“Responsive has completely transformed how we work. RFPs that used to take two weeks now take two days, and we’ve eliminated entire meetings from our process. It’s given our team time back, improved accuracy, and let our sales reps self-serve with confidence.”
Lynda English
Senior Director of Research and Proposals at Open Up Resources
The gist
Open Up Resources, a nonprofit curriculum publisher, once struggled with scattered content and capacity limits. The year before adopting Responsive, the team had to decline 14% of RFPs due to workload constraints.
By centralizing knowledge in the Responsive Content Library and adopting Responsive AI, they cut response time from two weeks to just two or three days and answer searches from two hours to two minutes. Within a year, the same small team went from declining RFPs to responding to every opportunity. Sales teams now self-serve most questionnaires, and SMEs contribute asynchronously, freeing everyone for higher-value work.
The rundown
Open Up Resource’s response challenge
- Critical content was scattered across disconnected Google Docs and Drives, making it difficult to locate, update, and trust.
- Sales teams couldn’t access approved answers for customer questionnaires, relying on the proposal team for every request, and creating a bottleneck that slowed deal cycles.
- Weekly SME meetings reduced productivity and delayed project starts.
- Average RFP turnaround time exceeded two weeks, with 14% of opportunities declined due to capacity limits and individual answers taking up to two hours to find.
Impact and results
- RFP response time dropped from two weeks to just two to three days, a 90% reduction, while finding an answer went from two hours to two minutes.
- The proposal team achieved 0% RFP declines, managing higher volume without adding headcount.
- SME friction disappeared as weekly meetings were replaced by centralized, reusable content in the Responsive Content Library.
- Responsive AI enables sales team self-service, cutting questionnaires sent to the proposal team by 95% and helping support more than $25M in funding since 2019.
Missing out on 14% of RFPs due to proposal team capacity restrictions
Open Up Resources (OUR), a nonprofit curriculum publisher dedicated to equitable access to high-quality instructional materials, faced growing challenges in managing proposal volume. Senior Director of Research and Proposals Lynda English built the proposal team in 2019 and implemented Responsive in 2024 to handle RFPs, DDQs, and sales enablement.
Before Responsive, the proposal process was slow and fragmented. Knowledge was scattered across Google Docs, emails, and personal files, requiring hours of manual searching and coordination with subject matter experts (SMEs). With no automation in place, the team had to decline 14% of RFPs simply because they lacked capacity.
Sales teams couldn’t access approved information independently, so every customer question had to go through Lynda’s team, creating a bottleneck. The constant back-and-forth left little time for quality control; before Responsive, the team could spend only about 10% of their time on final review, and some proposals were shipped incomplete, putting deals at risk.
AI for RFPs and sales enablement
“Our sales team can now answer questions on the spot using Responsive AI. They get accurate, approved responses instantly; no bottlenecks, no guesswork.”
Lynda English
Senior Director of Research and Proposals at Open Up Resources
Laying the foundation with centralized knowledge
With the help of Responsive Professional Services, Open Up Resources began by consolidating all proposal content into the Responsive Content Library, a single, searchable source of truth for every approved answer, policy, and program detail. This centralized repository made it easier to locate accurate information, reduce duplicate content, and ensure that every proposal used the most current, compliant language. By governing content in one place, the team built a strong foundation for AI-driven efficiency and collaboration across departments.
Once the content library was established, the team began using Responsive’s reporting tools to continuously improve content quality and relevance. Lynda regularly reviews the Content Search Terms Report to see what sales teams are searching for most. If a keyword consistently returns no results, her team adds or updates content to close that gap. When multiple salespeople search for the same new term, it signals an emerging need. These insights help refine proposals and keep Open Up Resources aligned with market trends.
Unlocking self-service for field teams with Responsive AI
With the foundation in place, the team began using Responsive AI to create first drafts of proposals with human oversight.
Meanwhile, Responsive Ask, a conversational AI tool, gives proposal teams on-demand access to trusted knowledge, no matter where they’re working.
With their AI teammates working behind the scenes, the proposal team knocked RFP response time down from two weeks to just two or three days, and finding an answer went from two hours to two minutes.
Open Up Resources sales teams also use Ask to access AI-generated answers grounded in pre-approved content instantly. They can now respond to customer questions in real time by phone, email, or through questionnaires without needing proposal team support. Because these answers pull directly from SME-approved content, accuracy and consistency are dialed in.
Even so, TRACE Score™ and Quality Check provide additional peace of mind that AI-generated answers are on point. TRACE ScoreTM is a 1-100 confidence score that instills trust in a response. A low score means the foundational content is either absent or out of date, so additional human input is needed. Quality Check is an AI-powered pre-submission audit that flags content issues before they go out the door.
The impact has been immediate: last year, the sales team sent 54 questionnaires to the proposal team; this year, they sent only three, a 95% reduction. The sales team now completes customer responses faster and the proposal team is freed up for more strategic work.
From painful weekly meetings to agile collaboration
Before Responsive, Lynda hosted a weekly, hour-long meeting with SMEs across multiple time zones to review proposal content. The process was repetitive, time-consuming, and often delayed RFP progress because responses couldn’t start until after the meeting.
Intake Surveys, included in the Intake module of the Responsive Platform, eliminated that bottleneck. These surveys allow the proposal team to send targeted questions directly to SMEs, so each expert only reviews the parts of an RFP that relate to their area. Instead of waiting for a meeting, SMEs can now respond asynchronously with focused input. This approach has made go/no-go decisions faster, improved accuracy, and allowed the team to start proposals right away.
“Last year, we said no to 14% of RFPs because the proposal team was at capacity. This year, we have said no to 0%.”
Lynda English
Senior Director of Research and Proposals at Open Up Resources
Empowering a small nonprofit to compete smarter with AI
Open Up Resources’ success story shows what’s possible when organizational knowledge meets intelligent automation. By centralizing trusted content in the Responsive Content Library and adopting Responsive AI, the team turned RFP response from a manual bottleneck into a strategic advantage.
What once took weeks now takes days. Proposal teams no longer decline opportunities, and sales reps no longer wait for answers. Every stakeholder, from subject matter experts to sales leadership, works from the same accurate, compliant foundation.
With Responsive AI powering faster collaboration and smarter decision-making, Open Up Resources has achieved measurable results: 14% more opportunities pursued, 90% faster responses, and zero compromises on quality.
Open Up Resources is responding faster and more strategically while maintaining its focus on its mission: expanding equitable access to high-quality learning experiences.
