It probably comes as no surprise that the global IT and technology services sector is projected to have revenues of over US$1,512.00 billion in 2025, with the United States leading the market at US$550.30 billion.
This rapid growth and phenomenal revenue are primarily driven by technological advancements and the worldwide need for digital transformation. As new innovations emerge, tech firms and managed service providers (MSPs) continue to refine their strategies and tools, enhancing service quality, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction.
But what about the IT companies themselves? How are they refining their internal strategies and operational efficiencies to land more customers?
For this year’s industry snapshot, we reached out to professionals across proposal management, IT, business development, and C-suite roles who are actively engaged in crafting proposals and responding to RFPs, RFIs, due diligence questionnaires, and security questionnaires. A full 22% of our respondents were from the IT and SaaS sector.
These insights offer a comprehensive look at how organizations navigated the evolving landscape of business development and proposal responses in 2024 – and points to what we can expect in 2025.
Technology Services Pitches Are on the Rise
Organizations in all sectors continue to take a proactive approach to pitching clients and driving new business, though not as aggressively as in 2023. The volume has slowed, with a 7% decline in year-over-year (YoY) growth compared to the previous year. Despite this moderation, 54% of respondents still reported an increase in their pitching volume.
Among industries, technology services firms were the most likely to see increased pitch activity, with 60% of respondents in this sector reporting a rise in pitch volume this year.
The State of RFPs
On average, the professionals we surveyed work on seven RFPs per month, though volumes vary slightly by industry. In technical services, 60% of organizations report handling between five and nine RFPs monthly, reflecting a steady demand for formal proposal submissions.
A Team Effort
The proposal response process remains a collaborative effort, but team sizes differ across industries. In 2024:
- 50% of organizations reported having 10 or fewer contributors to their proposal responses.
- 28% of respondents had between one and five people involved.
- 22% reported six to 10 stakeholders contributing to responses.
Technical services organizations reported the smallest response teams, with a median of just eight contributors per RFP effort.
Time is Ticking
Responding to RFPs and crafting proposals is a resource-intensive process. In 2024, the majority of respondents reported taking between six and 10 days to complete an RFP response, with an average of 9.3 days per request.
Technical services organizations took even longer than average, spending a mean of 12 days to complete responses. (This may be partially due to the wicked combination of the increasing volume and smaller response teams.)
The Top Challenge?
When it comes to challenges, across all industries, subject matter experts (SMEs) struggling to meet deadlines remains a common bottleneck in the proposal process. This issue is particularly pronounced in tech, IT and SaaS, where 100% of respondents flagged it as a key challenge.
The Role of Technology in the Response Process
Technology plays an increasingly critical role in streamlining proposal efforts. In 2024, 70% of technical services firms reported using proposal management tools, a figure unchanged from last year.
Microsoft Leads the Way: When it comes to software preferences for proposal creation, Microsoft remains the dominant player. Across all industries surveyed, Microsoft Word was the most widely used tool for developing response documents.
- 72% of technical services organizations use Word for proposal writing, with smaller shares leveraging Excel (14%), and PowerPoint (14%).
- Microsoft SharePoint remains the preferred content storage solution for technical services firms, supplemented by OneDrive and local drives.
The Rise of GenAI
Generative AI (GenAI) is slowly gaining traction in proposal development, though adoption remains uneven. Across professional services, legal, AEC, and technical services, Microsoft Copilot emerged as the leading GenAI tool. However, a segment of the industry is still hesitant:
- 29% of technical services firms have not yet adopted GenAI tools.
- Some organizations are beginning to explore GenAI for answering RFP questions, research, summarization, and content generation.
With most technical services firms embracing GenAI, these early adopters are already leveraging it to enhance efficiency and accuracy in proposal responses.
Looking Forward to 2025
As tech organizations continue to refine their approach to proposals and RFPs, last year brought notable proposal management/RFP trends that are expected to continue into 2025, including: a robust increase in pitching and growing reliance on proposal management software.
In the year ahead, GenAI will continue to make inroads, and laggards will need to embrace it to remain competitive. While challenges remain—particularly in SME responsiveness—the tools and strategies companies are adopting signal a continued focus on efficiency and effectiveness in business development efforts.
If you are looking to create proposals that win, in a fraction of the time, schedule a one-on-one demo of our award-winning proposal automation software today.
