Sustainability managers in SMEs are all too familiar with the problem: No sooner have they completed a comprehensive ESG questionnaire for one customer, than another awaits—with remarkably similar questions, but on a different platform. Companies are confronted with a deluge of questionnaires as more large customers use their own supplier portals for sustainability data. For small and medium-sized suppliers, this means a significant additional effort, as they have to repeatedly answer the same questions on topics such as environment, social standards or compliance, only in different formats. This article explores why these redundant requests arise, the challenges they present for SMEs, and how to escape the vicious cycle of multiple data entries. 

Why do SMEs have to provide the same data multiple times? 

One of the causes of redundancy lies in the diversity of portals. Large companies use different solutions to collect sustainability information from their suppliers—for example, IntegrityNext, Assent or EcoVadis. Each platform has its own questionnaires and focuses, but often covers similar ESG topics (e.g., CO₂ emissions, working conditions, certifications). For the supplier, this means concretely: They create a profile on Portal A and answer questions on environmental and social standards. Another customer uses Portal B, where the supplier must once again maintain a profile and answer many of the same questions anew.

There are also overlaps internally within companies. Sometimes different departments of the same customer request similar information via different channels. An example: The purchasing department wants a self-disclosure on the Supply Chain Act, while the CSR department simultaneously requests data for the sustainability report—and the supplier may respond to both requests separately. Supplier fatigue is mentioned here when suppliers receive many overlapping but not identical surveys, reducing their motivation and diligence. 

The consequences: effort, frustration, and sources of error 

For SMEs, the time required adds up significantly. Particularly complex requests with quickly over 100 questions cost several hours of work—including internal information gathering, form filling and quality assurance. With several dozen requests per year, weeks of working time quickly accumulate, which sustainability or quality managers spend instead of dedicating themselves to strategic tasks. This repetitive occupation can lead to frustration. Employees report informally of "copy-paste marathons" because much has to be entered repeatedly. 

Some suppliers then prioritize only the most important customer requests and postpone others—which can lead to missed deadlines. However, late or incomplete responses can be noted negatively in supplier evaluations and, in the worst case, endanger business relationships. 

Ways out of the dilemma 

What can an SME do to cope with this flood of questionnaires? There are strategies to minimize duplicate work and make responses more consistent.

Firstly: Set up a central collection of all frequently requested data in the company. Software solutions like turnus.ai centrally store all requests and the company's given answers. With a new request, information does not have to be reassembled each time, and consistently agreed answers can be automatically filed.

Secondly: Prepare text modules and documents. Many portals allow free-text responses or the uploading of documents (e.g., Code of Conduct, environmental policy). Companies should keep these documents up to date and stored centrally and retrievably. Ideally, they should already be available in the respective working language (German/English). This eliminates the need for re-translating or formulating under time pressure. 

Thirdly: Consider automation solutions. Specialized AI software like turnus.ai enables responses to recurring questions to be generated automatically and answered directly on various portals. The AI solution suggests the appropriate responses directly in the various online portals and can, for example, recognize: Question X on Portal Y corresponds to Question Z on Portal A—and directly suggests the previously given answer. Application reports from leading companies show that the effort is drastically reduced as a result. 

How simple filling out online portals can be is shown by our latest feature, the browser extension in this article ("Feature Launch - Our Browser Extension Comes") and this short video:

Conclusion

The variety of ESG portals and questionnaires poses significant challenges for sustainability managers in SMEs. It takes time and effort to repeatedly answer the same questions on different platforms—time that's missed for proactive sustainability work. AI offers enormous potential to minimize additional effort and drastically simplify compliance processes.