More flexible, AI-assisted proposal/reporting engine (competitive gap vs Xten)
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Rafael Aznar
We would like a more flexible and modular proposal/reporting engine, including:
The ability to define proposal structure independently from line-item layout
Modular sections (narrative, scope, phases, systems, summaries) that can be rearranged or included/excluded per proposal
Client- and project-specific proposal variants generated from the same estimate
Optional AI-assisted features, such as:
Narrative and executive summary generation from estimate data
Phase- or system-level summaries
Automatically tailored proposal versions for different stakeholders
Platforms like Xten are attractive specifically because of their modern, flexible proposal experience. Closing this gap in D-Tools — without compromising its operational strengths — would significantly improve client-facing deliverables and reduce the need to evaluate alternative tools.
S
Steve Newby
That's a fair call. The gap is real, and D-Tools is a tool that sometimes takes up resource rather than freeing it up. The proposal structure hasn't changed much in our 10 years of use, and seems to rely only on either our internal development (manipulation via 3rd party apps) or the use of D-Tools professional services.
While we all move into using slick AI tools elsewhere in our business endeavours, the proposals in D-Tools, especially the editor are so old-school (like visual basic, linking data points etc) that we just give up and make something presentable using other tools. Come on guys, make this part cool and east to use and edit.
More often is the case that we just grab the numbers from a proposal report and paste them into something else. Total ball ache, but a better looking output to present to stakeholders.