PMAPS Financial 2004 is Proposal Software, Inc.'s comprehensive proposal management solution for investment managers.

"The deployment of PMAPS by this highly respected 243-year-old investment management firm is an important testimony to the platform's adaptability to the complex demands of a major global enterprise," said John Laurino, CEO of Proposal Software, Inc.

According to Sarah Styles, who heads up consultant communications at BAM, a key factor in the firm's choice of PMAPS was the software's ability to simultaneously manage and track proposals in various global locations. Baring Asset Management currently has RFP and RFI writers in three of its 11 global locations - London, Boston, and Tokyo.

"One of the major problems we had with our previous proposal management software, is that it could not cope with multiple locations," she said. "Valuable information was "going to waste" because it was not accessible to proposal teams in our other offices. We definitely needed something that would allow us to share work among proposal writers in all of our global locations."

PMAPS also satisfied BAM's requirement that new software be low maintenance. It also provided a significant cost advantage for BAM with its multiple proposal team structure. "With PMAPS, one master license allows the software to be used by an unlimited number of company locations from one central server in London."

Styles cited the BAM's proposal teams' enthusiasm for PMAPS's tracking capabilities, user friendliness, and ease of training. The company has already experienced an increase in efficiency of RFP and RFI turnaround, said Styles.

Originally developed in 1994 and currently in its ninth generation, PMAPS was developed for companies which must continually respond to a high volume of sophisticated, major account RFPs and RFIs under tight deadlines in order to maintain their sales momentum. The tenth generation is on schedule for release in the first quarter of 2006.

With PMAPS fully implemented so far in only its U.S. and London offices, BAM's proposal teams are looking forward to using the software in all of the company's locations. "We're finding that the more you use it, the more you can find out what it can do for you," said Styles.