When it comes to quickly crafting effective proposals, easily accessing data is key — and that’s why request for proposal (RFP) management software is so helpful.
“There are a lot of people out there who know that RFP software exists, but they think they’re too small to have it or to make good use of it,” said Brandon Fyffe, business development associate at CareHere. “All they see is the cost. They don’t consider that if it saves them an hour or two per response, that really adds up. We need to focus on how much more business we can win with the time saved.”
Brandon’s right that purchasing an RFP management solution is a sound investment … as long as you choose the right solution.
What RFP360 does well
RFP360 uses a methodology known as hierarchies to store and organize client data, which help organizations better manage the mountains of data they produce — a common challenge for many organizations.
According to Forbes, 90 percent of the world’s data was created in the last two years … and few businesses can effectively use the data they produce.
RFP360 allows for configurable user permissions that ensure users only have access to the data and information that is relevant to their role.
RFP360 also empowers organizations to store and organize their data with hierarchies, which allow you to search up and down (as depicted below).
Hierarchies empower users to easily access all the data and information related to the sub account in which they’re searching.
And flexible user permissions allow organizations to ensure this feature doesn’t give anyone access to data and information they shouldn’t have access to.
For example, if you’re a consultant who helps clients craft proposals, you can create a hierarchy structure to keep client work separate. When you set up clients as users in sub accounts, they cannot see activity in other client accounts.
This empowers organizations to break down silos without putting sensitive client data into the wrong hands.
3 ways RFP360 approaches client data
RFP360’s hierarchies empower greater use of client data.
1. Ease of setup
RFP360’s hierarchies are simple to set up and allow users to take advantage of the benefits — such as segmenting data by division, location, product offering, and more — almost immediately.
2. Data accessibility
RFP360’s hierarchies give you access to all data in one location, including previous proposals.
3. Ability to nest information
RFP360’s hierarchies allow you to create sub accounts to segment important client data by market sector, product, etc.
And within each sub account, you can create additional sub accounts, continuing until you have a hierarchy structure that accurately reflects your organization.
For example, if your company has multiple divisions, such as geographically separate groups, hierarchies can help you localize projects and users. You can create RFPs, proposals, users, and content at the Master account level. This content will be accessible to all sub accounts.
So, if you want to localize content, set up sub accounts for each division or operating group. Users in each of these sub accounts cannot see the activity in their sibling sub accounts.
In this example, users, projects (RFPs or proposals), and knowledge will be partitioned from the European and North American users. And you can make additional sub-accounts for product lines or other organizational groups within those sub-accounts. The hierarchy just keeps going.
Want to learn more?
RFP360’s full-circle RFP management solution helps organizations improve their proposal process by providing easy access to crucial data — but that’s just the beginning.
“We responded to 85 percent more RFPs this year than we did last year, and we increased our advancement rate by 9 percent — and that’s with 40 percent of our responses still pending,” said InfoMart Chief Strategy Officer Erica Clausen-Lee. “We couldn’t have done that without RFP360. It’s like the secret third member of our proposal team.”
Learn more about how RFP360 helps organizations quickly and effectively respond to RFPs, or fill out the form on the right to get a first-hand demonstration of what RFP360 can do for your business.
