Responsive vs. Windward Core

1. RFPIO is perfect for searching for specific information when you are responding to an RFP. Search engine is powerful. We narrow our search using several customized filters and know we are getting a thorough search. 2. Excel responses work very well in RFPIO. 3. Typical RFPs that are formatted in Word are challenging to run via RFPIO. We struggle with this. 4. We have yet to master the template.

Incentivized

Great for Technical Users. It's great for people a bit more on the technical side. It allows developers to quickly create and modify reporting templates without having to modify source code or make updates to a repository. Potentially Difficult for Non-Technical Users. Making substantial changes to the data portions of reporting can be a bit difficult for non-technical users. While Windward's tools for this are great, it still requires an understanding of the database schema which not all users will have.

Incentivized

• Live collaboration - the ability for multiple experts to simultaneously work on the same RFP.
• Artificial intelligence - the ability for the product to continually learn what the best answers are and serve them up to our teams.
• Dynamic branding - the ability for custom brand different templates by vertical, line of business, local branding, etc. with seamless transition.
• Content review & moderation - the ability for our national content team to bulk review, edit and share content with our teams in a methodical way.

Incentivized

• Native Office output -- not nested tables and/or horrible RTF like other tools generate.
• Ease of use -- once the data sources are set up, creating tables is as simple as drag and drop (okay, maybe not exactly that simple, but you can certainly create a table of data using drag and drop, then format it and manipulate it as needed).
• Responsive developers and support -- when I've had questions, they've been addressed VERY quickly and professionally.

Incentivized

• Reporting and Analytics is basic, you can purchase advanced analytics though
• It would have been nice to have a set structure in mind or a example/case study to structure our responses in the most appropriate way, but we are working through that with their stellar support team
• Really great new features, but expensive

Incentivized

• It is hard to pick out the tags if they are mixed in with a block of text.
• Using report variables in select statements causes the selection list of available fields to not show anything.
• The color themes do not match the office selection and it feels very disconnected.

UI is friendly. Basically that alone is enough to renew because it is easy to use and gives accurate and fast results. The effective cross collaboration from other colleagues in my organization also makes for this tool to be extremely effective. Now that I understand how to use it, I can also easily train others on how to use it effectively.

Incentivized

For the most part, the Windward report designer is intuitive for our users; but there are a few areas where it is less intuitive. In these cases, our users need to search Windwards support wiki site, or even contact their support technicians. This can also be due to the short time we've had Windward and our lack of knowledge.

Incentivized

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.

Support is something they take pride in. Once an issue is raised, they are quick to respond and provide details on a fix. No complaints on support here.

We were able to complete an RFP during our free trial. We were already leaning toward RFPIO but that pushed us over the edge.

RFPIO has outstanding, responsive, helpful customer support located in the US in Oregon. Support techs go the extra mile to help with basic issues and functionality training. Same-day support response and problem resolution are the norms. The system is also very user-friendly and very easy to navigate. Their Answer library is simple and far less complex than Qvidian/Inland. Little to no learning curve.

Incentivized

We evaluated several other products to integrate with our new software, but Windward Studios was an obvious standout above the majority. Other applications required some level of software development knowledge and experience to create templates and a much steeper learning curve. After consideration of ease of use, as well as a cost-comparison between different products, Windward Studios was the most suitable product to meet our needs.

Incentivized

• I don't have access to the actual ROI data, but we would continue to invest in RFPIO as a company only if it were providing us with the results to win RFPs.
• RFPIO makes the task of filling out RFP responses much faster for me.
• RFPIO helps our team be able to divide out RFP chores easily, because we know we all have access to the same high-quality source for information.

Incentivized

• As a fully integrated solution, the ROI is impacted when a client gets stickier with our solution because they see the benefit of Windward.
• Support has been fantastic for our development team so that as we integrate the solutions we have a clear and clean design.

Incentivized