What’s the big deal? Well, we truly believe that SpeedRFP will revolutionize the way that most meeting planners transact RFPs online. To understand why it can create such a change, you must first understand where the process is today.
SpeedRFP isn’t a new idea. Rather, it’s the evolution of a system that we’ve had in place for a few years now on EliteMeetings.com. In that time, we’ve seen a lot of RFPs come and go. And we were flattered when we had an industry partner come to us and ask us to put an RFP system into action on their site. We could have easily replicated what we had, but it was time to take things to the next level. Why not step it up a notch?
So we did some research with our friends at the major hotel chains and it turns out that meeting & event professionals still transact about 80% of their RFPs via email, phone, & FAX…yes FAX!
Seriously? We bank online, chat online, share our photos online, and there are still people faxing RFPs?!?
Time for more research. There must be some serious pain in the process to prevent meeting professionals from using online RFP forms. Next step: Identify the pain points:
- Planners and hoteliers hate re-keying information
- RFPs and proposals get lost in email and spam filters
- Planners are constantly avoiding calls from hoteliers
- Hoteliers are constantly trying to reach out to planners to close the loop
As it turns out, it was a case of miscommunication and a lack of technical intelligence. Most of the online RFP forms out there don’t capture sufficient information for both sides to get business done. What was needed was:
- Less re-keying
- Direct communication on a dedicated platform
- Complete and sufficient information for both sides to discuss the business at hand
So that’s what we’re building. An intelligent RFP engine that serves both sides and alleviates the pain points.
Stay tuned for more information. We’ll be releasing the system on a few special Web sites on March 31st. Subscribe, Follow us, Become a fan, or sign up for updates on SpeedRFP.com and we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop.
by on March 19, 2010
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Wonderful post – tells the right story, the inside story . . . looking forward to getting the blow by blow update next week . . . keep on telling the story!