Security questionnaires (SQs) are not fun. They’re time-consuming, tedious work and sometimes, they’re the one thing standing between you and a closed deal. Fortunately, the emergence of AI in the security space has resulted in many day-to-day workflows being streamlined – with SQs being one of them. Security questionnaire automation solutions have been on the rise. So, if you’re tired of spending countless hours, weeks, or even months doing those pesky questionnaires, this one’s for you.
We’ll be going over automated portals and security questionnaire automation tools – two methods that can help your organization spend less time on SQs.
Automated Security Portals
Some security questionnaire automation solutions create portals that publicly display an organization’s security and compliance posture. These portals are used to showcase security credentials, like certifications, attestations, and other compliance reports. For example, here’s TrustCloud’s security portal. In addition to what’s displayed on the public-facing portal, more information can be shared upon invitation, with enhanced security features like NDA click-wrapping.
By proactively sharing this information, organizations can reduce the number of security questionnaires they receive from prospects and customers, since they’ve provided the necessary information in a secure environment.
Say goodbye to the days of emailing sensitive documents, spreadsheets, and screenshots. By making this information easily accessible for stakeholders, organizations can easily demonstrate their commitment to security and earn a level of trust like never before.
Friendly Tip: the best solutions will pull information directly from your security and compliance program to provide a live portal that you won’t have to do any maintenance for. Be wary about those that still rely on knowledge bases, because that means there’s still a degree of manual work to be done.
Security Questionnaire Automation
Even with a security portal, organizations may still need to tackle SQs. What happens when the security review has kicked off and you need to fill out a questionnaire ASAP but it’s Friday and you want to enjoy the weekend?
The answer is: use an SQ automation tool that leverages AI.
These smart solutions save you time by:
- Pre-populating answers that your team can review and approve, to dramatically reduce response time
- Making collaboration easier, because it allows you to assign and tag colleagues when and where they’re needed
- Improving security, by minimizing the need to request or send sensitive information via email
Security Questionnaire Automation Isn’t the Future – It’s Today
With all the groundbreaking technological advances happening, it’s only a matter of time before you make the switch from manual to automated. Instead of digging for the security documents you need, or arguably worse, having to carefully read and answer anywhere between 20 to 100 (or more) questions, wouldn’t you prefer to spend your time a different way?
Friendly Tip: There are other tools out there that may act as if they can solve the problem of SQs, but because they have often been designed to solve for many different problems (e.g. RFPs, RFIs, DDQs, SQs, etc.), the efficacy is stretched thin. If you’re currently using RFP software to handle SQs, check out our piece on how the two compare.
To save yourself the heartache of questionnaires, you should:
- Be on the lookout for a security portal and security questionnaire automation solution. Most times you’ll find that you will need to opt in for two different tools, but there are partners out there that do both. We at TrustCloud are one of ‘em!
- Evaluate these solutions based on their security features, compliance standards, levels of customization, usability, maintenance, and cost.
Start Saving Time and Pass Security Reviews Faster
Is there a security questionnaire automation solution out there that provides a holistic portal, allows you to safely share information, uses AI to answer questionnaires, and gives you back your Friday nights? It seems impossible when looking at most of the solutions offered today.
However, the good news is that it’s possible, and it’s all done by our tool called TrustShare. No more hassle of maintaining a knowledge base or configuring a tool designed for RFPs, because TrustShare does all of that (and more) for you.
Does it sound too good to be true? Perhaps, but hopefully we can relieve some anxiety by sharing our very own trust and compliance program to prove that we’re the real deal, and that we’ll help you close yours, fast.
Curious to learn more? Schedule a demo with us today, and we’ll show you the value in 15 minutes.
