Ironclad is for Contracts, Not RFPs

Ironclad is for Law, Velocibid is for Sales

We regularly speak with teams who've tried to use Ironclad for RFP responses. It's a common mistake because Ironclad is excellent software—just for a completely different use case. Understanding the distinction between Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) and RFP automation helps clarify why purpose-built tools matter.

What Ironclad Does Well

Ironclad is a fantastic CLM platform. It excels at:

• Managing contract templates with approved legal language

• Redlining negotiations with version tracking

• Routing contracts through approval workflows

• Storing executed agreements for future reference

• Ensuring compliance with legal requirements

For legal teams managing hundreds of contracts, Ironclad is a game-changer. It brings order to the chaos of agreement management and reduces legal review bottlenecks.

Why Ironclad Fails for RFPs

RFP responses require fundamentally different capabilities:

1. Question understanding: RFPs contain questions in infinite variations. "Describe your data encryption" and "What cryptographic standards do you employ?" need to be recognized as similar. Ironclad's clause-matching approach doesn't handle this semantic variability.

2. Answer generation: Ironclad inserts pre-approved legal clauses. It doesn't generate original answers based on your company's knowledge. When a prospect asks "Describe your disaster recovery plan," Ironclad can't synthesize a response from your security policies, SOC 2 report, and infrastructure documentation. Velocibid can.

3. Format flexibility: RFPs arrive as Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and PDFs—often with complex structures and hundreds of questions. Ironclad isn't designed to parse these formats and extract questions for response.

4. Verification needs: RFP answers require citations. When you claim "We perform quarterly penetration tests," the reviewer should be able to verify that claim. Velocibid links every answer to source documents. Ironclad doesn't track these knowledge references.

The Right Tool for Each Job

Think of it this way:

• Ironclad: Manages the MSA, DPA, and SLA after you've won the deal

• Velocibid: Helps you win the deal by responding to RFPs and security questionnaires

These tools are complementary, not competitive. Many organizations use both—Velocibid to close deals faster, Ironclad to execute the resulting contracts efficiently.

The Cost of Using the Wrong Tool

Trying to force Ironclad into RFP workflows creates several problems:

• Slow responses because the tool isn't optimized for questionnaires

• Inconsistent answers because there's no semantic matching

• Frustrated teams because they're fighting the software instead of working with it

• Missed opportunities because complex RFPs take too long to complete

When to Use Ironclad

Use Ironclad for contract management: template standardization, negotiation tracking, approval workflows, and agreement storage.

When to Use Velocibid

Use Velocibid for RFPs and questionnaires: security assessments, vendor applications, competitive proposals, and any document requiring you to answer questions about your company. The AI-powered approach generates accurate, cited answers in minutes instead of hours.