If you’re in the market for RFP response and proposal management software, you’ve probably come across Upland Qvidian and RFPio. Each software has its merits, and, as with any investment, neither is right for every organization every time. Understanding what’s best for your sales and proposal professionals comes down to considering your organization’s size, maturity level, and aspirations.
To help you make an informed choice, let’s take a quick look at what makes Qvidian a top RFPio alternative for RFP response and proposal automation.
Overview: Upland Qvidian as an RFPio alternative
Upland Qvidian is an RFPio alternative that has helped organizations deliver higher-quality RFP responses and proposals for over twenty-five years. Qvidian has a proven record of guiding even complex, regulated enterprise organizations through successful rollouts and expansions. In fact, eight of the ten largest U.S. banks, six of the ten largest European banks, and four of the five world’s largest asset management companies all work with Qvidian.
Founded in 2015, RFPio is a relatively new player in the RFP and proposal software space. Unlike Upland Qvidian, RFPio is a private company. That means RFPio only shares company insights occasionally (often in ad hoc press releases). In contrast, Qvidian is a public company that regularly publishes financial and company performance insights for the world to see.
RFPio offers only a single product. Qvidian has a dedicated team, but also the option to tap into Upland Software’s greater resources and offer customers an entire portfolio of built-for-purpose enterprise software products. This way, Qvidian can better match your organization’s needs today and as they evolve in the future.
Let’s take a closer look at what makes Qvidian a leading RFPio alternative.
Six reasons Qvidian is a strong RFPio alternative
1. Save time by importing RFPs and questionnaires automatically
Qvidian automatically imports RFPs, DDQs, and other questionnaires using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify questions, answer spaces, and headings for you. Not only does this save you time, but it also eliminates the boring task of manually marking questionnaires.
RFPio requires its users to manually identify and mark headlines, questions, and answer spaces during the questionnaire import process. This chews up time you can’t afford to waste.
2. Work in-context with a real-time, accurate formatting preview
Qvidian gives you full document visibility, with a live formatting preview, so your team can answer RFPs and questionnaires in a unified voice. With this RFPio alternative, your collaborators can also finalize formatting as they go instead of leaving formatting for the proposal manager to finish at the end of the project.
RFPio chops RFPs and questionnaires up into generically formatted question and answer space pairs during importing. Without an accurate document preview, it’s almost impossible for collaborators to build a cohesive response. Also, at the project’s end, a proposal manager has to finalize all formatting at once, against tight deadlines.
“With Qvidian, we’ve eliminated human errors, streamlined workflows, cut research time, and virtually eliminated formatting time.”
– Pam DiLucente
Director, Global Proposal Management, Ellucian
3. Create tailored PowerPoint presentations on-demand
Qvidian empowers you to create tailored, professionally branded PowerPoint presentations on-demand using your library of current and pre-approved slides. This way, teams can build targeted, persuasive slide decks fast, using only the latest approved messaging and branding.
RFPio takes a different approach to PowerPoint, providing users with only the option to pull-in library content to PowerPoint slides (instead of fully formated and approved slides). With RFPio, it’s up to users to take the time to arrange and format the content on each slide to build a complete presentation little by little.
4. Get an actionable overview of your outstanding work
Qvidian gives you an on-demand slide-out window with links to all your outstanding projects and assignments. From anywhere in Qvidian, you can always get a quick, actionable overview of your work without leaving your current screen or disrupting your workflow.
RFPio users must pause their work and visit a separate My Work screen to review their outstanding tasks and assignments. Understandably, this makes it easier for users to get distracted and waste valuable time trying to get back into the flow after their natural work processes are disrupted.
5. Customize your home screen to match how you work
Qvidian frees you to customize your home screen to see only the information and controls you care about in the locations that make sense to you. If your organization prefers, your Qvidian admin has the flexibility to set a default home page for your entire organization or key user role. With this This RFPio alternative, how much flexibility and control you provide to your team is up to you.
RFPio offers only a default one-size-fits-all home screen. Users have to adapt their work style to align with what RFPio recommends. The same information is visible to all users in the same locations.
6. Organize your proposal content with intuitive folders and tagging
Qvidian empowers you to both browse your proposal content library by folders and search for content by tags, keywords, and metadata. While folders simplify accessibility, compliance, and content management, you have the flexibility to choose not to use them. It’s your decision.
RFPio does not support organizing content libraries by folders.
“We handle 60-80% of questions on over 20 product lines.
People think we’re experts, but it’s Qvidian putting answers at our fingertips.”– Mark Marcinowski
Proposal Manager, Nuance
Explore more ways Qvidian is the best RFPio alternative
For over a quarter of a century, Qvidian has been there for customers, evolving with their needs and technology trends. Since the early days of RFP and proposal automation, Qvidian has helped drive industry growth and community best practices. That experience comes with a track record of helping even complex, regulated companies realize measurable returns on their investments. After joining publicly-traded Upland Software, Qvidian also gained the resources and funding of a market force.
Proposal teams looking for a short-term fix may find RFPio more appealing, even if the software may ultimately require more oversight and struggle to scale. Those with a more mature (or maturing) approach to RFP automation and proposal management may instead opt for a more robust, future-proof solution with a longer track record, as found with Qvidian.
If you’re ready to find out more about Qvidian as an RFPio alternative or see a demo of Qvidian in action, contact a Qvidian RFP and proposal automation expert >