Fortune 100 Technology Provider Enables Globalization Initiative with Sant Solution

Current Status

A Fortune 100 technology company headquartered in the U.S. recently launched an initiative to globalize its offerings. To ensure that all proposals and responses to RFPs generated under this initiative present consistent messaging and branding in every country where the company does business, they implemented Sant ProposalMaster, RFPMaster, and ProSearch. The solutions went live in June 2008, and are already being leveraged by 1,200 users; within 12-18 months the user base is expected to increase to 6,000. Sharing a single database that contains content in 11 languages, the solutions are used to generate proposals, responses to RFPs, statements of work that are attached to sales contracts, and quick answers to sales inquiries.

Original Challenge

Before purchasing an enterprise license for Sant Suite, the technology provider relied on a competing product that could not support a single global database. Instead, a separate database was required for each language, and each user group. Over time, this limitation translated into a situation where 19 disparate databases contained information required for proposals. In this complex environment, keeping content current was difficult, if not impossible, and, to further complicate matters, the content could not be shared. As a result, the company had no efficient way to prepare proposals and RFP responses with consistent branding, messaging, and information for their globalized products and services.

"We had a mandate to streamline our ability to respond to bid requests for global products and services, but we could not do so with our existing infrastructure," says the company's Content Manager. "What we needed, and did not have, was a single global database containing accurate content presented in a consistent style, in several languages, for prospects around the world. We also needed to be able to leverage that database with tools that facilitate collaborative development of proposals and responses to RFPs. Finally, we wanted to give sales staff the ability to quickly search the database and obtain the information required to resolve ad hoc information queries."

Solution

At first, the technology provider intended to meet these challenges with an updated version of their legacy proposal management solution. But they soon discovered that this product did not seamlessly integrate with their CRM and pricing systems, and could not be installed behind their firewall--both of which were critical requirements.

"We chose the Sant solutions because they alone met all of our requirements," the Content Manager says. "The solutions share a single global database that we can use to manage translated content, they include workflow tools that facilitate tracking content lifecycles, and they make proposal and bid production fast and easy. And Sant was also able to deliver the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to integrate with our CRM and pricing systems in a time frame that allowed us to meet our launch schedules. Not to be overlooked is the fact that the sales process with Sant was extremely professional and there was a cultural fit that made us want to partner with them."

The company prepares all content for their Sant database in English, and then also stores translated versions of this content in 10 additional languages. Essentially, the database is segmented virtually, with clearly defined security roles that ensure users only have access to the specific content they need, in the languages they require. A user in Switzerland, for example, will only be allowed access to content in English, German, French, and Italian, while a user in Finland may only be given access to content in Finnish and English.

All content is stored in standardized styles, regardless of language. Whether in Spanish or Czech, for example, content conforms to any of five levels of heading styles, and three styles of body text. By carefully controlling content style this way, proposals always have a similar look and feel, whatever the language or country of delivery.

The following three user groups at the company are currently leveraging the Sant solutions:

• A bids group, charged with responding to 10 percent of the highest value RFPs received, relies on RFPMaster to ensure that documents, branding, and messaging are always consistent. The solution allows these users to quickly respond to RFP questions that have relevant answers in the database, while also enabling them to add tailored information as appropriate. In one representative application, RFPMaster is being used to locate and retrieve ISO certificates that need to be included in RFPs--a task that is typically repeated as often as 75 times every month. Before implementing RFPMaster, this task took more than three hours, but now, it takes only seconds, saving the company as much as 225 hours a month.
• Sales staff rely on ProposalMaster to create the proposals they need to meet the requirements of prospects. Before rolling out this solution, a sales person would spend a minimum of half a day preparing a single proposal, and the proposal did not always contain the right messaging, branding, or information. But now, proposals can be out the door in 30 minutes and fully meet all pre-set presentation requirements, as well as the information needs of the prospect.
• Solutions consultants, responsible for preparing statements of work that get attached to final contracts, also rely on ProposalMaster to quickly access the content they need. The company has created a document type in the Sant solution called "statement of work," so these documents always meet corporate standards for style, completeness, and accuracy.

All of the above three groups also use Sant ProSearch to research information when a formal document is not required. With this solution any authorized Sant user can query the database and quickly find the information they need to respond to a customer inquiry, or to prepare themselves for a sales call. They can also copy and paste this information into any other document, enabling them to respond to an email, for example, in seconds.

The Future with Sant

In addition to the applications discussed above, the company is now considering using their Sant solutions to produce standard contracts such as Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and Master Service Agreements. Also under consideration for the future is the addition of content in other languages such as Russian, Japanese, or Chinese.