WorkflowQuestionnaire & RFP Response

RFP Response Automation

RFP response automation that cites every answer, checks every promise and tells you which section will miss Friday

Higher win rate, no promise you can't keep, and the bid in on time.

See one case, screen by screen ↓
demo4of 63promises in the sample bid's drafts that the company could not keep — caught before submission
demo2 h 40 minto spare after the planner's replan, on a bid forecast to finish 1 h 40 min late
target+5ptswin rate on bids answered, from a 45% average
target½the person hours per bid, with first drafts the day the RFP arrives
In short

What is RFP Response Automation?

RFP response automation software for proposal teams. Eight agents shred the RFP, RFI or RFQ into every question and instruction, draft each answer from your library and won proposals with a citation for every claim, route the gaps to experts, check every promise against what the company can deliver, predict the buyer's score and forecast the finish. The proposal manager approves each section, and the agents assemble the response in the buyer's template for a person to submit.

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Updated

The problem

Why every RFP ends in a 72-hour scramble

An RFP arrives with a few hundred questions, a pricing workbook, the buyer's own Word template, page and word limits, and a deadline nobody can move. The proposal manager builds the compliance matrix by hand, copies answers from the library and old bids, and then chases sales engineers and subject-matter experts who are answering the same settled questions they answered last month. The work piles into the last three days, and the security lead is often the critical path.

The risk is in what gets copied. An answer lifted from a 2024 bid promises 99.99% availability when the hosting policy now offers 99.95% at most; another says go-live in 90 days for 46 interfaces, or certifies a HITRUST scope that lapses before the contract starts, or accepts unlimited liability the contract playbook forbids. Once submitted, those promises are often written into the contract. And no one can see which section will miss the deadline until it does.

typical33hoursspent on the average RFP, 39 for enterprise teams
typical45%average win rate on RFPs answered, 2019–2026
typical20–40%of library answers out of date within six months
Where a bid's person days goestimated
By hand30 days
With the solution15 days
  • Reading the package and building the compliance matrix2 → 0.5 d
  • Drafting answers from the library and old bids12 → 5 d
  • Chasing experts and waiting for their answers7 → 4.5 d
  • Reviewing against requirements and win themes4 → 2.5 d
  • Pricing and checking prices against the narrative2 → 1 d
  • Assembling in the buyer's template and checking it3 → 1.5 d

Estimated person days for a large bid like the sample one — 184 questions, five years, well above the 33-hour average: about 30 by hand, against the 15 (120 hours) the planner scheduled for the sample bid.

How it works

How a bid moves

Eight agents shred, draft, review, check every promise and forecast the finish; the proposal manager approves each section.

What comes in
RFP package inRFP, RFI, RFQ · documents, workbooks, template, addenda
Agents at work
Intake and shredevery question and rule
Then
Drafting agentcited answers
Plannerexperts and forecast
Then
Reviewer
Commitment checker
Evaluator
Then
Pricing agent
Assemblerbuyer's template
A person decides
Proposal managerapproves each section
What comes out
Cited response
In the buyer's template
On time
One case, step by step

One RFP, from at risk to approved and placed

Calderbrook Health System, an 11-hospital health system, has sent RFP CHS-2026-114 for EHR integration and interoperability services: 184 questions, five years, $4.82M, due Friday 16 October at 17:00. It is Wednesday, 09:40. Here is how the proposal manager works with the agents, screen by screen, in the working solution.

  1. 01Wednesday, 09:40

    The whole RFP on one board, and the section that will miss Friday

    Sara Lind · Proposal manager

    Each tile is a section and each small cell a question, filling as answers are drafted, reviewed and approved. 162 of 184 are drafted, 14 are with experts, 8 need pricing and 2 of 9 sections are approved; the predicted score is 83.3 of 100. Above the tiles the burndown shows 37.5 hours of person work left and a forecast finish of Fri 18:40 — 1 h 40 min late. Section 6, Security and privacy, is marked at risk.

    “Finishes Fri 18:40, 1 h 40 min late. 8 questions need 12.0 h of Ingrid Solberg's time; she has 4.5 h free before Thu 12:00.”

  2. 02One click

    “Review the replan” — the planner shows its working

    Planner

    The planner reads the 8 open questions and their effort, both experts' calendars to Friday 17:00 and the skills register. It moves 6.21 penetration testing, 6.22 vulnerability management and 6.27 incident response to Arjun Mehta, security architect, who has 6 hours free. For 6.9 encryption at rest and 6.12 multi-factor authentication it finds approved answers in the Brennick Regional Health bid won in June 2026, for Ingrid to confirm instead of write. Ingrid goes from 12.0 to 4.4 hours.

    “Nothing moves until you accept.”

  3. 03Accepted, 09:41

    The forecast moves to Friday 14:20

    Sara Lind · Proposal manager

    Sara accepts the replan. The burndown now forecasts Fri 14:20, 2 h 40 min to spare, with 34.9 hours of work left, and Section 6 stops showing at risk. The planner tells Ingrid and Arjun and sets their due times for Thursday 12:00 and 17:00. Both the acceptance and the message are on the audit trail.

  4. 04Ingrid's inbox

    Five questions that need her, not thirty-four

    Ingrid Solberg · Security and compliance lead

    Ingrid sees only what needs her: “Calderbrook Health RFP needs 5 answers from you”, due Thursday 12:00. For 6.9 and 6.12 the approved Brennick answer is already there, reviewed by her on 21 Aug 2026 — she confirms or writes a new one. For 6.30, where Exhibit H has 3 clauses outside the standard business associate agreement, she writes the answer and the reviewer checks it against the requirement.

    Each request says how long it should take: about 10 minutes to 1.5 hours.

  5. 05Every claim cited

    Question 4.6: 120 days, not 90

    Drafting agent and Commitment checker

    “State the time from contract signature to go-live.” The drafting agent wrote “Go-live in 90 days” from an older proposal. The commitment checker read implementation method IM-3 — 120 days for 40 or more interfaces, and Calderbrook has 46 — and Marcus Oyelaran accepted the corrected wording on Tuesday. The answer now cites IM-3 and the won Brennick proposal; the reviewer passed it: 2 of 2 requirements answered, win theme W1 present, 21 of 150 words.

    The drafting agent never states a capability without a source; under 70% confidence it routes the question to an expert.

  6. 06Promise check

    63 promises read, 4 that the company could not keep

    Commitment checker

    The commitment checker found 63 promises in 162 drafts — availability, dates, certificates, liability, response times — and checked each against what binds Kestrel & Vane on the 1 Feb 2027 start date. 59 hold. Answer 5.3 promises “99.99% monthly availability”, from a 2024 statement past its review date; hosting SLA policy HS-4 v6 offers 99.9% standard and 99.95% premium. It proposes 99.95% with the premium tier, priced in 8.4, for Tomás Reyes, the hosting lead, to accept, send on or override with a reason.

    “Why it matters: at 99.99% a missed month would cost up to $7,000 in service credits we did not price.”

  7. 07The buyer's red team

    Calderbrook's own weights, applied before Calderbrook does

    Evaluator and Reviewer

    The evaluator scores each section with the RFP's §2.4 weights: 83.3 of 100 now, 86.1 when the gaps close, against a target of 85. Security sits at 15.2 of 20 because 8 answers are still with experts — 4.8 points at stake. The reviewer, independent of the drafter, has 287 of 332 requirements answered, win themes in 84 of 95 answers that need one, and 4 answers flagged to their owners, such as 3.14, which does not say how standards work protects the 120-day plan.

    The evaluator never claims to know the buyer's decision: the score is a prediction.

  8. 08Pricing

    Exhibit P built from the price book, with authority checked

    Pricing agent

    The pricing agent filled 8 lines from price book PB-2026.3: $4,820,000 over five years, $436,800 of discount, a 31.4% margin against a 28% floor. Lines 8.4 and 8.7 carry a 12% multi-year discount, above the account executive's 8% authority, so they wait for Olu Adeyemi on the deal desk. It also checked the 5 prices the narrative mentions: answer 7.4 says data migration is in the fixed fee, but the workbook prices it in 8.9.

    The pricing agent never sends a price without deal desk approval.

  9. 09The decision

    Section 4 approved with a reason code

    Sara Lind · Proposal manager

    Section 4, Implementation and project management, shows 22 of 22 reviewed, 41 of 41 requirements answered, 19 answers carrying a win theme and a predicted 17.6 of 20. Sara picks SA-01 Complete and reviewed, adds her note, ticks that she has read the reviewer's and the commitment checker's results, and signs as approver. 3 of 9 sections are now approved.

    “Reviewed with Marcus Oyelaran. 4.6 now says 120 days, matching the plan in Attachment 6.”

  10. 10Placed and proven

    In Calderbrook's own template, checked against its rules

    Assembler

    The assembler places Section 4 in Calderbrook's own Word template, Exhibit T, on pages 19–31, then re-reads the file against the shred: answers inside their word limits, a 97-page forecast against the 120-page limit, headings and numbering unchanged, Arial 11 pt. 4 of 10 checks pass so far, and the proof shows what is still open: 7.4 contradicts Exhibit P, form E waits for Catherine Moreau, 3 promise conflicts are open.

    “Submit stays locked until all 10 checks pass and Catherine Moreau signs.”

Who it’s for

Built for everyone who touches a bid.

The same RFP, seen by five of the people who carry it — what bid week looked like, and what it looks like now.

SL
Sara LindProposal manager, Kestrel & Vane Digital Services · approves each section
Proposal manager
Before
Runs four to six bids at once, chasing experts, editing and reformatting — “I don't need more drafts. I need to know which section will miss Friday.”
Now
Sees the forecast finish against the deadline, accepts the replan when a section slips, and approves each section with a reason code.
IS
Ingrid SolbergSecurity and compliance lead, office of the CISO
Security and compliance lead
Before
Answers every security question for every bid, on top of audits — “Send me the eight that need me, not the thirty-four.”
Now
Gets only the questions that need current evidence, with the approved answer from a won bid to confirm where one exists.
MO
Marcus OyelaranSales engineer, interoperability · owns the technical sections
Sales engineer
Before
“Half my week is rewriting answers I wrote last month.”
Now
Opens drafted answers with a citation for every claim, and accepts the commitment checker's correction on 4.6 — 120 days, not 90.
DW
Daniel WhitcombeAccount executive, Calderbrook account · owns the win themes
Account executive
Before
Owns the relationship and the price strategy — “If we promise 99.99, I'm the one who pays the credits.”
Now
Sees every promise checked against the hosting policy, the certificate register and the playbook before it reaches the buyer.
OA
Olu AdeyemiDeal desk lead · approves prices and discounts
Deal desk lead
Before
“No discount leaves this building without my name on it.”
Now
Gets the workbook built from the price book, with the two lines above the account executive's authority waiting for his approval.
Built on the engine

8 agents. Each with one job, and hard limits.

Eight agents shred, draft, review, check every promise and forecast the finish; the proposal manager approves each section.

Intake and shred

Reads the RFP package and addenda — the PDF, Excel questionnaire, pricing workbook and Word template — and extracts every question, instruction, evaluation weight, page and word limit and deadline.

  • Never decides go or no-go
  • Anything it cannot classify goes to a person
Drafting agent

Drafts each answer from the approved library and won proposals, with a numbered citation for every claim and a confidence score.

  • Never states a capability without a source
  • Under 70% confidence it routes the question to an expert
Planner

Assigns gaps to experts by skill and calendar, forecasts the finish against the deadline, replans when a section will be late, and sends reminders.

  • Never moves an approved section
  • A replan is proposed; a person accepts it
Reviewer

Re-reads every answer against its requirement, its word limit and the win themes, independently of the drafter.

  • Never reviews its own drafts
  • Never edits an approved answer
Commitment checker

Finds every promise in the answers and checks it against the hosting SLA policy, the certificate register, the implementation method, the contract playbook and the price book.

  • Never softens a promise silently
  • Every conflict shows both sources and goes to its owner
Evaluator

Predicts the buyer's score for each section with the RFP's own weights, and names the answers that lose points.

  • Never claims to know the buyer's decision — the score is a prediction
Pricing agent

Builds the pricing lines from the price book, checks that every price the narrative mentions matches the workbook, and checks discount authority.

  • Never sends a price without deal desk approval
  • Never exceeds a person's authority
Assembler

Fills the buyer's Word template and pricing workbook, then proves the file is complete: every question placed once, limits, fonts, forms and approvals.

  • Never submits — submission needs the final approver's signature
Proposal manager

Approves each section. The agents propose; a named person decides.

Ask in plain words

Ask about any bid, in plain words

Ask about any bid, section, answer or promise — or say who to remind. Every answer cites its source, and changes are proposed for a person to approve.

Will Calderbrook make Friday 17:00?

Not as planned: the forecast is Fri 18:40, 1 h 40 min late. Section 6 needs 12.0 h of Ingrid Solberg's time and she has 4.5 h free before Thu 12:00. The planner has a replan: three questions to Arjun Mehta and two approved answers from the Brennick bid for Ingrid to confirm. New forecast Fri 14:20.

Which answers promise more than we can deliver?

3 of 63 promises conflict: 5.3, “99.99% monthly availability”; 6.31, “HITRUST r2 certified for the contract term”; and 9.4, “Unlimited liability for data breaches”. The hosting policy offers 99.95% at most, the HITRUST r2 certificate expires 30 Nov 2026, and the playbook caps breach liability at 3× annual fees. Each has proposed wording waiting for its owner.

Why is Section 6 scored lowest?

15.2 of 20, because 8 answers are still with experts. Security is worth 20 points in §2.4 and asks for evidence, not assurances. 4.8 points ride on 6.9, 6.12, 6.21, 6.22, 6.27, 6.30, 6.31 and 6.33. Closing them and the 5.3 wording lifts the bid from 83.3 to 86.1.

Remind everyone with work due tomorrow

Sent 5 reminders: Ingrid Solberg and Lena Fischer (due Thu 12:00), Tomás Reyes (Thu 10:00), Hana Kobayashi (Thu 14:00) and Olu Adeyemi for the two discounts (Thu 16:00). Each says exactly which questions and how long they should take. Every reminder is on the record.

Every screen

The working solution, as it ships.

13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.

The section boardOne tile per section and one cell per question, the burndown of hours left against the deadline, the predicted score and the section at risk.
The planner's replanEach step of the planner's work, the questions it moves or offers for confirmation, and the new forecast — nothing moves until the proposal manager accepts.
After the replanThe board once the replan is accepted: the new forecast finish with time to spare, the hours left and who now holds each question.
Agent workEvery agent's last run step by step, its tools, confidence, the sources it read, who it hands to and its limit.
One answer and its sourcesThe requirement, the answer with numbered citations, the reviewer's and the commitment checker's results, and the answer's history.
The promise checkEvery promise the answers make against the policy that binds the company, the conflicts with proposed wording, and why each one matters.
Predicted score and win themesThe score the buyer's own weights would give each section, win themes by section and the answers the reviewer flagged.
What the expert seesOnly the questions that need this expert, with the approved answer from a won bid to confirm where one exists.
PricingThe workbook built from the price book: lines, discounts, five-year total, margin against the floor and the lines above a person's authority.
Approve a sectionReviewed answers, requirements, win themes and the predicted score; the reason code, the note and the approver's signature.
Assemble and submitApproved sections placed in the buyer's own template with their page ranges, and the ten-check submission proof.
Audit trailEvery action by a person or an agent, with its sources and reason code, a check that the record is unbroken and an evidence export.
Your rulesConfidence, score target, at-risk rule, reminders, discount authority, margin floor and the policies every promise is checked against, plus the reason codes.
Governance

Built for bids you can stand behind: cited, checked, signed.

Every claim cites its sourceEach drafted answer carries numbered citations to the library entry, won proposal or policy it came from, and each citation opens the passage. Without a source, the question goes to an expert.
Agents check each otherThe reviewer and the commitment checker are independent of the drafter. A promise that conflicts with policy shows both sources and goes to its owner, who accepts the wording, sends it on or overrides it with a reason.
A named person signs each stepThe proposal manager approves each section with a reason code, deal desk approves prices, commercial counsel approves legal exceptions and the VP Sales Engineering approves the submission. No one approves a section they drafted.
Agents never submit or send a priceSubmit stays locked until every check in the submission proof passes and the final approver signs. Discounts above a person's authority wait for the one who holds it.
Segregation of duties is fixedPermissions are set per role. An administrator or auditor can never approve, and a policy owner may override only promises made against their own policy.
Every step on the audit trailEvery agent run and every person's action is recorded with who, what, the sources and the reason code. One click checks the record is unbroken, and the evidence for a bid exports as one file.
Configuration

Your bid policy, not ours

The thresholds the agents work to are settings. Changes are saved as a new version that the VP Sales Engineering approves; until then the agents keep working to the version that is live.

SettingDefaultChoose from
Drafting confidence needed to draft (below it, an expert answers)70%Any percentage · saved as a new version
Reviewer must pass every answer before a section is approvedAlwaysFixed — cannot be switched off
Predicted-score target85 of 100Any score · saved as a new version
A section is at risk when its forecast finish is later thanDeadline − 2 hAny margin before the deadline
Reminders before an expert's due time24 h, 4 h, 1 hAny set of reminder times
Discount authorityAccount executive 8% · deal desk 15%Set per role; above 15%, the VP Sales
Margin floor28%Any percentage · saved as a new version
Promises are checked againstHS-4 v6 · certificate register · IM-3 · CP-2026 · PB-2026.3The policies, registers and price book that bind you
Connections

Works with the systems a bid already runs on

Buyer supplier portalsthe RFP, RFI or RFQ package and addenda, and the upload at submission
Answer library and past proposalsapproved answers with owners and review dates, and the proposals you won
CRMaccounts, opportunities, account plans and win themes
Calendars, chat and emailexperts' free time for the planner, and requests and reminders
Quote tool and price booklist prices, discount authority and costs
Policies and certificate registerSLA policy, certificates, implementation method, contract playbook; e-signature for forms
What it changes

The difference, in numbers.

Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.

target
+5pts
win rate on bids answered, from a 45% average
Average45%
Target50%
target
0
answers that promise more than the contract allows
63 of 63 promises checked
4 corrected before submission
target
½
the person hours per bid; first drafts the day the RFP arrives
TodayWith agents

“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample bid · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (2026 RFP response benchmark survey of 1,533 respondents, published by an RFP software vendor — 33 hours per RFP, 39 for enterprise teams, 45% average win rate across 2019–2026; vendor estimates that 20–40% of library answers go out of date within six months). People, companies, bids and policies named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.

Questions

What proposal teams ask us.

What is RFP Response Automation?

RFP response automation software for proposal teams. Eight agents shred the RFP, RFI or RFQ into every question and instruction, draft each answer from your library and won proposals with a citation for every claim, route the gaps to experts, check every promise against what the company can deliver, predict the buyer's score and forecast the finish. The proposal manager approves each section, and the agents assemble the response in the buyer's template for a person to submit.

How does it stop answers promising more than we can deliver?

The commitment checker finds every promise in the drafts — availability, go-live dates, certificates, liability, response times — and checks it against your hosting SLA policy, certificate register, implementation method, contract playbook and price book on the contract start date. A conflict shows both sources and proposed wording, and goes to the answer's owner to accept, send on or override with a reason.

How does it know which section will miss the deadline?

The planner turns the open questions, their effort and each expert's calendar into a burndown of hours left and a forecast finish for every section. When a forecast passes the deadline it proposes a replan — moving questions to a second qualified expert or offering an approved answer from a won bid to confirm — and the proposal manager accepts or edits it.

Does it use our existing answer library?

Yes. The drafting agent drafts from your approved library and past winning proposals and cites the entry it used. Below 70% confidence, or where current evidence is needed, it sends the question to an expert instead of guessing.

Can it fill the buyer's own template and pricing workbook?

Yes. The assembler places each approved section in the buyer's Word template and fills the pricing workbook, then runs a submission proof: every question placed once, word and page limits, headings and fonts unchanged, no prices in the technical volume, forms signed, promises checked and prices approved.

Does the AI submit the bid or send prices?

No. Agents never submit, never send a price and never accept a legal exception. Discounts above the account executive's authority wait for deal desk, and submit stays locked until the proof passes and the VP Sales Engineering signs.

Do people stay in control?

Yes. The proposal manager approves each section with a reason code, deal desk approves prices, counsel approves legal exceptions and the VP Sales Engineering approves the submission. Every agent step and every decision is on the audit trail with its sources.

How long does it take to go live?

The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your answer library, past proposals, policies and price book — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on one of your own past RFPs first.

See it on
your RFPs.

We'll run RFP Response Automation on one of your own past RFPs, against your answer library and policies.