Qvidian Works Well for Simple Proposals and RFPs
February 26, 2014
Qvidian Works Well for Simple Proposals and RFPs
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
10.1
Overall Satisfaction
Qvidian is used by the department only to address the following business requirements:
Document Management/Versioning (ie, Conflicts must be resolved when users edit and save content while another using is reading and/or editing content), Searchability (ie, Content must be searchable. Search results must be relevant), Search and Respond to RFPs.
Document Management/Versioning (ie, Conflicts must be resolved when users edit and save content while another using is reading and/or editing content), Searchability (ie, Content must be searchable. Search results must be relevant), Search and Respond to RFPs.
- Customize the output. Qvidian allows you to place static content into sections that you can define. You can also use customizable content pieces such as client name, etc. through codes.
- Library and record management. It's not perfect, but you can tag records with metadata, and search using advanced options.
- Accessible. Online access is a big plus, although, again it's not perfect. But the fact that it's a SaaS cloud-based platform gives you flexibility to use regardless of location and machine.
- User interface isn't pretty. Nor is it that intuitive. There's a lot of setup to be done, and constant maintenace of the records that is hampered by the user interface. For example, records aren't easily editable from the library. You can have download then edit, and upload back into the library to save changes.
- Plug-in for Word doesn't function smoothly all the time. There's a lot of deleting existing plug-ins, downloading and reinstalling that goes on when using Qvidian's Word plug-in.
- Content management philosophy is still Web 1.0. Does not incorporate wiki-based content management philosophy and strategies (Web 2.0), which means that gatekeepers are the bottlenecks for information accuracy and responsiveness. A more modern Content Management philosophy would incorporate specifically defined "Crowd sourcing" to help maintain accuracy of content records. Qvidian is not able to embrace this concept as it is still folder and file based.
- It's increased employee efficiency. It makes searching for answers easier and quicker. It also adds workflows and time, but in the end, if you are able to maintain your content, it'll be worthwhile.
PMAPS is much more intuitive and search is more configurable, but in the end Qvidian is cheaper, and has an auto-build feature that while it's not useful to me, it can be useful to others creating simple proposals. For more complicated proposals, I would use another software, but for relatively simple proposals, Qvidian does well.