“Electrify”-ing” Improvements in Proposal Automation

Current Situation

At the time of their search for a new RFP Automation solution, Lexicon was using a legacy system that was cumbersome, complicated and not used to full potential. Lexicon was relegated to using the old system merely as a cut and paste repository. It became clear that Lexicon needed a way to ensure the content was consistent with a new method to improve their turnaround time as demand for RFP support increased.

Solution

According to Fern Shaw, Marketing Communications at Lexicon, “We LOVE Expedience. Our goal in selecting a new proposal database system was easy to use, easy to update, and easy to manage. Expedience met every goal beautifully. We already had templates in place with established styles for our project responses so the Expedience concept mirrored ours completely. Even when our project deliverables are online or in an Excel spreadsheet, we create the draft in Word for easy editing and to track changes with our sales team’s collaboration. We are thrilled that the Expedience program is Word-driven and fully integrated and readily available in our drafts. The process is so easy we are still in awe after using it for six months!”

Outcomes

By creating a content library within the simple familiar interface of Word®, Lexicon can now ensure consistency in both messaging and content while simultaneously improving RFP response turnaround time.

“The implementation and continued support from the Expedience Team was and is amazing,” says Shaw. “Transitioning to the new system and using is as easy as saving the file to your computer and opening the document in Word.”

“Bamm! It’s just there and it works… like electricity. I don’t care how it works,” says Shaw. “I’m just happy and amazed when I turn on the light switch there’s light and that’s exactly how I feel about Expedience! Expedience is always quick to respond to any question or email and they make you feel like a valued member of their team.”

Shaw concluded “We have shaved off at least 20% of the time it took for projects no longer
having to open the database and go through the tedious search and then copy and paste
the answer where needed. The ease in updating the database answers is amazing. It used
to take me hours to keep the database updated, now it’s a seamless process that happens
while creating a draft! I am now confident that the answer provided is the greatest and
latest creating a more dependable consistent response! We take pride in our final product
and Expedience helps us in creating the highest quality responses possible.”

Terri Hatfield, Director of Marketing concludes with a final note, “We got hit last week with 2
very quick turnaround RFPs, a potential hurricane hitting Jacksonville, I lost power for part of
the Friday workday, they closed our headquarters office – but you know what? The bids got
done! In the past, we really struggled with making sure we had the latest and greatest answers
and frankly, we had some issues! Now – we just check the date and we are ready to go!”

About Expedience Software

Expedience Software creates fast, accurate, and beautiful proposals directly from Microsoft Word! Automate RFP & RFI responses (even Excel RFPs!), FAQs, DDQs, SOWs, Questionnaires, PowerPoint presentations, and more! With more than 20 years of proposal automation experience, Expedience is the premier solution for sales and proposal professionals in financial and asset management, healthcare, legal, manufacturing, and technology organizations.