Software That Makes You Work vs. Software That Works for You

Why legacy proposal tools create friction—and what modern AI platforms do differently.

In the proposal world, the tools you use can either power your process—or get in the way. Legacy proposal software helped centralize content, but it hasn’t aged well. Teams complain of rigid templates, confusing interfaces, and tedious manual work. The result? Instead of enabling progress, the software becomes another thing to manage.

Meanwhile, purpose-built AI platforms like McCarren are flipping that dynamic. These tools don’t just organize information—they do the heavy lifting. Most critically McCarren is finding the right content for you, it then generates content, tracks compliance, and reduces SMEs burnout.

This is the new standard: software that works for you.

Legacy Tools: Centralized, But Not Simplified

When platforms like Loopio, RFPIO, and Qvidian first launched, they solved a real problem—creating a shared proposal content library. But in 2024, the drawbacks are hard to ignore:

❌ Manual tagging and upkeep to keep libraries usable

❌ Poor search that can’t understand context or intent

❌ One-document-at-a-time imports and exports

❌ Limited support for RFP structure or formatting rules

“It’s missing some basic features you’d expect… We end up exporting everything just to finish proposals in Word.” — Proposal manager, G2 review

In practice, legacy tools require extra work: admins managing tagging; writers tweaking exports; SMEs re-answering the same questions because the search can’t find what’s already there. And even when teams maintain content libraries, they often become stale without intelligent update mechanisms.

‍

AI Tools Built to Remove the Grunt Work

Modern platforms use AI to automate what used to take hours:

✅ Auto-generate first drafts using your past performance

✅ Build compliance matrices instantly from Section L and M

✅ Suggest tailored responses with built-in review and citations

✅ Sync directly with Word, SharePoint, and team workflows

The outcomes are real:

  • Teams draft proposals up to 12× faster
  • SME input drops significantly—because answers are already framed
  • Proposal volume increases without adding headcount
“After switching to an McCarren’s AI Native platform, we handle 500-question RFPs in minutes. The speed is mind blowing.” — McCarren user

‍

‍

Software Should Adapt to You — Not the Other Way Around

Legacy tools often force teams into their structure:

  • Static templates
  • Siloed content
  • No memory across proposals

AI-first platforms are built to flex. They:

  • Learn your tone, style, and preferred phrasing
  • Recall what’s worked on past proposals
  • Handle custom RFP structures without extra effort

Compliance, Speed, and Confidence

Software that truly works for you is like another employee that you train and collaborate with. McCarren’s AI is specifically tailored for GovCon, that matters. When software isn’t built for government contracting, things fall through the cracks:

  • Formatting errors
  • Missing attachments
  • Compliance criteria misinterpreted or skipped entirely

AI Native platforms like McCarren are built with compliance logic at their core. McCarren is another employee that already comes pre-trained for you. It can:

  • Auto-detect formatting issues
  • Flag missing responses before submission
  • Map every draft section back to the original requirement
  • Maintain version control and citations for every section

Your team submits faster, with fewer errors, and greater confidence.

Friction vs. Flow: The Real UX Test

Proposal software should disappear into the background. Like your best employees - they enable the process, not create additional redundant work for your team. The best tools:

  • Let SMEs review instead of rewrite
  • Flex to work where you work (e.g., Word, Excel, Browser, etc.)
  • Integrate to all your other tools (e.g., Salesforce, Email, etc.)
  • Enable live collaboration without losing formatting

Legacy platforms often can’t get out of their own way.

They introduce friction at nearly every turn—click-heavy formatting actions; rigid workflows that create bottlenecks; steep learning curves that require extra training just to onboard new users—forcing teams to work around the software instead of through it.

Modern UX removes that friction by embedding itself into your existing workflows.

  • Intuitive prompts that come pre-baked
  • Ability to create custom AI Agents for your team
  • Real-time feedback and suggestions reduce guesswork
  • The system adapts to the RFP—not the other way around
A workspace that puts action first — McCarren’s AI Agents help teams move from intake to insight in seconds.

Final Thought: Choose a solution that works for you

Proposal tools should help your team focus on strategy, speed, and storytelling—not content hunting, formatting, and admins.

👉 Ready to stop working around your tools and start working with them? Explore McCarren

‍

‍