How Apono Used AI for Faster Growth with Vendict's Security Solution Summary

Introduction  

Apono specializes in permissions and access management, helping organizations manage their permissions both in the cloud and on-premises. Their services are crucial for ensuring secure and efficient access management across various platforms.

Henry is the lead Sales Engineer at Apono, responsible for the technical aspects of sales. His role is critical in securing technical wins during sales conversations with customers, making the management of security questionnaires a significant part of his job.

The Problem  

Before Vendict, managing security questionnaires at Apono was a cumbersome and inefficient process. Henry and his team relied on legacy tools like Excel and various vendor assessment platforms, which required substantial manual input and coordination.

“Trying to come up with answers for questions you don't already have is really difficult and also needing to figure out how to reword existing questions to fit new questions takes a lot of time,” Henry explained. “If you have a 200-question questionnaire, even if you have answers for 80 of them, the rest are going to be a pain.”

The inefficiency, compounded by the high-growth phase Apono was experiencing, made it a real challenge to align schedules and gather input from team members scattered across different time zones.

“We're really in a high growth phase right now, which means we're seeing a lot more questionnaires and RFPs coming in. But it's tough to get everyone together, especially since our team is spread out across different locations. This makes answering these questions promptly really challenging, and sometimes it can take up to a week to complete a single questionnaire. It's definitely complicating things."” Henry acknowledged.

Managing these questionnaires manually was time-consuming, often taking weeks to complete, which was unacceptable given their workload and growth targets.

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The Solution  

Turning to Vendict provided immediate relief. Vendict’s AI-powered solution automated much of the heavy lifting involved in generating answers for security questionnaires.

Implementing Vendict was straightforward, largely due to the platform’s user-friendly interface and powerful AI capabilities. Henry was able to upload existing documents and questionnaires quickly, building a comprehensive knowledge base that significantly streamlined the questionnaire process.

“It was pretty seamless to get set up. I just uploaded a bunch of docs and existing questionnaires that we've done previously, and it helped complete the majority of the questions on new questionnaires. It was pretty straightforward” Henry stated.

The Result 

Transitioning to Vendict has resulted in substantial time savings and improved efficiency for Henry and his team. What once took weeks to complete can now be done in a matter of days or even hours.

“Taking a questionnaire from weeks down to a short afternoon or something like that is the biggest thing. The AI answer generation is great, but it's really about what that enables, which is getting the time back to get back to revenue-producing tasks” Henry highlighted.

The automation provided by Vendict not only reduced the time required to complete questionnaires but also alleviated the stress associated with these tasks, allowing Henry to focus on more critical aspects of his role.

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For others in similar positions, Henry offers this advice:

“Nobody likes doing security questionnaires. This tool helps you get that whole thing over with much, much quicker, allowing you to focus on what truly matters.” Henry concluded, “It's been great working through questions in that flow. It's almost like having an expert that you're working with. I really like the tool and the support from the team,” 

Henry Cook
Sales Engineer at Apono‍