New report examines the top challenges associated with the proposal and RFP development process
CHELMSFORD, MASS. – May 17, 2017 – Qvidian, the leader in proposal automation software, today unveiled findings from its research report, “2017 Proposal Automation Market Pulse.” The report details the data findings from an independent survey recently commissioned by Qvidian that examines the business challenges that proposal and RFP writers and sales management face during the proposal and RFP development process, and if and how they use automation software and collaborate with colleagues.
Proposal automation software doesn’t just impact document completion time; it’s helping companies win deals. More than a third of respondents said that their win rate has substantially improved since they’ve automated their RFP process, with more than half finding the win rate has improved at least moderately. Respondents cited the top benefits associated with automating the proposal and RFP process are its ability to deliver valuable data insights and analytics on the process, alongside substantially reducing the time required to complete the documents.
The research also found that 30 percent of respondents feel that the RFP and proposal turnaround time has tightened in the past year. To help mitigate that challenge, nearly 60 percent of respondents use proposal automation software within their organizations. Within this group of users, 55 percent have found that their usage of the software has sped up the RFP and proposal process by at least 50 percent.
“It’s no secret that the proposal and RFP process can be a challenging and tedious one for many individuals across organizations,” said Lewis Miller, CEO and president, Qvidian. “Our recent research confirms that businesses that are taking advantage of proposal automation, and the data insights the software delivers, are experiencing significant gains in terms of win rate, ease of collaboration and document turnaround time. Ultimately, this is having a measurable impact on the bottom line.”
Key findings broken down per topic from respondents include:
Data insights
- 88 percent of respondents use data insights from their proposal automation software to inform their internal processes and strategies
- 62 percent of respondents are using – and finding value in – tracking the time it takes to create proposals and RFPs
- 65 percent of respondents consider win/loss data from previous efforts at least most of the time when determining whether or not to bid on a specific RFP or proposal
Sales vs. RFP writers
- 49 percent of RFP and proposal writers described version control as challenging or very challenging, while only 32 percent of respondents in sales department described it the same way
- Receiving content that is up to date was the top pain point cited by RFP and proposal team members, while sales respondents cite their biggest challenge as getting approval on RFPs and proposals followed by receiving content on time
Collaboration
- 75 percent of respondents typically work with at least four other people on a single RFP or proposal
- 86 percent of respondents rely most of all on email to collaborate with team members in different office locations
- 78 percent of respondents collaborate on RFPs and proposals with employees in a different office or remote location
- 69 percent of respondents said that it can be challenging or very challenging to meet compliance requirements with cross-office collaboration
The research also found that proposal and RFP writing – which is sometimes viewed as a “stepping” stone to other careers – has become a rewarding, long-term career for many. In fact, 49 percent of proposal and RFP team member respondents have worked in the proposal and RFP writing field for six to 10 years, and 22 percent have worked in the field for more than 10 years. Given the rise of proposal automation software, this is not surprising, as it handles the more traditionally manually aspects of the job – freeing up writers to be more thoughtful and creative with their documents.
Research Report
The industry report is now available for download here: 2017 Proposal Automation Market Pulse
Research Methodology
As commissioned by Qvidian, Berg Research surveyed 219 respondents from large U.S. companies with 500 or more employees. Respondents work on proposal and RFP writing teams, or in sales operations, management or enablement.
About Qvidian
Qvidian is the premier provider of cloud-based RFP and proposal automation software, helping more than 1,000 companies worldwide and 200,000 users win more business with better processes, improved productivity and more effective sales documents. Qvidian offers the only proposal automation solution fit for an enterprise, offering security, compliance and simplicity at scale. Passionate about helping clients build persuasive sales content and win more business, Qvidian also offers expert advisory services and community building opportunities to its global client base. To learn more about Qvidian visit www.Qvidian.com and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Contact:
Version 2.0 Communications for Qvidian
Emily Lospennato, (617) 426-2222
elospennato@v2comms.com