Not a community member? Click here to register.
To 6.1 users: My team manages over 3,500 pieces of information on inciteKnowlege.com, both in word (80%) and powerpoint (20%) format for our users globally. I have to be quite honest we were quite skeptical on migrating our word content from Proposal Automation Suite to inciteKnowledge.com, but now we believe it was the best thing we could have ever done! My team and some of the Sales analysts used RFP Express to answer questionnaires, but since rolling out Express via inciteKnowledge.com the expanded, more powerful, faster ("google" like) search capabilities in Express have converted the doubters. Once Express users understand the workflow of using a browser and the associated word file or whatever file type, RFP Express is forgotten very quickly. In addition, as a bonus, sometimes we may not always find an answers in our word content, but they may be available in powerpoint content. This allows our users to truly customize answers by even adding graphs and pictures to an answer that otherwise was not available in our word database. Also,since we pushed out much of the responsibility of answering Q&A to our Sales Team and their analysts, my content managers/admins have been more productive in fine tuning and maintaining accurate and up-to-date content in the knowledgebase. To sum up the key differences/advantages: No dependency on integration with the RFP file. The RFP file can be opened and responded to in the format provided by the issuer (Word, Excel, etc.), and Express is opened in the browser. This approach eliminates all of the crashes, hangs, etc., that users might encounter with RFP Express. More powerful search. Gone are the dependencies on keywords -- content managers/admins no longer need to manage applying them to records and proposal writers no longer need to guess which keywords are the right ones to search on in order to get results. You can now search across multiple knowledge bases at once, specify how the search engine should look for answers (including specifying how it should match words, in what content it should look for matches, and narrow searches into specific knowledge bases or even specific categories), and filter the results even further by file type (doc/ppt) or by flags (things I've marked as my favorites). Ease of browsing the directory. If your users opt to browse the knowledge base to located content, the process of doing so is much more conducive to quickly reviewing a set of records by a specific topic. They can choose to view the results with or without the content thumbnails, depending on their preferences. One integrated place for all content (mentioned above)-- regardless of format. Unlike RFP Express, inciteKnowledge Express enables you to access not only document content but presentation content as well. Depending on the content in your knowledge base, the actual answer may be housed in a presentation rather than a document -- with Express, you can leverage either type in responding. Flexibility in how you use content. You can copy a complete record to the Office clipboard using Copy to Clipboard, or use a part of the record by invoking the Open/Download action and copy/pasting just the info you want from the preview. In either case, the content carries with it all of the formatting/graphics, etc., that are applied in the knowledge base. Additionally, both actions are tracked and can be reported on, giving you visibility into what content records are being used most frequently and in what manner. Feedback loops that help you evolve your knowledge base. If your users cannot find an answer or have suggestions on how the content could be improved, they can always send feedback via Express to your content managers. This helps improve the knowledge base, as it gives content managers/admins visibility into what's missing, what needs adjustment to be more easily located or better suited for specific situations, and understand how content is being applied to specific situations. Any questions, let me know.
To 6.1 users:
My team manages over 3,500 pieces of information on inciteKnowlege.com, both in word (80%) and powerpoint (20%) format for our users globally. I have to be quite honest we were quite skeptical on migrating our word content from Proposal Automation Suite to inciteKnowledge.com, but now we believe it was the best thing we could have ever done!
My team and some of the Sales analysts used RFP Express to answer questionnaires, but since rolling out Express via inciteKnowledge.com the expanded, more powerful, faster ("google" like) search capabilities in Express have converted the doubters. Once Express users understand the workflow of using a browser and the associated word file or whatever file type, RFP Express is forgotten very quickly.
In addition, as a bonus, sometimes we may not always find an answers in our word content, but they may be available in powerpoint content. This allows our users to truly customize answers by even adding graphs and pictures to an answer that otherwise was not available in our word database. Also,since we pushed out much of the responsibility of answering Q&A to our Sales Team and their analysts, my content managers/admins have been more productive in fine tuning and maintaining accurate and up-to-date content in the knowledgebase.
To sum up the key differences/advantages:
No dependency on integration with the RFP file. The RFP file can be opened and responded to in the format provided by the issuer (Word, Excel, etc.), and Express is opened in the browser. This approach eliminates all of the crashes, hangs, etc., that users might encounter with RFP Express.
More powerful search. Gone are the dependencies on keywords -- content managers/admins no longer need to manage applying them to records and proposal writers no longer need to guess which keywords are the right ones to search on in order to get results. You can now search across multiple knowledge bases at once, specify how the search engine should look for answers (including specifying how it should match words, in what content it should look for matches, and narrow searches into specific knowledge bases or even specific categories), and filter the results even further by file type (doc/ppt) or by flags (things I've marked as my favorites).
Ease of browsing the directory. If your users opt to browse the knowledge base to located content, the process of doing so is much more conducive to quickly reviewing a set of records by a specific topic. They can choose to view the results with or without the content thumbnails, depending on their preferences.
One integrated place for all content (mentioned above)-- regardless of format. Unlike RFP Express, inciteKnowledge Express enables you to access not only document content but presentation content as well. Depending on the content in your knowledge base, the actual answer may be housed in a presentation rather than a document -- with Express, you can leverage either type in responding.
Flexibility in how you use content. You can copy a complete record to the Office clipboard using Copy to Clipboard, or use a part of the record by invoking the Open/Download action and copy/pasting just the info you want from the preview. In either case, the content carries with it all of the formatting/graphics, etc., that are applied in the knowledge base. Additionally, both actions are tracked and can be reported on, giving you visibility into what content records are being used most frequently and in what manner.
Feedback loops that help you evolve your knowledge base. If your users cannot find an answer or have suggestions on how the content could be improved, they can always send feedback via Express to your content managers. This helps improve the knowledge base, as it gives content managers/admins visibility into what's missing, what needs adjustment to be more easily located or better suited for specific situations, and understand how content is being applied to specific situations.
Any questions, let me know.