STARTING POINT
In many companies, the required information exists. It just sits in different places. Customer requirements are in the specification. Technical decisions are in the project folder. Product information is in data sheets or PLM systems. The rationale for an earlier decision is often known only to the responsible expert.
That is why part of the analysis starts over with every new inquiry.
DECOTA makes existing knowledge usable again.
Before costing begins, the inquiry documents have to be fully understood. Today this step is largely manual and undocumented. It ties up most of the available time and determines the quality of the proposal.
A proposal for a complex inquiry takes 240 hours on average. Most of that is reading, highlighting, and transferring into spreadsheets or ERP systems.
Source: University of Bern
The same inquiry usually sits with several vendors. Whoever responds substantively first shapes the conversation. 70–80% of submitted proposals are lost.
Source: PwC · CSK Management
Around 80% of requirements repeat across inquiries. Without structured storage, the same work is done several times.
200 pages of inquiry documents. Page 47 contains a contractual penalty, page 132 a certification obligation. The team highlights PDFs by hand and hopes nothing slips through the review. Usually something does.
Capture, analysis, decision, validation, proposal, closing. The status of every inquiry lives in spreadsheets, emails, and people’s heads. Who is working on what? Where do we stand? Nobody has the overview.
The same requirement was already answered last year. But the proposal sits in a folder nobody can find. Every inquiry starts from zero, even though 80% of the requirements are known.
HOW IT WORKS
From a stack of documents to a structured requirements base.
DECOTA extracts every requirement from the complete inquiry documents, structured and with the exact source passage in the original. Including the one on page 47.
Every requirement goes directly to the responsible colleagues. Status and deadlines stay visible in the project cockpit. Transferring, formatting, and tracking are handled by the platform.
Known requirements from earlier projects are recognized automatically and suggested with validated answers. The knowledge stays in the company, not just in people’s heads.
DECOTA supports the analysis of specifications, technical requirements documents, tender documents, and other documents containing requirements. This allows even extensive customer inquiries to be handled in a structured way.
Every extracted requirement is linked to its location in the document. In the PDF viewer, you can check the original context and add to or edit requirements.
DECOTA helps you identify contradictory specifications, risks, and potential deal-breakers. Your team reviews the findings and decides what impact they have on the inquiry.
Requirements can be assigned to the responsible departments for review. Assessments and open questions are recorded on each requirement and remain traceable for further processing.
DECOTA brings requirements, risks, and open points together into a basis for decision-making. This allows your team to assess earlier whether an inquiry is a good fit for the company and what needs to be clarified before committing to a quote.