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How to respond to a security questionnaire

How to respond to a security questionnaire

Product & Best Practices

If you’re like me, you regularly receive emails advising you to change your passwords because one company or another has […]

Category: Tag: Security questionnaire automation

How to respond to a security questionnaire

How to respond to a security questionnaire

Product & Best Practices

If you’re like me, you regularly receive emails advising you to change your passwords because one company or another has suffered a security breach. Unfortunately, data breaches are all too common.

In 2021, there were over 1,800 reported data breaches. That is a significant uptick from prior years. 83% of those breaches involved sensitive customer information, such as Social Security and credit card numbers.

The average data breach costs $4.4 million, and much of that is passed on to customers—the same customers who had their sensitive data compromised.

No wonder many businesses now consider cybersecurity their number one concern. Not only does a data breach cost money, it also runs the risk of damaging credibility and eroding trust. Some companies, especially small companies, never recover.

More than half of organizations have experienced third-party data breaches, often despite having what they think is a rigorous security protocol.

The average tech stack might contain dozens of different applications and tools. Sometimes, bad actors sneak in through one of those third-party applications, so it’s critical to properly vet each vendor’s security protocols as you would your own.

The most common way to vet vendors is through security questionnaires. But what are security questionnaires, and how do you respond to them in a way that you, as a vendor, will instill trust?

What is a security questionnaire?

After reading this far, you probably have a good idea of what a security questionnaire is. Still, to boil it down, it’s a questionnaire designed to determine whether a vendor or potential vendor is compliant with your security and legal requirements.

Not surprisingly, security questionnaires are complex and highly technical. The good news is that most questions have “yes” or “no” answers.

DDQ vs. security questionnaire

Many people confuse security questionnaires and DDQs (due diligence questionnaires). It’s easy to see why, as both are issued to assess a company’s compliance with the issuer’s regulations and security requirements.

Neither DDQs nor security questionnaires are specifically part of a sales cycle, although they may be issued before entering into a contract. They might also be issued before an organization is even buying to weed out non-compliant companies before and if the buying process begins.

There are significant differences between the two types of documents, however. You’re most likely to see DDQs if you’re in the financial segment. They are broader in scope than security questionnaires and may ask about business plans, profits and losses, revenue, etc. They might also ask about cybersecurity policies.

A security questionnaire is more straightforward and can be issued from any segment to any organization, although primarily to tech companies. While DDQs ask broad questions about processes, often in narrative form, a security questionnaire forces you to pony up your proof of compliance.

You might see both a DDQ and security questionnaire before receiving an RFP. Generally, the DDQ will come first. Once the issuer is satisfied that you meet their requirements, they might send a security questionnaire to gather certificates and other forms of proof.

In some cases, a security questionnaire follows an RFP and could be the last step before finalizing a deal.

Preparing for a security questionnaire response

Security questionnaires usually arrive via the response manager or perhaps through a CRM. Since most questions center around cybersecurity, SMEs can be from IT, risk management, sales engineering, accounting, information security, operations, and even HR.

The response turnaround time is typically shorter with a security questionnaire than with an RFx. The issuer might want it within days.

Components of a security questionnaire

There are many, many types of security questionnaires, and it would be impossible to list them in this blog post, but here are some examples of what a security questionnaire might assess:

  • Network security
  • Information security
  • Datacenter and physical security
  • Web application security
  • Infrastructure security
  • Business continuity
  • Security audits and penetration testing
  • Personnel policies, hiring practices, and training programs
  • Security certifications
  • SLAs and uptime vs. downtime

Types of security questionnaires

There are several types of security questionnaires, but primarily, you will see these:

Security Questionnaires and Security Questionnaires Lite – Standardized Information Gathering Questionnaires

  • VSAQ – Vendor Security Assessment Questionnaire
  • CAIQ – Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire
  • VSA – Vendor Security Alliance Questionnaire
  • NIST 800-171 – National Institute of Standards and Technology Questionnaire
  • CIS Controls – Center for Internet Security Questionnaire

How to respond to security questionnaires – and how RFPIO will help

If you are a response manager, you’re likely very comfortable responding to an RFx or even a DDQ. Both allow for a bit of creativity, in that, along with answering questions, you’re constructing a narrative to show how your company is the right fit for the issuer.

Security questionnaires aren’t about narratives. They are straightforward and stringent, and accuracy is a legal requirement. Clearly, there’s no room for error. If you’re ready, let’s grab a cup of coffee, or your favorite motivational elixir, and dive right in.

Step 1 – Search for all available materials

While security questionnaires are undeniably bulky and complex, there’s a lot of redundancy. You have probably answered many similar questions before. Search your existing database for those answers.

Often, issuers send a boilerplate questionnaire rather than customize it to each product. Eliminate the questions that don’t apply to your product. Don’t be afraid to ask the issuer to clarify questions that seem confusing or unnecessary.

Step 1 with RFPIO – Prebuilt centralized Content Library

RFPIO features the industry-leading AI-powered prebuilt Content Library. Every previous security questionnaire and all your documentation are housed in one place, accessible to any authorized user.

Step 2 – Answer only the pre-existing matching responses

Response management isn’t like school. In fact, copying other people’s work is encouraged. Search your existing database for pre-existing matching responses and use them when you can.

Step 2 with RFPIO – System-driven identification of sections and questions

RFPIO’s import capabilities, which include Lightning import through Salesforce, leverages machine learning to automatically find matching responses, without you having to initiate the process. This feature alone can do up to 80% of the work for you.

Step 3 – Group all unanswered questions and collaborate with SMEs

Once you’ve found all the applicable existing content, you’ll need to collaborate with SMEs to finish the process. Group all your unanswered questions, broken up by SME, and inform them of their timelines.

Step 3 with RFPIO – Automate through AI

RFPIO’s auto-respond feature and recommendation engine find existing documents and similar, although not specifically matching, content for SMEs’ review. As a side benefit, once SMEs recognize the time-saving capabilities of RFPIO, they’ll be far more likely to help you in the future.

Step 4 – Follow up and track the status of responses

Make sure every team member is completing their portion in a timely manner.

Step 4 with RFPIO – Streamline collaboration through project management capabilities

RFPIO’s Project Module offers up-to-the-minute reporting and reminders to ensure that the questionnaire will be ready on time.

Step 5 – Manually collate and complete the questionnaire

Whew! You’ve answered all the questions and all you have to do is collate the answers and export them back to the original document. Unfortunately, for many companies, that’s a manual process which could take hours—and sometimes days.

Step 5 with RFPIO – Export to the source file

RFPIO eliminates all of the cumbersome manual work with automatic exporting to the response file, all within seconds.

Security questionnaire response obstacles

There’s no direct line from a security questionnaire to revenue generation, which is why they’re sometimes left on the back burner. But that’s not the only reason there might be reluctance on the part of your response team. Other obstacles include:

  • Length – A security questionnaire can have hundreds to thousands of questions. That’s more than a little intimidating if the answers aren’t ready to go.
  • You’re time-bound – Sometimes the questionnaire gets stuck in an internal limbo, and sometimes the issuer sends it expecting an almost immediate turnaround. Having most of the answers ready will cut your response time to a fraction of what it could have been.
  • SME cooperation – SMEs are busy people, so understandably, they might not put the security questionnaire at the top of their “to-do” list. Assure them that you value their time by completing as much of the questionnaire as possible.
  • You don’t have all the certifications and protocol – Most companies won’t be able to answer every question in the affirmative. Submit what you have and perhaps see this as an opportunity to reevaluate where your company might be lacking.
  • Too much jargon – Security questionnaires tend to be jargon-heavy, and if you aren’t familiar with what they’re asking, you might not provide an accurate answer. SMEs can help but so can a well-organized, searchable even by jargon, Content Library.
  • Scattered knowledge (identifying and locating the right content) – If you have a siloed knowledge base, tracking everything down is challenging and time-consuming. Upload all of your certificates, documents, and Q&A pairs to a single source of truth accessible to any authorized stakeholder.
  • Non-compliant content management software – If your content management software isn’t compliant with your company’s requirements, SMEs, especially those in security, won’t use it. RFPIO is even secure enough for Microsoft.

Priorities and tips for the response process

As you’re staring down a seemingly infinite inbox and a calendar filled with back-to-back meetings, speed might be your top priority. However, security questionnaires are legal documents, so accuracy is the most crucial consideration. Fortunately, response software with built-in content management helps ensure both.

Streamlining workflow

RFPIO has several tools to help streamline your workflow, including:

  • Import/Export capabilities – Avoid disorganized, inconsistent, illogical formatting by importing security questionnaires right into your customized template for uniformity, making each stakeholder’s job much more manageable. Once you’ve completed the questionnaire, upload it onto your branded response template or straight to the source document.
  • Project management – If your workforce is like ours, you have people working from home, on other floors, in other buildings, and across the world. RFPIO helps you virtually gather your scattered stakeholders and track progress without chasing people down.
  • Content management – If I, for some reason, were forced to choose my favorite RFPIO feature, it would be the AI-powered Content Library. It:
    • Busts down silos – RFPIO’s Content Library is a single source of truth, with all of your company’s knowledge and documents in one repository.
    • Does most of the work for you – Once you upload the questionnaire, the Content Library’s magical gnomes—we call them the recommendation engine—comb through past responses to make suggestions. All you have to do is accept, edit, or reject. Since security questionnaires ask yes/no questions, there’s little to no editing.
    • Stores content – As the company creates more knowledge and documents, the Content Library will store them for future use.
    • Organizes content – Format, tag, and generally organize the content how you want.
    • Helps keep you compliant – Since we’re talking about security questionnaires, your security team will love this! RFPIO reminds you of expiration and “shred by” dates. It also reminds you when to review specific content and when to audit.
  • Integrations – RFPIO seamlessly integrates with nearly all the communication apps, CRMs, and productivity apps your company uses every day.
  • RFPIO® LookUp – Access the Content Library from anywhere in the world.
  • Autograph – With RFPIO’s Autograph, there’s no need to hunt signatories down. They can sign right from their computers.

Improving Content Library

Keep your Content Library clean, up to date, and organized by consulting with sales engineers and others involved in answering security questionnaires. Ask for their input in categorizing and tagging.

Keeping information up-to-date

Because security questionnaires are legal documents, accurate and up-to-date information is vital. RFPIO reminds you to clean out all the ROT (redundant, outdated, and trivial) information and documents. It even helps you locate all the ROT.

Software for security questionnaire responses

Many companies still rely on manual responses, which are time-consuming and inefficient.One way to differentiate your company from your competitors is to use advanced response software for security questionnaires.

Response software, such as RFPIO, gives each security questionnaire the thoroughness and scrutiny required while saving your team’s time, keeping SMEs on your good side, and helps keep you compliant.

Automation

If you use a CRM or project management software, you probably already know the benefits of automation. Most users do. In fact, IT professionals, such as those helping answer security questionnaires, save up to 20 hours a week using automated processes.

Automation is a morale booster! 45% of knowledge workers report feeling less burned out when they use automation tools, and 29% say automation lets them leave their jobs at the end of the official workday.

RFPIO’s automated response processes automatically fill in most of your answers to a security questionnaire and pull corresponding documents. One customer reports that after RFPIO security questionnaire automation, they can answer 100 questions in just 2 hours!

Templated responses

Most security questionnaires arrive in Excel, which, as you know, is about as standardized as the snowflakes covering Mount Everest. Excel isn’t to blame. Microsoft designed the OG of spreadsheets to track everything from kids’ activities to trips to space.

RFPIO imports the hundreds to thousands of lines on a security questionnaire spreadsheet onto your customized template, ensuring that everyone knows exactly how to find what they need. Additionally, since many questions are redundant, RFPIO answers those duplicate questions for you.

RFPIO’s approach to security questionnaire responses

Breathe a little easier next time you receive a security questionnaire, knowing that RFPIO has your back. You will save loads of time, create accurate, complete responses, and stay on your SMEs’ good sides.

If you don’t already use RFPIO, try a free demo.

4 key elements to keeping security questionnaires accurate and up to date

4 key elements to keeping security questionnaires accurate and up to date

Selling & Enablement

Lack of clarity creates challenges — especially when filling out security questionnaires. When it’s unclear who needs to fill them out, how much detail needs to be included, and how much time it will take, each time you sit down to fill one out can feel challenging.

Luckily, there are experts who can help provide key insights into making the overall security questionnaire process faster, smarter, and stronger. Companies like RFPIO bring teams together by providing software that automates and streamlines the process of responding to a request, so you can respond with confidence to security questionnaires.

Tapping into their knowledge around complex questionnaires like RFPs, RFIs, security questionnaires, and more, we discovered tips you can implement in your own companies. Here are their four key elements to keeping security questionnaires accurate and up to date:

1. Content Moderation

Keep your library up to date by assigning content owners and setting up regular review cycles.

Security questionnaires are often repetitive and require a manual responder to ask the same questions of their internal subject matter experts over and over again. By properly maintaining security questionnaire content, you can build confidence in your response process— advantageous when you’re under a tight deadline—and save time to get back to what you do best.

The ultimate result of good, consistent content management is winning new business. RFPIO makes it simple to set up Content Library moderation by assigning the appropriate content owners, setting a cadence for regular review cycles, and customizing alerts for a cadence that works best for your team and organization.

2. Maintain Accuracy

Flag questions that may be out of date for review.

Accuracy is crucial in security questionnaires. If an incorrect or out-of-date response is submitted, it could cost you the sales opportunity or impact your organization’s reputation. To ensure your response is of the utmost quality and compliance, maintain accurate content and responses that articulate your current offering’s latest and greatest capabilities, and omit what is no longer accurate.

In addition to the above process of assigning content owners and setting up review cycles, we also highly recommend completing a ROT analysis as part of your content audit processes.

ROT stands for “Redundant, Outdated, and Trivial.”

  • Redundant Content is duplicate and/or similar content. If you’re using RFPIO, run a duplicate report on questions and answers, and click on “View Similar Content” to find comparable responses.
  • Outdated Content is expired or sunset content. Isolate any content not used in the last year—“expired content”—using the Advanced Search function in RFPIO. Then, identify content from products, services, and solutions that are no longer relevant—“sunset content”—using tags and/or product names.
  • Trivial Content is deal- or client-specific content. Identify trivial content by searching for specific client names.

Next, move the content you’ve identified out of your active Content Library. We recommend storing this content in an archived collection in RFPIO, so it isn’t permanently deleted.

Including your most recent pentest data is important.
Some security controls are easier to verify than others. For example, it’s relatively easy to ask to see the results of a third-party risk assessment or penetration test that covers the OWASP Top 10 and business logic. It’s harder to prove that a particular security process or best practice is being followed.

When your client does ask to see the results of a recent pentest, your first response might be, “We don’t typically provide that information.” If they press further, you can share a high-level summary of findings, generally referred to as an attestation. Some companies will require that you share detailed findings from a pentest report, and a few may request evidence that findings have been fixed. This is where Cobalt’s customizable reports can save you some valuable time.

3. Automate Your Process

Automatically respond to long and complex questionnaires in a single click with RFPIO’s AI-enabled Content Library.

A response management platform like RFPIO automates almost everything, helping teams cut their response time by 40-50% on average. Automation frees up your time to produce the highest quality deliverable possible—and, of course—move on to other priorities on your to-do list.

With an Content Library full of reviewed, pruned content you can trust, use Auto Respond to quickly fill in relevant content from past responses and minimize how many questions you need to complete manually.

4. Stay Consistent

Respond to each security questionnaire using the same pre-approved and vetted content, ensuring consistency across responses.

When questionnaires are answered manually, there is a likelihood that answers won’t be consistent across different questionnaires or different SMEs writing the answers. This can cause complications during an audit process.

Consistency ensures accurate responses to compliance requirements. Ensure your gold-star, key content is present in your library by employing regular review cycles. This, in turn, ensures consistency in your responses.

This article was co-authored by and co-published with Cobalt. Cobalt provides a Pentest as a Service (PtaaS) platform that is modernizing the traditional, static penetration testing model by providing streamlined processes, developer integrations, and on-demand pentesters. Our blog is where we provide industry best practices, showcase some of our top-tier talent, and share information that’s of interest to the cybersecurity community.

Schedule a demo with RFPIO for more details on automating response to security questionnaires.

Take control of your next security questionnaire with RFP software

Take control of your next security questionnaire with RFP software

Products/Features/Solutions

Lucky you. A security questionnaire with 467 questions just landed in your inbox and it’s due in two weeks.

But you don’t use RFP software, so you’re looking at about a week and a half of completion time. Since responding to security questionnaires isn’t your primary job responsibility, you will have to make time in between other high priority tasks. You stay after hours or work weekends to meet the looming deadline.

You meet the deadline, just barely—but you don’t feel confident that you answered the questions as effectively as you could have with more time. You wonder: Are we going to lose this deal now?

If you had RFP software to support your process? Hate to be the one to break it to you, friend, but that menacing security questionnaire probably would have taken you a few hours instead.

Understandably, many brave responders take a negative mental turn with security questionnaires—and even dread them. We won’t make outlandish claims, like comparing responding to vendor assessments to a leisurely stroll on a summer day. What we can do is steer you in the right direction, so you gain the upperhand and take control.

By the time you’ve finished reading this post, you’ll understand that:

  1. RFP security questionnaires are complex, but manageable
  2. Various security questionnaires benefit from an RFP response solution
  3. Each completed security questionnaire will throw the deal or land it
  4. RFP software alleviates time and team friction
  5. The majority of a security questionnaire can be completed for you
  6. A specific RFP response solution feature set will help you take control
  7. Time is on your side with RFP software

It starts now, with understanding how technology like RFP software can help you navigate the nuances of security questionnaires. And, rest assured…the next time you’re responding to hundreds or thousands of questions will be better.

The nuances of RFP security questionnaires

As complex as security questionnaires can be, there is a bright side too. Yes, there are gigantic spreadsheets involved. But, it’s a pretty standard set of questions you’re working with.

Sure, you might see variations of the questions or see subsets of a question. You might be facing a Security Questionnaires with what seems like a million questions. Still, the questions are pretty much the same old song and dance. Security questionnaires generally deal with privacy. Compliance, infrastructure security, and data protection fall under that privacy umbrella.

“Only a third of organizations believe they have adequate resources to manage security effectively.” – Ponemon Institute

A team of security subject matter experts (SMEs) sprinkled across multiple teams and departments is often required to respond to these security questionnaires. Answering the same questions repeatedly can become tedious for anyone, no matter how dedicated they are to the organization.

For example, if a proposal manager assigns the same hundred questions to a security architect ten times, friction will inevitably follow. Presumably, that security architect will stop answering them and choose to fulfill other high priorities on his or her plate. He or she may become unresponsive whenever their support is needed for security questionnaire ever after.

To top it all off, there is the compliance aspect of security questionnaires. Teams must answer accurately and honestly—and be able to backup their response should an issuer decide to audit. An RFP software solution is the kind of technology that can handle the nuances of security questionnaires. A great solution will help you solve inefficiencies within your process.

Various security questionnaires you will encounter

“61% say their organizations evaluate the security capabilities of cloud providers prior to engagement or deployment, according to Gemalto’s 2018 Global Cloud Data Security Study. Although these security evaluations are increasingly relying on contractual negotiations and legal reviews, 34% of organizations still require the formality of security and compliance questionnaires. That means you need to prepared (not surprised) when a security assessment arrives.

cloud provider security evaluation

Source: Gemalto

Being prepared isn’t as easy as it sounds. We can write an entire blog—scratch that—a novel about the different types of RFP security questionnaires you might stumble upon. While a security questionnaire has many names, it also has many types.

Here are various security questionnaires you will encounter:

  • Security Questionnaires and Security Questionnaires Lite – Standardized Information Gathering Questionnaires
  • VSAQ – Vendor Security Assessment Questionnaire
  • CAIQ – Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire
  • VSA – Vendor Security Alliance Questionnaire
  • NIST 800-171 – National Institute of Standards and Technology Questionnaire
  • CIS Controls – Center for Internet Security Questionnaire

No matter the type of security questionnaire, the need for a complete RFP response solution along with a reliable internal process can’t be stressed enough. Without this dynamic duo, you run the risk of losing valuable hours with an inefficient approach—but, you also risk losing potential business if the responses are not executed accurately and well.

Why you should take each security questionnaire seriously

The short version? Because you don’t want to be the one that throws the deal. You want to be the one that helps land it.

Whether you’re a cloud provider or an on-premise provider, security questionnaires are a key requirement in this leg of the sales process. Organizations care a great deal about data security and they scrutinize vendors like you to make sure you are the partner they can trust long-term.

Cloud Providers

As a cloud service provider, your customers entrust their organization’s most sensitive data with you. There’s a very strong chance that the solution you provide is a mission critical application for them. That’s why they want to hire your services in the first place.

Since you make everything available in a publicly shared infrastructure, the controls need to be that much more airtight. There are plenty of control frameworks that govern cloud security. However, lack of visibility leads by a wider margin in SaaS than IaaS, with almost one third of organizations having difficulty getting a clear picture of what data is in their cloud applications.

cloud security concerns
Source: McAfee

It’s important for your customers and prospects to feel confident that you have the proper control in place, so their data isn’t compromised. Proper controls protect a data leak from happening, regardless if it happens accidentally or through malicious attacks.

On-Premise Providers

At one time on-premise solutions used to be less of a concern. People used to believe that security within an infrastructure behind firewalls was more secure. In the last decade, things have changed dramatically.

In some ways, on-premise solutions are more vulnerable than cloud solutions. When customers use a cloud-based solution, their data is likely hosted with a reputable, secure cloud hosting service provider like Amazon or Google or Microsoft or IBM.

With on-premise, frequently the compromise comes from within—through social engineering, through employees making mistakes. So, on-premise security is something buyers are aware of and really paying attention to.

EU GDPR Requirements

On May 25th, 2018 the EU is rolling out GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and the penalties are pretty severe, with the potential to cripple organizations who do not take these requirements seriously.

In McAfee’s 2017 study, Beyond the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), more than 80% of organizations said they expected help from their cloud service providers to achieve regulatory compliance. Yet only half of the respondents stated that all of their cloud providers had a plan in place for GDPR compliance.

GDPR cloud investments
Source: McAfee

How will GDPR affect cloud investments? Fewer than 10% anticipate decreasing their cloud investments as a result of GDPR. Even still, take the right measures and demonstrate that you have made every effort you possibly can to keep your customer’s data secure. Starting with how you respond to security questionnaires.

Security questionnaires: The culprit of time and team friction

Organizations understand that data security is highly valued by their customers, so they respond to security questionnaires to build confidence in their solution. The complicated part for you and/or the team completing these vendor assessments…the time factor.

When responding to RFP security questionnaires, security experts are brought into the process to ensure accuracy. Since security encompasses many different aspects of an organization, multiple team members must work together to answer their respective questions and sections.

Typically these SMEs work in understaffed conditions, where time is truly limited for additional responsibilities outside high priority tasks. If this is all hitting close to home, then you know exactly how challenging it is to respond to hundreds and hundreds of security questionnaires under a tight deadline.

RFP software like RFPIO helps you do the job right the first time. Technology allows you to reuse historical content and customize as needed, while encouraging stronger collaboration for a more efficient process.

ProTip: “Be self-aware of both your strengths and your limitations in your responses. If you don’t have something, don’t lie, but don’t over-emphasize your own deficiencies. Devote your time to addressing the issues the customer will be most concerned with.” – Ken Stasiak, SecureState’s Guide to Responding to 3rd Party Questionnaires

How RFP software increases efficiency levels

A security questionnaire is basically a massive spreadsheet with hundreds of questions on the lower end and thousands on the higher end. You need to be able to answer volumes of questions quickly, but with incredible accuracy. Such is the beauty of RFP software.

Recently our CIO, Sunder, had a lengthy security questionnaire to complete on his own. (Yep, we have to respond to these just like any other cloud solution provider.)

RFPIO’s auto-response feature filled in 74% of the questions for Sunder. About 11% of the questions needed to be tweaked, because some of the controls had changed. The remaining questions didn’t need to be touched at all, and he had very few questions to respond to manually. Something that would have taken our CIO about a day or two to complete was done within an hour.

A team of one can benefit from RFP software as can a mid-sized or enterprise organization. A larger organization will require several review cycles, but still the time-savings is noticeable for all contributors. This technology, in combination with close collaboration and an established RFP response process, is a game-changer for anyone completing security questionnaires.

When you’re searching for an RFP response solution to help you streamline the security questionnaire process, having a few key features will make a difference in productivity improvements.

“Our immediate instinct with Security Questionnaires was that the Excels were too macro-heavy. It was going to be a huge challenge for us to solve. But, like so many of our clients, we’ve gone through this pain enough and we figured we might as well solve it. RFPIO’s advanced security questionnaire functionality makes the response process much easier for teams.” – A.J. Sunder, CIO at RFPIO

Security questionnaire features to look for in RFP software

As with any solution you add to your growing technology stack, you want to make sure the investment is worth it. What are your pain points? What are your aspirations and objectives? The needs of your organization always come first, which is good to remember when you’re hunting for a solution.

If you’re answering security questionnaires regularly, you need RFP software with built-in features to support that effort. These are specific RFPIO features that help you take control…

Security Questionnaire Import

An RFP security questionnaire project can start off on the right foot…or the wrong one. With RFP software, the import should be painless for your team—it doesn’t matter if it’s a macro-heavy Excel with 799 security questions.

Even some of the most sizable Standardized Information Gathering (Security Questionnaires) can be imported into RFPIO with a single click. You upload the right template for the job (CAIQ, Security Questionnaires– Core, Full, or Lite) and import directly from your local computer or cloud storage provider.

Read How RFPIO’s Security Questionnaire Template Helps You Win Back Time

security questionnaire template
Content Library

Have a wealth of historical responses from previous security questionnaires? Rather than being lost in a maze of online folders, all of your content is centralized in an Content Library. Easily accessible content means a proposal manager or proposal management team can take the vendor assessment to a certain level of completion before calling in the security SMEs.

This way SMEs can focus on reviewing and revising specific questions or sections, versus answering hundreds of repetitive questions they’ve seen before. Over time, as your team responds to more security questionnaires within the solution, the Content Library will continue to expand. If cared for properly, this knowledge repository will flourish.

Being that your Content Library is the heart and soul of your RFP response solution, managing this content well is a must. From encryption technology to infrastructure, security controls and standards change often. As long as that information is current, security SMEs will not need to do as much heavy lifting with responding. Content audits should be routine at your organization.

Auto-Response

From this expansive knowledge base, an auto-response feature brings up relevant responses to answer the majority of the questions for you. Proper algorithms find the best match, so your auto-response needs to be reliable.

Auto-response cuts down completion time dramatically from the first RFP security questionnaire project—and efficiency levels increase with consistent use. Essentially, the solution does a majority of the responding for you.

automate security questionnaires
Communication Tools

Strong collaboration is behind every great RFP response process. Your RFP response solution must have communication features that promote a collaborative environment. Proposal managers should be able to reach out to security SMEs in a low-touch manner, and vice versa.

Team members should be able to easily leave comments and @-mention for clarification as needed. Built-in chat features and Slack integration are additional ways to help teams work together easily, with less emails and fewer meetings.

Source Export

At the end of the RFP security questionnaire, every team wants to finish up and move on with their lives. However, like the import, the export can really be a time-consuming challenge with large spreadsheets. Being able to easily export back into the original source with clean data is a necessary feature of RFP software, especially with security questionnaires.

“We appreciate the lengths RFPIO has taken to accommodate the Standardized Information Gathering (Security Questionnaires) tool. They have been incredible in their help addressing the Security Questionnaires’s imbedded scoping and automation abilities within the spreadsheet to preserve the purpose of the document. RFPIO’s efforts to research and develop a new upload specific to the Security Questionnaireshas been invaluable to MGIC.” – Vickie Kusch, Vendor Due Diligence Liaison at Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation 

Bulk Answering

Repetitive questions are the name of the game with security and compliance questionnaires. Bulk answering does exactly what you think it does…answers in bulk! (Didn’t see that coming, did you?)

As you respond to a Security Questionnaires, a solution like RFPIO understands how the macro is programmed and aligns with your selection process. If you answer “yes,” it knows the dependencies and presents those 300ish questions to you. If you answer “no,” it knows not to show irrelevant questions.

Audit History

Sometimes security questions aren’t black and white. Teams must use their best judgement and answer only what they can backup. An audit history shows who answered the question, so they can “backup” or explain their response if a situation should arise with the issuer.

Sometimes an issuer will add a clause in the contract that mentions their right to audit in fine print. You want to be ready for this, and an audit trail will help you tremendously.

Time is on your side now, responder

The dark days of losing hours and sleep are all over. The next security questionnaire that lands in your inbox will be a piece of cake—er—okay, it will certainly be easier than before when you didn’t have your trusty automated technology friend.

So, there you have it. RFP software isn’t just for RFPs. Take control of your next security questionnaire with RFPIO.

5 cloud security questions to ask when you’re SaaS shopping

5 cloud security questions to ask when you’re SaaS shopping

Product & Best Practices

If you take a good look at your SaaS vendor selection process today, is cloud security on your checklist? Or, does your checklist consist of all the shiny features you’d like to have?

The SaaS model makes it easy to sign up and get going—with free trials and integrations with your favorite applications. While it is important to evaluate if the solution solves your business problem, it is just as important to look beyond the core features.

cloud usage

Source: RightScale

SaaS vendors range from a couple of guys operating out of a garage to full blown enterprises. During the startup phase, the focus is on getting a workable product out to the market with the intent to “shore up” the product when they have a few customers that have kicked the tires.

Unfortunately security ends up taking a backseat. Failure to evaluate security features with these vendors can mean major trouble for businesses, both short term and long term.

As just one example, we’ll use cloud-based RFP software solutions.

Say your SaaS provider has an outage when you have a request for proposal deadline looming. You have no way of retrieving that data, and you don’t have it backed up, because you entrusted your SaaS vendor with everything.

By the time your vendor is up and running again, it’s too late. You missed out on submitting your RFP responses and lost millions of dollars in potential revenue.

cloud adoptionSource: RightScale

Focusing on a tool’s exciting features during SaaS vendor selection is alarmingly common. Enterprise companies will typically bring in their IT department when choosing a SaaS solution, but frequently companies operating with smaller teams miss this important step.

It’s never too late to optimize your vendor selection approach, whether you’re just establishing security measures, or strengthening existing processes.

Here are a few cloud security questions worth asking when you’re evaluating SaaS vendors.

saas challenges

Source: RightScale

#1  What is your disaster recovery plan?

Most SaaS vendors have a disaster recovery plan, but not all plans are created equal. Some mistakenly believe taking regular backups constitutes disaster recovery.

Make sure your SaaS vendor has a solid plan that covers a recovery timeline, routine testing, and geographic isolation. In other words, if there is a tsunami, is that going to wipe out all of your centers?

#2  What if you go out of business?

Often we think of catastrophic events in the form of natural disasters, but a vendor going out of business can do just as much damage. When comparison shopping, look into business viability and don’t be afraid to ask some tough questions.

If I invest all of my work, data, history into your solution, is that safe? What is your fallback plan? Having access to that data is non-negotiable no matter what happens outside your control.

it cloud softwareSource: RightScale

#3  Do you take my security seriously?

Okay, you don’t have to frame the question that way—instead you can ask if they have a proper security plan. Be careful when a vendor sidesteps security to focus on the shiny features. You don’t ever want security to be an afterthought.

If you find it difficult to know which security features are most important, bring in your IT department for guidance.

The security rundown might include:

  • Encrypting data
  • Secure data transmission and storage
  • Access restrictions
  • Secure practices
  • Staff training
  • Regular monitoring and scanning

enterprise cloud
Source: RightScale

#4  Who is responsible?

Accountability is a big one, because you want to know who you are dealing with when a support request spirals into a data mess. Many vendors depend on others, and the finger-pointing can escalate quickly. This is the last thing any business wants to experience when there’s a problem, so be upfront to avoid a surprise down the road.

A storage solution managed entirely by the SaaS vendor is preferable, as mom and pop cloud storage companies can be unreliable. The accountability factor can speed up your selection process in a jiffy if a vendor fumbles over roles and responsibilities.

#5  How scalable is your product?

It is one thing to watch a flawless demo, or run through a proof of concept without a glitch. But can the application withstand what the real world throws at it? Unfortunately, it is tough to know the answer to this until the real world happens.

For example, if one of the other clients of the service provider executes a huge project, is that going to negatively impact security? It is smart—and absolutely appropriate—to inquire about how well the vendor can scale their product to meet demands, and how quickly those demand will be met.

saas securitySource: RightScale

Finding the right SaaS vendor should never be taken lightly, so always think of it as a collaborative decision.

While these questions will cover your cloud security bases, if you can, get your IT person involved in the process too. If you are unable to engage your IT department in vendor selection, you can still take these steps to ensure the vendor has a solid security footing.

What cloud security questions do you ask when you’re selecting a SaaS vendor?

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