Looking to optimize its existing knowledge management and proposal creation processes, WSP recognized that an automated digital solution was the best way forward to extend efficiencies through the pursuits process—especially for technical winner-doers—in order to scale revenue growth. “When I joined in 2018, our sales bid process took a lot of time; it was overly stressful for winner-doers trying to respond to opportunities,” said Kelly.
“The critical piece was convincing the C-suite of the ROI of the digital transformation—making the political and economic case—especially given that this was one of the first business cases to be digitized at WSP,” said Kelly. “The CFO was an early supporter because I was able to clearly articulate how AI-powered proposal management software was going to help cut costs by saving time and resources. By using digital as a tool, as an enabler, we’re able to automate the pursuits process to help the Chief Strategy Officer make more sales and enable the CIO to reduce server costs and make IT more efficient.”
With the executive leadership team on board—and acknowledging that building a solution in-house was not the right path—WSP conducted a global evaluation of 11 potential proposal automation providers, shortlisting three vendors. The firm evaluated technical feasibility and conducted a MoSCoW analysis to help make configuration decisions, ultimately selecting QorusDocs. “In addition to the tangible efficiency and cost-saving benefits of the software, the QorusDocs team has a willingness to engage and understand the customer pain points and kind of lean into them which sets them apart,” noted Kelly.
“QorusDocs’ partnership with Microsoft was also a differentiator. When you think of a buying group evaluating the solution, you’ve got the sales stakeholder like me who is impressed with the front end. But I also need to satisfy security, enterprise architecture, IT governance,” said Kelly. “The Microsoft partnership, especially the QorusDocs AI strategy grounded in the Azure OpenAI platform (we’re early adopters of Microsoft Copilot) gave our C-suite a lot of comfort.”
In tandem with the deployment of the Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP system, WSP implemented the cloud-based QorusDocs AI-powered proposal management software in 2023 to automate, simplify, and accelerate its pursuits process. Initially, the QorusDocs automated platform is targeted at 1800 of WSP’s UK technical winner-doers generating 15,000+ small and medium-sized bids every year.
“The bottom line is QorusDocs makes us more efficient and gives our people back valuable time. By simplifying collaboration and streamlining the content management workflow to expedite the self-service bid response process, technical winner doers can spend more time on creating innovative solutions to clients’ problems, executing projects, and enriching client relationships,” said Kelly.
“The intangible ‘soft’ benefits of making someone's life easier and more enjoyable at work are much harder to quantify, but arguably the most important,” said Kelly. “The QorusDocs product architecture and blueprint are aligned to our company use case and benefits realization to enable a hybrid model of working with technology and tools that allows for a frictionless user experience.”
Kelly added, “I’ve found the experience working with QorusDocs to be professional, positive, and collaborative. Armed with fantastic training and knowledge resources, the team has been focused on delivering value and has kept us abreast of their product roadmap, including the QorusDocs generative AI strategy.”
