Background
LeadDesk is a publicly traded technology company that helps organizations of all sizes streamline sales outreach and support operations through their contact center and sales enablement solutions. With over 200 employees across 13 offices, LeadDesk serves more than 1,000 customers around the world.
The Challenge
As LeadDesk grew through strategic acquisitions, complexity followed.
Each acquisition expanded the company’s capabilities. However, it also meant stitching together information from multiple product lines into a single, coherent story for each tender. As many new opportunities arrived through RFPs and existing customers kept sending security questionnaire audits, the team found themselves repeatedly tracking down the same information, validating it, and reformatting it for each request.
As request volumes scaled, the existing process created bottlenecks that made it difficult to respond quickly across multiple markets.
“In 2026, no Bid Manager should be manually filling out endless questionnaires for questions they’ve already answered dozens of times,” says Albin Hämäläinen, Bid Manager at LeadDesk.
Why LeadDesk Chose Realm
After evaluating several solutions on the market, selected Realm as its new RFP software. The decision came down to AI answer quality, flexible integrations, custom AI agents, a partnership approach, and a scalable pricing model.
During the pilot, the difference in quality of AI-generated answers was immediately clear.
“As soon as I started testing Realm, I noticed it retrieves information from our knowledge base with higher accuracy, delivers consistent answers, and tailors them to each customer’s requirements, making sure we tick all the boxes and use the right terminology,” Albin recalls.
He also quickly realized that Realm can help them create the entire response package rather than just automating questionnaires.
“Realm structures and rewrites everything based on our standard cover letters and SLA documents with clear headings, logical sections, and professional formatting. If a 10-page document used to take a week to write from scratch, including coordinating input from multiple stakeholders, now I can handle it alone in a few hours.”
“If a 10-page document used to take a week to write from scratch, including coordinating input from multiple stakeholders, now I can handle it alone in a few hours.”"
— Albin Hämäläinen, Bid Manager at LeadDesk
The ability to create custom AI agents for specific workflows was another key differentiator.
“Before Realm, we used to spend a lot more time manually looking through a tender to evaluate if we wanted to pursue it or not. Now I’ve automated parts of that process with an AI agent that works exactly the way we want.”
Just as important was the relationship.
“It was clear from the start that Realm is invested in our success, not just as a customer, but as a partner. Personal support from Miika and close collaboration on feature requests stood in contrast to what we had learned to expect.”
Finally, Realm's pricing model made sense for a large, multi-product organization handling high RFP volumes.
Impact at LeadDesk
With Realm, LeadDesk has transformed its RFP process and removed the bottlenecks that once limited growth.
“With Realm, I can qualify dozens of procurement documents and surface the key requirements in about 10 minutes.”
The most immediate impact has been a dramatic reduction in time spent on questionnaires, freeing up bandwidth for higher-value work.
“We’ve been able to automate 90% of answers to straightforward questionnaires we face regularly. Removing the repetitive task bottleneck has allowed us to focus on improving our strategy and processes has allowed us to focus on improving our strategy and processes,” Albin explains.
“Even with the most complex questionnaires, Realm automates 70–80% of the answers.”
“We’ve been able to automate 90% of answers to straightforward questionnaires we face regularly."
— Albin Hämäläinen, Bid Manager at LeadDesk
Operational efficiency has increased LeadDesk’s bid capacity, and unexpected requests no longer derail strategic deals.
“If the deadline is in two weeks, we’ll probably still submit the day before. But the real difference is what else we can accomplish during those two weeks. As our hands aren’t tied to a single RFP anymore, we can take on smaller opportunities at the same time.”
One example stands out.
“I already had four RFPs on my desk, some worth millions in TCV. When a fifth one with a tight deadline landed, I started creating the response with Realm, and a few hours later, it was done. We submitted the response, and I went back to focusing on the larger deals.”
Looking Ahead
LeadDesk is reviewing the opportunity to deepen its partnership with Realm and expand usage beyond RFP automation into other knowledge-intensive sales workflows.
“Realm isn’t just a tool for Bid Managers. It’s an all-in-one AI platform for scaling product, technical, and compliance expertise across customer-facing teams.”
Albin has already built agents connected to Confluence, ensuring the team always has access to the latest product information as soon as updates are made.
“When a new sales rep joins, they shouldn’t have to constantly ping product or engineering for answers to prospect questions. Instead, they can get the information directly from Realm.”
For companies evaluating RFP software, his advice is clear.
“I’d encourage teams to think beyond questionnaire automation. Does the platform enable broader use cases? Creating AI agents tailored to your needs with Realm may have a learning curve, but if you invest the time, you can automate far more than you expect.”
“Realm isn’t just a tool for Bid Managers. It’s an all-in-one AI platform for scaling product, technical, and compliance expertise across customer-facing teams.”
— Albin Hämäläinen, Bid Manager at LeadDesk