Issue 11 2019

22 CORPORATE VISION / Issue 11 2019 , Oct19360 The Proposal People The stakes are high in the world of sales bids – winning strategic new business can translate to bottom-line growth andmarket leadership. However, getting from the RFP stage to a winning proposal can overwhelmmany sales and proposal teams, especially given the volume and complexity of requests under tight deadlines. That’s where Expedience Software comes in. Its flexible and easy proposal automation solution – built for proposal teams by proposal veterans – streamlines the process while allowing for customized responses, full content control and data security. Following the firm’s recognition in CV’s Corporate Excellence programme, we took a closer look at Expedience Software to find out more. Harnessing the power of Microsoft ® Office, Expedience Software drives better proposal quality while accelerating the speed and effectiveness of bid and proposal teams globally. Proposals are instrumental to the business development process, both as a way of raising capital and raising awareness of a company. At the end of the day, products and services require tailored messaging to present a winning bid, not just a quote sheet summarising line items and prices. With a chronic understaffing problem and documents being passed pillar-to-post between multiple departments, it’s no surprise that by the end of the process, customers find themselves frustrated by their proposal documents’ lack of consistency and quality. Automation solutions frequently go wasted with no one to manage the tool or solutions more complex than the problems needing to be solved. On the other hand, there are all the sunk-in costs of a manual proposal process. Companies cannot afford the compliance risk and other liabilities associated with mistakes being made. This is where Expedience captures the market, thanks to its ease-of- use and deliberate design. Offering not just a program, but a complete solution, Expedience is built where proposal writers live, in Microsoft Word. From directly within Word, content may be selected, updated, and formatted without ever leaving the Word environment. Expedience can reduce proposal turnaround by 80% -- with responses that are accurate, consistent and fast. The company’s founders are pioneers in the RFP and bid software field, and more importantly, they understand the challenging work of proposal production faced by proposal people. “We understand that proposal teams are pressed by deadlines and if the solution isn’t easy, they will create workarounds to meet their submission timelines,” notes Melissa Mabon, founder, CEO and president of Expedience Software. Mabon, who has more than 20 years of RFP and bid software development experience, Melissa Mabon Expedience Founder, President & CEO previously was co-founder and CTO of Pragmatech Software, Inc., creator of the RFP Machine ® . Former proposal writers and managers themselves, Expedience’s Client Services team has 20+ years of experience implementing proposal automation software. The team provides personalized support and helps clients leverage the best content in order to create the most efficient and productive plan for the initial implementation. With a focus on continuous improvement, extensible design and client self- sufficiency, the Client Services team assists clients every step