Qvidian RFP & Proposal Automation

First of all, I feel obligated to preface this review by stating that I was not included in the research process leading up to us purchasing Qvidian, and have no familiarity with other programs out on the market. Thus, it is hard for me to say accurately whether I would truly recommend this product to anyone, as I have no experience with other RFI systems and their inherent pros and cons. With that said, I would say the library feature of Q is awesome. No more searching through millions of RFIs we have done in the past to try to find responses for current RFIs we are working on! The Advanced Search feature lets me pull up all the answers we have uploaded into the system and select with ease the one that best suits the current RFI we are completing. So I would say this program is very well-suited for someone looking to collect all the responses they have generated into one place, and which has a comprehensive search function to easily locate information. If a company is looking for a user-friendly system that is "Plug and Play" and requires minimal complex training (and retraining), I would hesitate a little in immediately recommending Qvidian. I personally would prefer a system that has an interface which requires fewer steps, is compatible with all web browsers, and generally has a more intuitive orientation for those of us who are strapped for time and maybe looking for something a little easier (and quicker) to use.

If I were to go research other programs to see what else is available, my key questions would be:
1) Is there a user-friendly library into which responses of previous RFIs can be neatly organized and housed? And can those Q&As be easily searched/accessed?
2) Is there a user-friendly and EASY (translation: not requiring lots of training and moderately sophisticated technical literacy) way to upload Q&As into the library?
3) Is there a user-friendly, and perhaps technologically advanced (so as to make it more convenient for the user) way of reviewing uploaded Q&As, possibly with a feature that sets a "timer" to indicate a response is due for review and updating?
4) How complicated is the process of uploading an RFI or due diligence questionnaire and then using the system to locate responses and export them into the RFI template?
5) Is the program compatible with all web browsers? Is the look and feel of it current, and easy for laymen to access the features they need and use them appropriately with basic introduction and training?

Qvidian is a wonderful product for cross-functional teams, particularly for responding to point-by-point responses. For the cross functional team, Qvidian is a very powerful tool, providing a great place for collaboration on the project documentation and response. In our case, with only our department using Qvidian Proposal Automation, we are not able to capture the full functionality of the tool. The library and document generation through the projects feature has met our individual team needs.

How often do they update their software to work with newer versions of Word and IE.

I have a created a proposal where the responses needed to very specific to scenarios rather than just our general information. That being said, very little information was pulled from the 'Q'. That is expected from time to time. On the other hand, there has been very small proposals where the client just wanted our company history, references, and safety policy and procedures and every bit of that information was pulled from the 'Q' and submitted virtually the same day!

Do you have outdated content that never seems to be revised for proposal use?
Who will be using the Qvidian software?
Do you have subject matter experts that would like to be able to have some functionality to search for content in the library?
What are the main issues with your proposal process today?

It is well suited to an environment that has a strong existing library of information formatted in a well-organized hierarchy. It seems as if it would be difficult to start from scratch, so to speak.

Qvidian is well-suited for smaller proposals with concise and basic questions and answers. It is not suited for large-scale proposals with in-depth questions and extensive answers, especially those that contain graphs or images. Not suited for storing multiple large proposals at one time. When Qvidian is pushed to its limits, documents get corrupted and information is lost easily.

As much as I like Qvidian, I feel there are less expensive options in the field for our needs. Because we only use this product as a repository, there are many good features of this product that we do not need or use. Other companies may find this a better product if they require assistance creating many proactive or latent proposals.

It is really important to establish internal policies. The biggest end-user complaints are more around the freshness of the content, or length of the overall proposal than the tool itself. Ask yourself “Is Proposal Content part of new product release checklist”? For your RFP Process, should you answer all RFPs? Have you defined a criteria? Consider using the hosted version versus installed. It allows for a better support experience as they could access your content structure immediately. Integrating with your CRM will increase efficiency and stickiness.