Ganesh Shankar, CEO and Co-Founding father of Responsive, is an skilled product supervisor with a background in main product improvement and software program implementations for Fortune 500 enterprises. Throughout his time in product administration, he noticed inefficiencies within the Request for Proposal (RFP) course of—formal paperwork organizations use to solicit bids from distributors, typically requiring in depth, detailed responses. Managing RFPs historically includes a number of stakeholders and repetitive duties, making the method time-consuming and complicated.
Based in 2015 as RFPIO, Responsive was created to streamline RFP administration by extra environment friendly software program options. The corporate launched an automatic strategy to boost collaboration, scale back handbook effort, and enhance effectivity. Over time, its expertise expanded to assist different complicated info requests, together with Requests for Info (RFIs), Due Diligence Questionnaires (DDQs), and safety questionnaires.
At the moment, as Responsive, the corporate supplies options for strategic response administration, serving to organizations speed up development, mitigate danger, and optimize their proposal and knowledge request processes.
What impressed you to start out Responsive, and the way did you establish the hole out there for response administration software program?
My co-founders and I based Responsive in 2015 after dealing with our personal struggles with the RFP response course of on the software program firm we had been working for on the time. Though not central to our job capabilities, we devoted appreciable time helping the gross sales group with requests for proposals (RFPs), typically feeling underappreciated regardless of our very important function in securing offers. Pissed off with the dearth of expertise to make the RFP course of extra environment friendly, we determined to construct a greater resolution. Quick ahead 9 years, and we have grown to just about 500 workers, serve over 2,000 prospects—together with 25 Fortune 100 corporations—and assist practically 400,000 customers worldwide.
How did your background in product administration and your earlier roles affect the creation of Responsive?
As a product supervisor, I used to be continuously pulled by the Gross sales group into the RFP response course of, spending virtually a 3rd of my time supporting gross sales as an alternative of specializing in my core product administration tasks. My two co-founders skilled the same problem of their expertise and implementation roles. We acknowledged this was a widespread drawback with no current expertise resolution, so we leveraged our virtually 50 years of mixed expertise to create Responsive. We noticed a possibility to essentially rework how organizations share info, beginning with managing and responding to complicated proposal requests.
Responsive has developed considerably since its founding in 2015. How do you keep the stability between staying true to your authentic imaginative and prescient and adapting to market modifications?
First, we’re meticulous about discovering and nurturing expertise that embodies our ardour – primarily cloning our founding spirit throughout the group. As we have scaled, it is develop into vital to rent managers and group members who can authentically signify our core cultural values and dedication.
On the similar time, we stay laser-focused on buyer suggestions. We doc each piece of enter, no matter its measurement, recognizing that these insights create patterns that assist us navigate product improvement, market positioning, and any uncertainty within the business. Our strategy is not about performing on each suggestion, however making a complete understanding of rising tendencies throughout quite a lot of sources.
We additionally push ourselves to assume past our quick business and to remain interested by adjoining areas. Whether or not in healthcare, expertise, or different sectors, we frequently discover inspiration for innovation. This outside-in perspective permits us to repeatedly increase the bar, inspiring concepts from sudden locations and preserving our product dynamic and forward-thinking.
What metrics or success indicators are most vital to you when evaluating the platform’s affect on prospects?
When evaluating Responsive’s affect, our main metric is how we drive buyer income. We deal with two key success indicators: top-line income era and operational effectivity. On the effectivity entrance, we purpose to considerably scale back RFP response time – for a lot of, we scale back it by 40%. This effectivity permits our prospects to pursue extra alternatives, finally accelerating their income era potential.
How does Responsive leverage AI and machine studying to offer a aggressive edge within the response administration software program market?
We leverage AI and machine studying to streamline response administration in three key methods. First, our generative AI creates complete proposal drafts in minutes, saving effort and time. Second, our Ask resolution supplies immediate entry to vetted organizational information, enabling quicker, extra correct responses. Third, our Profile Heart helps InfoSec groups rapidly discover and handle safety content material.
With over $600 billion in proposals managed by the Responsive platform and 4 million Q&A pairs processed, our AI delivers clever suggestions and deep insights into response patterns. By automating complicated duties whereas preserving people in management, we assist organizations develop income, scale back danger, and reply extra effectively.
What differentiates Responsive’s platform from different options within the business, significantly when it comes to AI capabilities and integrations?
Since 2015, AI has been on the core of Responsive, powering a platform trusted by over 2,000 world prospects. Our resolution helps a variety of RFx use circumstances, enabling seamless collaboration, workflow automation, content material administration, and challenge administration throughout groups and stakeholders.
With key AI capabilities—like sensible suggestions, an AI assistant, grammar checks, language translation, and built-in prompts—groups can ship high-quality RFPs rapidly and precisely.
Responsive additionally provides unmatched native integrations with main apps, together with CRM, cloud storage, productiveness instruments, and gross sales enablement. Our buyer worth packages embody APMP-certified consultants, Responsive Academy programs, and a vibrant group of 1,500+ prospects sharing insights and finest practices.
Are you able to share insights into the event course of behind Responsive’s core options, such because the AI suggestion engine and automatic RFP responses?
Responsive AI is constructed on the muse of correct, up-to-date content material, which is vital to the effectiveness of our AI suggestion engine and automatic RFP responses. AI alone can’t resolve conflicting or incomplete knowledge, so we’ve prioritized instruments like hierarchical tags and sturdy content material administration to assist customers manage and keep their info. By combining generative AI with this dependable knowledge, our platform empowers groups to generate quick, high-quality responses whereas preserving credibility. AI serves as an assistive software, with human oversight guaranteeing accuracy and authenticity, whereas options just like the Ask product allow seamless entry to trusted information for tackling complicated initiatives.
How have developments in cloud computing and digitization influenced the best way organizations strategy RFPs and strategic response administration?
Developments in cloud computing have enabled larger effectivity, collaboration, and scalability. Cloud-based platforms permit groups to centralize content material, streamline workflows, and collaborate in actual time, no matter location. This ensures quicker turnaround instances and extra correct, constant responses.
Digitization has additionally enhanced how organizations handle and entry their knowledge, making it simpler to leverage AI-powered instruments like suggestion engines and automatic responses. With these developments, corporations can focus extra on technique and personalization, responding to RFPs with larger velocity and precision whereas driving higher outcomes.
Responsive has been instrumental in serving to corporations like Microsoft and GEODIS streamline their RFP processes. Are you able to share a particular success story that highlights the affect of your platform?
Responsive has performed a key function in supporting Microsoft’s gross sales workers by managing and curating 20,000 items of proposal content material by its Proposal Useful resource Library, powered by Responsive AI. This expertise enabled Microsoft’s proposal group to contribute $10.4 billion in income final fiscal 12 months. Moreover, by implementing Responsive, Microsoft saved its sellers 93,000 hours—equal to over $17 million—that might be redirected towards fostering stronger buyer relationships.
As one other instance of Responsive offering measurable affect, our buyer Netsmart considerably improved their response time and effectivity by implementing Responsive’s AI capabilities. They achieved a 10X quicker response time, elevated proposal submissions by 67%, and noticed a 540% development in person adoption. Key options equivalent to AI Assistant, Necessities Evaluation, and Auto Reply performed essential roles in these enhancements. The combination with Salesforce and the institution of a centralized Content material Library additional streamlined their processes, leading to a 93% go-forward fee for RFPs and a 43% discount in outdated content material. General, Netsmart’s use of Responsive’s AI-driven platform led to substantial time financial savings, enhanced content material accuracy, and elevated productiveness throughout their proposal administration operations.
JAGGAER, one other Responsive buyer, achieved a double-digit win-rate improve and 15X ROI through the use of Responsive’s AI for content material moderation, response creation, and Necessities Evaluation, which improved decision-making and effectivity. Person adoption tripled, and the platform streamlined collaboration and content material administration throughout a number of groups.
The place do you see the response administration business heading within the subsequent 5 years, and the way is Responsive positioned to steer on this area?
Within the subsequent 5 years, I see the response administration business being remodeled by AI brokers, with a deal with preserving people within the loop. Whereas we anticipate round 80 million jobs being changed, we’ll concurrently see 180 million new jobs created—a internet constructive for our business.
Responsive is uniquely positioned to steer this transformation. We have processed over $600 billion in proposals and constructed a database of just about 4 million Q&A pairs. Our huge dataset permits us to know complicated patterns and develop AI options that transcend easy automation.
Our strategy is to embrace AI’s potential, discovering alternatives for constructive outcomes fairly than fearing disruption. Firms with sturdy market intelligence, complete knowledge, and confirmed utilization will emerge as leaders, and Responsive is on the forefront of that wave. The secret’s not simply implementing AI, however doing so strategically with wealthy, contextual knowledge that permits significant insights and effectivity.
Thanks for the nice interview, readers who want to study extra ought to go to Responsive,