Increase your efficiency and save time with proposal software

Working together to create a proposal can be time-consuming, frustrating, even chaotic. 

Who’s done what? How much work is left?

You receive content at the very last minute. You’re trying to track people down to find out where their content is. And when you start compiling the various files, you realize that some content hasn’t even been approved.

Just hours before deadline, you still struggle to find out which are the latest versions.

Panic starts to creep in as the deadline looms. And the end result is inevitable. The finished proposal is neither compliant nor complete. 

You end up losing business.

Streamline your proposal writing process

When your proposal creation and management process looks like the above scenario, you put a lot of effort into it, without seeing results. What you really should be putting effort into, is getting the content right. What if... 

• Your process could become streamlined and efficient, so that you could focus on what goes into the proposal?
• Everyone logged on to one document? 
• You and your team could access and work on different sections at the same time?
• Workflow with tasks and deadlines was seamlessly integrated? 
• You never mixed new and old versions? 

Enter a proposal co-authoring and management solution.

The key to creating a winning proposal – up to 70% faster, with zero hassle – is to streamline the entire proposal creation and management processes. A proposal co-authoring and management solution enables you to manage the process and create your proposal at the same time. 

The best proposal co-authoring and management solutions offer a built-in workflow, which lets you assign writers, reviewers, and approvers. Participants can then begin writing on their section from anywhere, at any time. 

• Everyone will be aware of their tasks and deadlines.
• Everyone will know exactly what has been completed at any given time. 
• Formatting, layout and numbering are automatically taken care of, which means you have more time to focus on getting your content right.
• From start to finish, you’ll get complete control of the process and know exactly what’s going on. 

The result? Increased efficiency and improved content.

Read more: What is the Difference between Collaboration and Co-Authoring?

Instead of using multiple software solutions, use just one

Creating top-notch proposals involves multiple contributors, tasks and workflows. It’s an inherently collaborative process – and it requires a truly collaborative software solution specifically created for complex documents put together by dispersed teams.

Still, many organizations use regular word processors to create proposals.  The word processor was never intended to be a collaborative solution, however. Using a regular word processor, your team will lack control, work in silos, battle with formatting and end up with a large Frankenstein document. 

You will struggle to meet your deadline, as the task of creating a proposal is simply too complex.

Single-source production

A professional proposal co-authoring and management solution is different, because it focuses on textual collaboration and workflow, aiming to simplify the entire process. It automates the collective creation process, and removes inefficiencies associated with the use of traditional word processors.

The best proposal co-authoring and management solutions are built on databases, which allows for a single source. Single-source publishing allows for different sub-sections of a document to be edited in parallel. Basically, your entire team can work on the same document at the same time, while you have complete control of the process. Automatic formatting, layout and numbering ensure your writers focus solely on content.

Working in a database in a single document management system is much more efficient than working on files, and makes it easier to give access to users than to manage users in multiple document systems.

All this helps you drastically increase the quality of your proposals.

Conclusion

Moving to a proposal co-authoring and management solution will increase efficiency, quality and integrity – giving you back control.

A proposal co-authoring and management solution lets you spend time on how to win the proposal, instead of wasting time on how to deliver it. By eliminating time consuming tasks and working smarter, you can create better proposals, faster.