Ultimate Guide to Choose The Best RFP Management Software

Finally you have made up your mind that your company will use RFP Management Software. You want to save time and make the RFP process better. Now you need to make sure you choose the best RFP Management Software for your organization.

To begin, there are many good software options out there. But you won’t be able to make the right choice just by downloading a trial and deciding for yourself. 

To buy the best RFP Management software for your company, you need to talk to a sales rep and get a custom quote. They’ll want to meet with you, talk about what you need, and make a quote just for you.

Don’t let this make you feel scared. As you talk to different RFP software vendors, you can use this time to figure out what you need, find opportunities based on what the various software can do, and look closely at your own processes to see what you can handle.

Simplify Your RFP Management Software Selection 

The first thing you need to do when choosing an RFP software for your asset management firm is to figure out where your biggest problems are. Are you struggling with how to format RFPs or having difficulty getting in touch with and managing different subject matter experts (SMEs)?

These three steps will help you figure what your team needs most:

1. Take a step back and look at how well your RFP process works. Think about how your team handled their time and how many RFPs they won. This will show you where to spend more time and energy and where you can cut back.
2. Get direct feedback from your team about how they felt about the RFP process. This can be done through interviews, surveys, or a meeting of the whole team. 
3. When they talk about their own experiences, you can easily find places to improve and link them to a feature you need in the software you want.

How long do you spend doing things over and over?

When you have to answer the same questions repeatedly in documents like quarterly deliverables, it can seem like a waste of time to answer them. 

But it’s just as important to keep the win as it was to get it. So, if you can find a way to automate this process, you and your team can save a lot of time.

Once you know what problems you want your RFP software to solve, you can start looking for features that will help you do that.

What to Look for in the Best RFP Management Software

All types of RFP software should have the things on the lists above. Aside from that, the best RFP software should have several other features and benefits. You need automation features that stand out to make a difference in your efficiency. Every business has different needs, so you may need to look around a bit to find the software that works best for you. Look for essential things like:

• Create, Edit & Manage Projects
• Intelligent Automated Workflows
• Import/Export & Share Documents
• Alert when a supplier looks at your proposal
• Multi-tier Review and Approval System
• Automated documents that are used often
• Connect, Engage, and Share Online
• Vendor Engagement & Management

There are, of course, lots of different kinds of software, and the best RFP automation software will have a lot of features. Think about your needs to determine what’s best for you.

Let us share steps to choosing the best RFP software

• Make a value judgment based on data

Uncertain about the time your team devotes to responding to RFPs? Keep track of everyone’s time to make these changes evident. To calculate the time and money, you will save by automating your RFP answer, use our ROI calculator. When you have statistics, you can argue persuasively for extra funding to pay for RFP software by using figures rather than emotions.

• Understand the nature of the product and service

Set up a demo with a few of your top choices for RFP software so you can see the product in action and get to know the potential team members. Bring a list of the most crucial aspects and any unanswered questions with you. Pay particular attention to the user experience because the solution should be simple to understand and quick to implement for all RFP contributors.

• Evaluate the way you respond to RFPs

Before you pay for an annual RFP software subscription, schedule a meeting with your complete RFP team (subject matter experts, executive stakeholders, bid writers, etc.). The objective is to identify the weaknesses and opportunities in your present workflow before using RFP automation to make changes.

• Prioritize the features of RFP software

You can choose which RFP Management software features are most crucial now that you know what your RFP team needs to succeed. Make two columns for “must-have” and “nice-to-have” components. You must have project dashboards to see the big picture of RFP projects. If communication is established, integrations with Microsoft Team or Slack are excellent to have.

So what benefits do you get after all this hassle?

The Most Comprehensive Benefits of the Best RFP Management Software

It should be no surprise that employing the best RFP Management Software is beneficial in various ways. 

One of the most readily apparent benefits of automation is the amount of time it saves, which improves production and efficiency. Obviously, this will result in cost reductions over time. 

The use of RFP software also helps ensure that all requirements are met consistently. Having some collaborative software with a sizable knowledge base and a library that can be searched is a fantastic idea.

Another significant benefit is the collection of data and the analytics that may be derived from that collection. It is helpful for costs and gives you the ability to make additional judgments, such as those regarding the productivity of your employees.

We can help you decide which RFP Management Software is best for you.

At Beyond Intranet, we have our RFP Management software to help you make better, faster RFPs. Our consultants are professionals who know a lot about corporate RFPs. They help organizations figure out what direction to go in and give hands-on help with putting the precise solution into place. 

Guess what? Ours is the best RFP management software. Reason? Beyond Intranet’s RFP Management software holds everything that you read above. You can see how it works live. All you have to do is click here or connect with us at [email protected] for more information.