Does Prova replace a security officer?

No. Prova prepares the dossier: identifying the topics, finding the supporting evidence, flagging the gaps. Final validation and the commitments made to your customer stay on your side, under the responsibility of your security officer or whoever fills that role.

Do you need to be ISO 27001 certified to answer?

No. Most vendor questionnaires accept a documented posture even without certification, as long as the supporting evidence is consistent and dated. The Prova free pre-audit tells you whether a gap is a deal-breaker or not for the target customer.

How much time should you allow for a full questionnaire?

For a Prova Full dossier: 72 business hours from receipt of your questionnaire and the necessary materials, all in writing. In-house with no prior preparation, plan for 2 to 5 person-days depending on the size of the questionnaire and how scattered the supporting evidence is.

My documents are confidential: how does Prova handle them?

The free pre-audit requires no sensitive documents: 5 to 10 representative questions is enough. To go further, a non-disclosure agreement can be signed. The documents you send are used only to prepare your dossier, never for anything else.

Which questionnaire formats does Prova handle?

Prova can work from the formats received in practice: CAIQ, SIG Lite/Core, customer-specific forms, questionnaires based on ISO 27001 supplier, Excel or Word files, PDF, or an excerpt copied and pasted from a vendor management portal.

What happens after you send your 5 to 10 questions?

A read within 48 business hours. You receive a structured note: for each question, the topic identified, the supporting evidence likely available in your documentation, the gaps to fill, and the points to validate internally. No commitment is made on your behalf, and nothing is sent to your customer.

What if I don't have some of the requested evidence?

The pre-audit flags them as gaps, with a direction: an existing internal document can sometimes be restructured, for example a Confluence note, an old policy, or an attestation. Other items may require a new document. A gap flagged with a credible remediation plan beats a claim you cannot prove.

GuidesSecurity

Vendor security questionnaire: how to prepare a dossier that passes

Published May 12, 2026 · Updated July 11, 2026 · 6 min read · Prova team

In this article

The customer does not read your answer: they check what stands behind it. To prepare a dossier that passes, treat every line of the questionnaire as a demonstration: one answer, one dated piece of supporting evidence, an exact scope, a named owner. A vendor security questionnaire is not a multiple-choice quiz; here is how to prepare a dossier that holds up under review.

Who receives these security questionnaires.

The teams that face a vendor security questionnaire when the company has neither a dedicated security officer nor a structured answer base. Typical cases:

A tech SMB answering a bank, a manufacturer, or an insurer.
An IT services company being onboarded by a major client.
A cybersecurity consultancy that has to prove its own practices.
A B2B SaaS vendor going through onboarding with a new customer.
A data, cloud, or DevOps team asked about its sub-processors.
A tech lead asked to fill one out “for security.”

Why a “Yes” with no evidence gets a dossier rejected.

“Yes, we have a business continuity plan” is not enough for your customer’s security officer. An enterprise vendor security questionnaire is not a checkbox. It is a filter: behind every answer, the procurement team or the security officer looks for the supporting evidence, the version, the date, and the exact scope.

Checking “Yes, we encrypt data” without being able to produce the encryption policy, its exceptions, and the date of its last review gets you flagged in internal review. The dossier comes back to you with follow-up questions, often at the worst moment in the sales cycle.

The real work is making every answer usable: a topic identified, supporting evidence attached, a gap flagged explicitly rather than an empty claim.

What the customer checks behind every box.

Whatever the questionnaire’s wording (CAIQ, SIG, ISO 27001 supplier, GDPR Article 28, internal questionnaires), the customer is looking for the same things.

Where is the documented evidence (policy, attestation, report)?
Is the document current and signed by a named person?
What is the exact scope (entity, product, environment)?
Who validates this answer on the vendor side (security officer, data protection officer, management)?
Which exceptions or special cases are not covered?
What is not in place, and with what remediation plan?

The mistakes that get a dossier rejected.

Answering “Yes” to everything without attaching a single piece of evidence.
Sending back a generic Word file found on Google.
Copying and pasting answers from an old dossier without updating the dates.
Mixing up scopes: group policy versus product policy.
Hiding a gap to save time: the customer will find it later.
Having the security officer or the data protection officer sign off without reviewing the details.

The document base a serious dossier draws on.

Not all of these apply to every organization. The Prova free pre-audit tells you which ones are actually expected in your case.

Information security policy, dated and signed.
Business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan.
Access management, least-privilege, and revocation policy.
Encryption policy (at rest, in transit, key management).
Sub-processor policy and register (Article 28 GDPR).
Recent penetration test or audit reports (last 12 months).
Cyber insurance certificate, certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2, and the like).
Incident procedure, notification plan, incident register.
Backup policy, frequency, restore testing.
Individual confidentiality undertakings for staff.

Four moves to make every answer usable.

Four steps, applied question by question. The same method used by teams that answer these in volume.

Identify the real topic behind the customer’s wording.
Find the supporting evidence in your policies, attestations, or reports.
Prove it by attaching the document, its version, and its scope.
Validate: who reviews, who signs, who takes responsibility.

Prova prepares. Your team keeps final validation.

Prova does not replace your security officer, your data protection officer, or your legal team. The service prepares structured answers with the available supporting evidence and flags the points that call for an internal decision. The final decision, the send to your customer, and any certification stay on your side.

No answer goes out without your team’s review. No promise of guaranteed compliance: Prova sets the stage, you decide what goes out.

Sources

Prova team

Preparation of vendor security questionnaires for enterprise customers. Prova prepares; your team validates.

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