Description

A focused course, tailored for you

The Index and Analytics Vendor Security Review Playbook

Turn the buy-side security questionnaire from a months-long drag into a two-week, evidence-backed close for an index and analytics vendor.

The security questionnaire is the slowest line on the renewal Gantt chart, and the client knows it.

$199 one-time

Tailored to your situation. Access within 24 hours. 30-day money-back.

Includes a hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, generated for your specific situation.

Why this course

Index, analytics, and ESG data vendors sit inside the procurement workflow of asset managers, asset owners, banks, insurers, and sovereign wealth funds. Every single one of those buyers runs a security review before they renew or expand. The reviews are not aligned. One sends SIG Lite, the next sends a 480-question SIG Core, the next sends a custom 90-tab spreadsheet, and a growing number now demand DORA ICT third-party risk evidence, EU AI Act model-governance attestations on the ESG side, and a sub-processor list with regulator standing for each name. Security specialists end up hand-translating the same SOC 2 Type II report and ISO 27001 SoA into five different question formats, four different evidence formats, and three different attestation wordings. The certificates exist. The controls exist. The reviewer-facing translation is where weeks vanish. Meanwhile the commercial team is being asked by clients why the security review on a data vendor whose core product is data takes longer than the legal redline. The course turns the questionnaire pile into a single internal evidence room and an answer bank pre-mapped to every buyer questionnaire your renewals desk has seen this fiscal year.

What you walk away with

Cut the median customer security review cycle from weeks to days by answering from one evidence room instead of re-reading the SOC 2 report for every SIG.
Produce a DORA ICT third-party risk statement, an EU AI Act ESG model-governance attestation, and a UK FCA operational resilience statement on demand from the same source data.
Stand up a sub-processor register that survives the buy-side cryptographer review, including encryption-in-use posture for index, analytics, and ESG data flows.
Give the commercial team a one-page security posture brief they can hand to a client CISO before the formal questionnaire even arrives.
Position the security function as the seat that closes renewals faster, not the seat that holds them up.

The 12 modules

Module 1. The buyer-side procurement workflow for an index and analytics vendor

Walks the procurement journey at a typical buy-side client: the asset owner CISO, the asset manager TPRM lead, the investment operations technology owner, and the procurement-of-record. Each one asks a different security question and each one cites a different framework. Maps which reviewer cares about SOC 2 Type II scope, which cares about ISO 27001 certificate jurisdiction, and which cares about DORA Article 28. The map drives every module that follows.

Module 2. The single internal evidence room

Builds the canonical source: a controls catalogue keyed to SOC 2 CC1 through CC9, ISO 27001 Annex A 2022, NIST CSF 2.0, CSA CCM 4, and the DORA ICT register fields. One control row carries one set of evidence artefacts and a fixed reviewer-facing description. The room is the asset every later module pulls from. Includes a template that ingests the existing SOC 2 description-of-system narrative and outputs the seed catalogue.

Module 3. SIG Core, SIG Lite, and CAIQ answer banks

Generates a SIG Core 2024, SIG Lite, and CSA CAIQ 4 answer bank directly from the evidence room. Each questionnaire row is mapped to the source control, the source evidence artefact, and the canonical reviewer-facing wording. Reuse on the next renewal is a copy, not a rewrite. Includes a worked example for a global asset manager SIG Core and a sovereign wealth fund custom questionnaire.

Module 4. HECVAT, vendor risk for university endowments, and the long tail

Covers HECVAT Full and Lite for the university endowment, foundation, and pension consultant segment, the Shared Assessments AUP-based questionnaires used by community banks and insurance carriers, and the custom spreadsheets favoured by certain large global asset owners. Each is mapped back to the evidence room. The output is one answer bank, many questionnaire faces.

Module 5. DORA ICT third-party risk for a data and analytics provider

Drills the DORA Article 28 register, Article 29 subcontracting chain disclosure, and the EU supervisor expectations around critical ICT third-party providers in the financial-services data segment. Provides the register template, the subcontracting chain disclosure narrative, and the exit-and-substitutability statement language. Tuned to a vendor whose product is a real-time data feed and analytics service, not a generic SaaS app.

Module 6. EU AI Act for ESG ratings, indices, and analytics models

Walks the EU AI Act classification of model-driven outputs in the ESG ratings, smart-beta index, and risk analytics product lines. Names the governance evidence the buyer-side reviewer is starting to ask for: model documentation, training-data provenance, human-oversight evidence, post-market monitoring. Provides the attestation wording that does not overstate scope and the internal model register that ties to the ISO 42001 controls if the firm chooses to certify.

Module 7. UK and EU operational resilience evidence

Covers UK FCA SYSC 15A and PRA operational resilience for the firm's UK regulated buyer-clients, the EU SFDR data integrity expectations for ESG data flows, and the Bank of England important business service mapping a UK asset manager will ask about. Produces the operational resilience posture statement, the important business service mapping for the index and analytics product, and the impact tolerance evidence the client reviewer expects to see.

Module 8. Sub-processor register and the encryption-in-use question

Builds the sub-processor register that a buy-side cryptographer will accept: legal entity, jurisdiction, data category in scope, encryption posture in transit, at rest, and in use, attestation references, and exit clause. Walks the encryption-in-use question specifically because asset owner CISOs have begun asking it on every renewal and a generic SOC 2 reference is not the answer. Includes the wording for cloud-hosted analytics workloads on AWS, Azure, and GCP, and for any on-prem residual.

Module 9. The customer security call playbook

The 45 to 60 minute call where the client CISO, the client TPRM lead, and one or two product engineers question the security function directly. The course gives the agenda the host should run, the artefacts the security specialist should have on screen, the three questions the client always asks but never writes down, and the failure modes that lose the renewal even when the controls are fine. Includes the role assignment between security, engineering, and compliance for the call.

Module 10. Continuous monitoring evidence that survives quarterly reviews

The bigger asset owner clients no longer accept a SOC 2 once a year. They run quarterly TPRM reviews and they want continuous control monitoring evidence. The module builds the continuous evidence pipeline: control health telemetry, exception register, remediation cadence, board-level reporting line. Names the tooling categories that the buyer-side reviewer will accept and the categories that produce evidence the reviewer cannot read.

Module 11. Sales and renewal partnership

How security becomes a renewal accelerator instead of a blocker. Covers the pre-renewal posture brief sent to the client CISO before the formal questionnaire arrives, the internal SLA between security, sales, and legal for incoming reviews, the dashboard the head of sales needs to see, and the language to push back on a custom spreadsheet when a SIG already answers the same questions. The aim is a function the commercial team brings in early because it shortens the cycle.

Module 12. The 90-day rebuild plan

Sequences the work for a single specialist who cannot stop the inbound questionnaire queue while building the evidence room. Weeks 1 to 2 seed the room from the existing SOC 2. Weeks 3 to 6 stand up SIG, CAIQ, and HECVAT answer banks. Weeks 7 to 9 add the DORA register, EU AI Act attestation, and UK resilience statement. Weeks 10 to 12 run the first renewal and measure cycle-time delta. Names milestones to share with the funding leader.

How this addresses your situation

Specific modules that map to what you said you are dealing with.

The SIG Lite that landed Thursday from the European asset owner: modules 1, 2, 3, 5, 8.

The DORA ICT third-party risk statement the EU asset manager asked for: modules 1, 2, 5, 7, 8.

The encryption-in-use question from the buy-side cryptographer: modules 2, 8, 10.

The renewal cycle that slipped because the security review held it up: modules 9, 11, 12.

What you get with this course

Twelve written modules in the Art of Service learning environment.
Downloadable templates: the controls catalogue, the SIG Core answer bank, the CAIQ answer bank, the HECVAT answer bank, the DORA Article 28 register, the sub-processor register, the EU AI Act attestation, the UK operational resilience statement, the pre-renewal posture brief, the customer security call run-sheet.
Worked examples for an index provider, an ESG ratings provider, and a capital-markets analytics provider.
The hand-built implementation playbook shaped against the questionnaires currently sitting in the buyer's procurement queue.
Thirty-day money-back if the playbook does not save measurable cycle time on the next renewal.

What you will have in hand by Day 1, Week 1, Month 1

Account in the Art of Service learning environment provisioned within 24 hours.

Hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, shaped against the buyer's current questionnaire queue.

Weeks 1 to 2: seed the evidence room from the existing SOC 2 Type II description of system.

Weeks 3 to 6: stand up the SIG, CAIQ, and HECVAT answer banks.

Weeks 7 to 9: add the DORA register, EU AI Act attestation, UK operational resilience statement.

Weeks 10 to 12: run the first renewal against the new system, measure cycle-time delta.

Before and after

Before

Every inbound buyer-side questionnaire is treated as a fresh project. The SOC 2 report is reread. The ISO 27001 SoA is rescanned. The DORA statement is redrafted. Each renewal carries its own answer file. Cycle time grows quarter over quarter and the security function is named the slow line on the renewal Gantt chart.

After

One evidence room is the source. Every questionnaire is an output. Renewal cycle time drops because the answer bank is already aligned to SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIST CSF, CSA CCM, and the DORA register. The commercial team brings security in before the questionnaire even arrives because the pre-renewal posture brief shortens the buyer's review. The security function becomes the seat that closes renewals.

What happens if you do not address this

Buyer-side procurement at asset managers and asset owners is industrialising vendor security review. The questionnaires are getting longer, the reviewers are getting more technical, and the DORA, EU AI Act, and operational resilience overlays are now table stakes. Vendors that keep answering each questionnaire from scratch will see renewal cycles stretch, will lose deals to faster-responding competitors with mature evidence rooms, and will spend security headcount on translation work instead of control work.

Who it is for

Security specialists, security engineers, security analysts, and TPRM-facing controls owners inside SEC-registered investment advisors, index providers, ESG ratings firms, and capital-markets data and analytics vendors. The person owns or contributes to the customer-facing security questionnaire workflow, sits next to the SOC 2 audit owner and the regulatory affairs lead, and is held accountable by sales when a renewal slips because the security review is open.

Who this is NOT for. Application security engineers whose work is product-side static analysis, AppSec testing, or vulnerability management on the engineering tickets queue. This course is the customer-facing and regulator-facing security review work, not the build-side security work. Also not for security analysts at firms that do not sell data or analytics to regulated buyers; the buy-side procurement angle is the whole point.

How it arrives

Text-based course in the Art of Service learning environment, plus downloadable templates and worked examples for every module, plus the hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access.

Time investment. Roughly six to eight hours of reading across the twelve modules, then twelve weeks of implementation alongside the day job. The evidence room work compounds; the SIG that takes two weeks today takes two days by week eight.

Why $199 is the right number

A consulting engagement to build the evidence room runs into six figures and ends when the consultant leaves. A generic GRC platform automates ticketing but does not produce the buyer-facing answer bank or the DORA register. A SOC 2 readiness firm gets the certificate but does not solve the inbound questionnaire translation work. This course produces the internal evidence room, the answer banks, and the regulator-facing statements as a single, durable, internally owned asset.

FAQ

How is this different from buying a GRC platform?

A platform automates workflow on top of an evidence model the customer has to build. This course produces the evidence model. The platform becomes useful after, not instead of, the work this course delivers.

Does the playbook account for the firm being an SEC-registered investment advisor?

Yes. The pre-renewal posture brief and the buyer-facing answer bank both account for the firm's regulator standing, and the DORA and UK operational resilience statements name the SEC dual-registration position explicitly.

Is the SOC 2 Type II report rewritten?

No. The SOC 2 report stays as is. The evidence room ingests its description of system, controls list, and complementary user entity controls, and exposes them in the formats SIG, CAIQ, HECVAT, and the DORA register want.

What if the firm has not certified to ISO 27001?

The evidence room still maps to ISO 27001 Annex A 2022 because most buy-side reviewers ask the question even when the answer is the firm is SOC 2 only. The mapping makes the reviewer-facing wording clean rather than defensive.

Who in the security team should run this?

The security specialist or security engineer who currently owns the customer questionnaire response queue, partnered with the SOC 2 audit owner and the regulatory affairs lead. The course assumes one primary owner and gives the role assignment for the rest of the team.

30-day money-back guarantee. If after a week of working through the materials this is not what you needed, reply to the receipt email and a full refund is processed. No questions, no forms.

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.