I love RFPIO!
November 22, 2019

I love RFPIO!

Carah Counts | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with RFPIO

We use RFPIO to manage our RFP questionnaire responses. We have a large, geographically dispersed sales organization with centralized support. Additionally, we have several Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to assist in responses.

Initially, we import each questionnaire from excel, word, or PDF. From there, our RFP team answers each question and/or submits to a SME for further assistance. As sections are ready to be reviewed, they are assigned to the sales person for the account. Once everything is approved, it is exported from the system and formatted for submission to the prospective client.

RFPIO has reduced the time from RFP request to response significantly. It has also helped us to better engage our sales team and SMEs in the RFP process. Overall, we are extremely happy with our decision to purchase RFPIO.
  • Import/export - the configurations during import and export are invaluable. This saves us so much time during export with the amount of things we have pre-formatted. Additionally, this tool can handle export into native formats OR customized templates for Word, Excel, and PDF. This means we can export into Excel from outside tools, as well as utilize client/broker formats when needed - without minimal copy/paste (RFP friends... can I get an amen??)
  • Auto-response - once a questionnaire is uploaded, the system can auto-respond based on past responses. It gets smarter over time as more responses are in the system. We find this picks up 25-40% on the low end and 90% on the high end (especially when we are responding to the same broker or consultant who has their preferred template)
  • Keyword Field Mapping - the system allows you to map fields into your export template as well as your responses. The system auto maps these when exporting. We use this feature a lot to map salesperson info (custom fields for the stuff we want on the cover sheet/letter), client name, client nickname (the company, the client, the City, the County, etc.). This makes it easy to have customized responses without extra effort on our side.
  • Guest Question Authors - the system allows you to send single questions to guest users easily so that they can answer via a web browser on a computer or laptop without signing in. I also particularly like that I can track it as a comment which helps me go back later and find my open items.
  • Answer library creates unique records for each Q&A for each RFP. This means if you use an auto-generated answer from an exact matching RFP you end up with two records. This creates some unnecessary admin time on the back-end to merge duplicates. And during high-volume RFP seasons this work likely just isn't getting done.
  • Salesforce integrations only available for SF Enterprise users, which wasn't made clear during initial sign-up so we had to get a refund after the fact.
  • No custom roles settings which would be extremely helpful for our team, as a sales user doesn't need to see the same things as an RFP team user or a SME.
  • Reduced time spent per RFP response.
  • Increased efficiency of RFP and sales team.
  • Increased # of finalist presentations earned from RFPs.
  • RFP360 - We used this tool for three years and it was a great first step/upgrade from a searchable Google doc. We decided to start evaluating other systems for a couple of reasons:
    • RFP360 is an end-to-end tool for RFP requestors and responders. We felt they were more focused on growing the request side and we needed something focused on the response side.
    • The assignees for author/reviewer are limited to one user and we frequently needed the ability to have multiple users assigned.
    • Too much copy/paste during export.
  • Loopio - This tool was our #2 during evaluations. We really loved the clean user interface, auto answer ability, and "close-the-loop" post-RFP process for keeping the answer library clean. Our main hiccup was the amount of copy/paste.
We actually did a free trial of both Loopio and RFPIO. The plan was to upload, respond to, and export an active RFP project during that timeframe. We even uploaded our past answer library to both systems. Due to the amount of copy/paste for the Loopio import process, we ended up completing both projects in RFPIO. The fact that we were able to do all of this during a two-week free trial made it a no-brainer.
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.

Do you think Responsive delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Responsive's feature set?

Yes

Did Responsive live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Responsive go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Responsive again?

Yes

RFPIO has helped us take our RFP response process to the next level. Our first level of RFP management was a searchable Google doc, then we migrated to an online RFP response tool. After three great years, we inevitably outgrew that tool and migrated to RFPIO. It has really been a game-changer for us. I would say RFPIO is appropriate for anyone who writes or reviews RFP responses or security questionnaires.

Responsive Feature Ratings

Proposal branding
9
Proposal templates
9
Proposal content library updates
7
Searchable proposal database
10
RFP management & response
10
Proposal collaboration & approval
10
User permissions/proposal editing controls
7
Sales proposal workflow
7
Proposal automation user interface
8
Proposal distribution
8
Proposal content tracking
8

RFPIO Implementation

We were able to complete an RFP during our free trial. We were already leaning toward RFPIO but that pushed us over the edge.
Change management was minimal - We transitioned from another RFP tool, but after importing our answer library, we were able to start using this one from day one. We trained each sales person as a project came up so they would be more likely to retain the info.