Who is DeepOcean?

As one of the world's leading ocean services providers, DeepOcean enables energy transition and sustainable use of ocean resources. The company offers survey, engineering, project management, installation, maintenance, and recycling services for oil and gas, offshore renewables, deep sea minerals, and other ocean services.  

Across its global offices, DeepOcean is a trusted independent solutions provider with highly skilled industry experts. The company uses world-class fit-for-purpose tools and technology to drive cost-efficient and safe operations. Furthermore, it delivers innovative engineering solutions focusing on remote and unmanned operations and digitally-enabled services while continuously striving to lower its carbon footprint.

The Challenge

A tender production process that was time-consuming as a result of last-minute formatting

Each year, DeepOcean produces and submits a significant number of tenders. Previously, the company used MS Word to create these large and complex documents.

DeepOcean's document production process worked well for them. However, when it comes to creating tenders, which have a lot of documentation, attachments, and images, desktop publishing tools like Word are known to have certain limitations.

One of DeepOcean’s Tender Managers, Ragnhild Brekke-Brandtzæg, elaborates:

"We spent a lot of time on formatting and layout, especially right before the submission date, which could sometimes be stressful."

Due to DeepOcean's well-established tender production process, the company was able to overcome these challenges. Even so, there was room for improvement. The company began looking for a document collaboration solution that could support their already robust internal process – and gradually improve it.

“Just before Christmas, management gave us a Christmas gift – the go-ahead to buy XaitPorter licenses…!”
– Ragnhild Brekke-Brandtzæg, Tender Manager

The Solution 

“All I want for Christmas is… a co-authoring and automation solution for complex documents” 

Over the years, DeepOcean observed business partners and competitors using a proposal management solution that makes it easy to create large, complex, business-critical documents much faster.

This was XaitPorter, the team co-authoring and automation software solution that lets companies deliver complex documents up to 70% faster.

“Business partners would ask us to use their XaitPorter, under their licenses. As a result, we got to know the system and saw its advantages.”

DeepOcean put XaitPorter high on its wishlist. Then one day in December 2022, their wish was granted:

“Just before Christmas, management gave us a Christmas gift – the go-ahead to buy XaitPorter licenses…!”

The team went live less than a month after the contract was signed, so value was created right away. After only a short period of time, XaitPorter has been used for 15 large tenders and five smaller ones. 

The onboarding

Getting in touch with Xait was easy, and DeepOcean always got help right away

When it comes to investing in a proposal management software solution, the vendor’s ability to provide smooth onboarding and reliable support is just as important as the software’s features and functionality. If the company adopting the solution goes about the onboarding process in a systematic, well-thought-out way, the chances of a successful implementation increase even more.

In the case of DeepOcean, this was certainly true. The company started out with a small team, which was given access to XaitPorter.

“My colleague Espen and I shared super user responsibility, along with Kristian Lie-Bjelland, who is Lead Customer Success Manager at Xait. We had a training session with him.”

Continuing, she says:

“After that, my colleague and I started experimenting with it on each of our tenders, and we invited three engineers into the project. We had to come up with a “recipe” for how to build the tenders and be as efficient as possible in getting to the desired outcome.”

It took Ragnhild Brekke-Brandtzæg and her team a few trials and errors to find a method that worked, and they tested it on another tender. After they were happy with the result, they invited more team members to use the solution.

“A few months later, we created an internal user guide. It was based on established best practices for using XaitPorter, as well as on how we at DeepOcean are supposed to set up a project, using such and such subsections and such and such formatting styles.”

At this point, the entire department had access to the system. Everyone was then invited to go through the user guide step-by-step, with support from Xait along the way. Having completed onboarding and training at DeepOcean’s Haugesund office, Brekke-Brandtzæg, her team, and Lie-Bjelland traveled to their Aberdeen office and spent a day onboarding their UK colleagues. 

Overall, how has DeepOcean's experience been with the XaitPorter onboarding process?

“It’s been great! Kristian from Xait guided us safely through the entire onboarding. He was always available by phone, and our emails were always answered promptly.”

For some of Brekke-Brandtzæg’s teammates, working in XaitPorter took some getting used to. However, they soon got the hang of it.

“I’m VERY positively surprised how quickly people have been able to dive in. As they learn how it all works, they really like it.”
DeepOcean's U.S. Commercial team is the next step in rolling out XaitPorter within the company.

“Kristian from Xait guided us safely through the entire onboarding. He was always available by phone, and our emails were always answered promptly.”
– Ragnhild Brekke-Brandtzæg, Tender Manager

The results

Stress and last-minute scrambles are reduced, standardized content can be reused efficiently, and tasks can be easily assigned to the right people

1. Time saved and stress gone in the last few days before the deadline

“It's taken a lot of pressure off my shoulders as a tender manager. Now I don't have to spend the last two days working past midnight to get the document ready to submit. The software has already done that work for us. We save a lot of time this way, especially as the deadline approaches.”

2. Having a centralized content library makes it easy to reuse standardized documentation across tenders

Research from the International Data Corporation indicates that employees spend nearly 30% of their workday just searching for the information they need to complete their tasks.

Wouldn’t it be great if all business-critical information could be stored in one central location, readily available for everyone involved? That's exactly what XaitPorter's content library does, according to Brekke-Brandtzæg.

“Typically, our proposals contain between five and fifteen documents, ranging from corporate details to data on the ships we intend to use, along with specifications and procedures. Also, lots of attachments need to be added over and over again, especially under HSEQS.”

DeepOcean keeps a content repository with all the standard content sections, such as facilities, engineering departments, and similar generic documentation.

Bjerke-Brandtzæg says that the content library in XaitPorter has enabled her team to focus on what matters most:

“It’s super-easy to drag and drop key content into a project. This allows us to make our business case as convincing as possible by focusing on what applies directly to the tender. We're way more efficient now.”

The XaitPorter content library also solves a common problem for tender teams: How can you be sure the content you’re about to reuse is up to date?

“Using XaitPorter, you always have the most recently updated information, as opposed to just copying from a previous tender and not knowing if it’s the latest and correct version.”

3. The workflow and progress can be easily managed

“XaitPorter makes it easy to allocate writing and reviewing tasks to team members and SMEs, and to set individual deadlines,” says Brekke-Brandtzæg.

She elaborates:

“The assignment wizard lets you select who will work on what and by when. Email notifications are automatically sent out, letting people know that this is their section, which they are responsible for completing.”

Furthermore, everyone has their own dashboard view, which shows a progress summary, any tasks assigned to them, and any unread comments from team members.

“When you work in XaitPorter, you get full control over the entire process and a complete overview of progress and how people are doing,” says Brekke-Brandtzæg. “When sections and documents are assigned to someone, they can concentrate on their task instead of dealing with a 100-page document – where they are only responsible for section 2. Everything gets more focus-driven.”

You never get a second chance to make a first (tender) impression

When you’re at a restaurant and your meal lands on the table, does it matter how the food is arranged on the plate? Absolutely. We 'eat with our eyes', as the saying goes.

Similarly, how a proposal layout is designed also matters when a tender lands in front of evaluators. Before they get past the table of contents, they 'evaluate with their eyes'.

Ragnhild Brekke-Brandtzæg is well aware of this:

“It's important to me to have our tenders look good at first glance. We submit a great deal of documentation for different tenders. The prospective client may not read everything carefully. However, the parts they do read (and you never know what they are) must have a professional look and feel.”

The DeepOcean Tender Manager knows that their current submissions don't require a second chance.

“XaitPorter helps us make the right first impression with our tenders.”

About Xait

Xait is a global technology company founded in 2000 that produces and delivers software for document automation, collaboration and intelligent pricing. Our mission is to help enterprise clients win business by supporting their sales enablement efforts from quote to contract. We are passionate about challenging industry mindsets and developing products that improve the way people work together.