually takes too much of my time.

Return on Investment

  • Since I began using PMAPS, my efficiency has increased as well as accuracy. Overtime, I saw a steady increase in being shortlisted.
  • With over 2000 records of consist messaging, I am confident of the content I am using. I have greatly reduced the amount of time I spend in verifying the accuracy of the response and getting SME approval.