Customer Story
|
4 min
900+ questions, 2 hours: IMTC conquers complex RFPs with AI software
Industry
Finance
Location
North America
Employees
< 50
Challenge
Senior leadership spent countless hours manually collaborating on complex RFPs, with 8 team members each investing 3-4 hours on initial drafts alone.
Solution
AutoRFP.ai's AI-powered importer and response engine automatically populated up to 90% of answers, eliminating the need for manual content libraries.
Results
IMTC transformed their RFP process from a challenging workflow to a streamlined system, saving substantial executive time.
The Story
The Challenge
For IMTC's Fixed Income Platform specializing in cloud-based investment management solutions, responding to RFPs was a challenging process that drained executive time and created unnecessary stress. The entire C-suite, sales, marketing, and product leaders all worked on this fractured workflow that consumed a lot of resources.
The company's process was complex and time consuming at best. Excel-based RFPs required manual color-coding by team member, turning documents into visual challenges before work even began. "We often found ourselves working on different versions of the document, which added to the manual efforts," explains Raphael Schmideg, COO at IMTC. This created a lot of hesitation amongst the team, particularly with questionnaires containing up to 900 questions.
The time investment was staggering – typically eight team members spending at least three to four hours each on initial drafts, a conservative estimate of 24-32 hours per submission. As Sara Haas, Head of Marketing at IMTC, describes it: "Our process was highly manual without a basic repository for yes/no responses or a library of answers to explanatory RFP questions." The process often extended into evenings, making potential sales opportunities more challenging to manage.
The Solution
IMTC evaluated several RFP response platforms, but many were too complex, expensive, or required maintaining extensive content libraries. "During demos of other solutions, we quickly realized that managing a complex RFP library was not something we could add to our already full workloads," noted Raphael. They chose AutoRFP.ai for its intuitive interface, AI capabilities, and startup-friendly approach, implementing the solution within days for an urgent submission.
The most immediate impact came from AutoRFP.ai's intelligent importer, which seamlessly handled Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and PDFs. "When we loaded the RFP into system, those of us who typically handle RFPs were amazed to see so many of the answers populate automatically. I recall everyone's shock, realizing we were instantly 90% done with the first draft as the system pulled similar responses from previous RFPs," Sara recalled.
The AI RFP software's response engine became a game-changer, automatically identifying relevant previous answers without requiring manual library maintenance. This meant the C-suite and department heads could seamlessly collaborate on RFPs without confusion. Beyond traditional RFPs, the team found additional value using the platform for award submissions and investor relations materials. "We're not just using AutoRFP.ai for RFPs. I've been leveraging it for award submissions too, which previously followed that same painful manual process. Having everything searchable in one system has been a tremendous help on the marketing side," added Sara.
The Results
The transformation has been dramatic. What once consumed 24-32 hours of senior team members' time now takes just a couple of hours to complete, representing an estimated 80% time savings on RFP responses. This efficiency gain has freed up valuable executive bandwidth for revenue-generating activities.
The psychological impact has been equally significant. As Raphael explains, "We now approach the RFP stage with confidence and ease. With 90% of our initial draft automated, leveraging insights from previous RFP responses, the majority of our effort is now focused on fine-tuning and personalizing responses, rather than drafting. This efficiency has eliminated the major time commitment and complexity that once accompanied RFPs."
Most tellingly, IMTC has eliminated the RFP challenges that used to burden the team. There are no more dedicated chat channels for troubleshooting RFP issues, no more late nights racing to meet deadlines, and no more hesitation at the RFP stage with potential clients. What was once a source of organizational stress has become just another manageable task in their workflow. "Reaching the RFP stage was once a double-edged sword—beneficial for the business but big task for the team. RFPs were often procrastinated and worked on by many personnel. With AutoRFP.ai, the process is now seamless and stress-free, transforming it into a non-issue for us and into the hands of a few," concludes Raphael.
