Sofon Proposal Organizer vs. VisibleThread VT Docs

In my opinion, the most valuable characteristic of SPO is that by answering simple questions a very complex product can be configured; therefore the scope of delivery is defined very well. In addition, SPO has great flexibility to manage prices and costs. However, SPO is configurator of parts that allows incorporating basic design rules for their selection. SPO is not a optimised for developing complicated engineering design rules.

VT is fabulous to proposal writing as it created for that. It can also be used for ANY type of persuasive or technical writing. If you can write it, VT can help to make the writing better. BUT!!! if you are writing news articles or descriptive writing, this is NOT the software for you. VT works to eliminate fluff, ambiguous words, exaggerations, run-on sentences, improper grammar, misspelled words, sentence fragments, etc. VT also works to eliminate passive writing. As with any software, use it for what it was created - and find something else for the rest.

• Top Down approach
• Drive sales representatives to their goal
• Clear final calculation

• Acronym finder - the best acronym finder I have used! This creates an Excel spreadsheet with the acronyms and their definitions in an alphabetically sorted worksheet ... AND this worksheet includes actual sentences from the document showing how and where the acronym was used.
• Compare documents - WOW! what a wonderful update! You get an Excel worksheet with the 2 compared documents side-by-side showing differences in red and statements with no changes in blue.
• Starter compliance matrix (SCM) - again, one of the best SCM-creators I have used. This choice is quick, concise, and the resulting Excel worksheet is easy to manipulate and change.

• SQL servers may lead to unexpect failures
• Tables created in SPO could have better interface with the user
• Management of user licences could be easier

• Dictionaries - I would like to see more "canned" dictionaries. We create our own, but I know that VT has more that they can supply, giving us more quick turnaround changes (versus always having to start from scratch).

Unfortunately I have no possibility to renew or not renew SPO so it is difficult to answer to this question

The previous product we used was developed by ourselves so my experience is very limited. I can say that having a software like SPO we can configure the product without any programming experience and this makes things faster and better. Moreover, I can say that MS Office compatibility is a strong point.

We reviewed many other products but found all of them did not have the extent of tasks that VT had. These searches were over 5 years ago and many of the products reviewed are no longer available. In addition, some software still in existence have merit, just not to the extent we need. I do not want to give anyone a bad rating just because we did not choose them. Again, choose the right software for the right job!

• Reduce quotation time at the proposal office,
• better definition and more organise project scope at project management level
• centralisation of knoweldeg: one problem, one solution

• We reduced proposal writing time and output. By reducing time, we gained time for work in other areas of proposal handling. I used to need 3-5 DAYS to create an acronym list. Now, with VT, I do the same work in 1-2 hours!
• VT is for proposal WRITING and not for proposal HANDLING. Our proposal managers and coordinators do the handling part.