A large enterprise software company was processing 500 to 600 security questionnaires annually, with one to two full-time staff dedicated to the work and a one-to-two week lag before customers got answers. Their existing trust center vendor had stopped keeping pace, and the gap between what the platform promised and what it delivered had become impossible to ignore. Rather than patch the problem, the security team ran a structured replacement evaluation, brought in multiple vendors, and ultimately chose Drata's Trust Center to displace the incumbent and modernize how they share security information at scale.
[ The Problem ]
A Trust Center That Created More Work Than It Eliminated
The security team was caught between a high-volume questionnaire backlog and a platform that could not keep up. Roughly 500 to 600 inbound security requests per year were being processed manually, with responses taking one to two weeks to reach customers. The existing trust center lacked the self-service experience needed to deflect routine requests, and customization limits made it difficult to present a coherent security story across a broad product portfolio.
The incumbent vendor compounded the problem. Unresponsive customer success and a product that felt immature eroded confidence in the relationship. The team was not just frustrated with the tooling; they had lost trust in the vendor's ability to improve it. Inaction meant continued manual overhead, slower customer response times, and a growing disconnect between security operations and the revenue conversations they were supposed to support.
[ What they needed ]
Before selecting a replacement, the team was trying to:
- Reduce the manual effort required to respond to hundreds of inbound security questionnaires each year
- Cut response times from one to two weeks to something customers would actually find acceptable
- Build a self-service trust center that could serve a broad, multi-product portfolio without constant team intervention
- Enable AI-assisted search so customers could find security answers without submitting a request
- Centralize security documentation and evidence sharing across products in one accessible place
- Replace a vendor that had stopped being responsive and whose product had stopped keeping pace with their needs
[ Why Drata won ]
Selected over TrustCloud, Drata won because it solved the same operational problem more credibly and gave the buyer confidence in the vendor relationship the incumbent had already forfeited.
Incumbent dissatisfaction created the opening: TrustCloud had lost credibility on both product maturity and customer success responsiveness. The buyer was not exploring options out of curiosity; they had already decided to leave and needed a replacement they could trust to perform differently.
AI-assisted search was a named evaluation criterion, not a bonus feature: the team requested executive presentation materials specifically to showcase the Trust Center's AI search workflow, which signals that AIQA was part of the internal justification for switching, not just a differentiator in the seller's pitch.
Responsiveness across the evaluation built organizational confidence: Drata engaged across time zones, supported buyer-specific requests, and involved the product team directly. In a replacement deal where the buyer's core complaint was vendor unresponsiveness, that behavior was itself a proof point.
Multithreading converted champion enthusiasm into an approved transaction: the deal required sign-off from security, legal, finance, and procurement. Staying close to buyer language and supporting each stakeholder group through their specific approval requirements turned internal preference into a signed outcome.
[ How Drata solved it ]
Drata's Trust Center gave the security team a centralized, customer-facing hub capable of handling the volume and product complexity they were managing. Rather than routing every inbound question through a manual response process, the platform enabled self-service access to security documentation across the company's full product portfolio, reducing the burden on the one to two FTEs who had been absorbing that work.
AIQA addressed the AI-assisted search capability the team had specifically flagged as a priority. The ability to surface security answers automatically was not a feature request made in passing; the team requested executive presentation materials specifically highlighting the AI search workflow, signaling that this capability was central to how they planned to justify the switch internally.
Product maturity and vendor responsiveness completed the case. The evaluation surfaced clear evidence that the team valued a working relationship as much as a feature set. Drata's willingness to engage across time zones, support buyer-specific requests, and involve the product team directly during the evaluation gave the security organization the confidence it needed to carry a full cross-functional replacement through legal, security review, finance, and procurement.
[ Before and after Drata ]
Before Drata, 500 to 600 security questionnaires per year were being processed manually, with one to two FTEs absorbing the volume and customers waiting one to two weeks for responses. After, a self-service Trust Center with AI-assisted search handles routine requests automatically, and the security team is no longer the bottleneck between customers and the answers they need.
[ Business outcome ]
The security team closed a three-year commitment and began migrating off a platform that had been creating more friction than it resolved. The manual questionnaire burden that had consumed one to two FTEs annually now has a scalable alternative, with self-service access and AI-assisted search handling the repeat request volume that previously required direct staff time.
The replacement also unblocked the team's ability to present a more credible, consistent security story to customers across a large product portfolio. Response times that had stretched to one to two weeks are now supported by a platform built to deflect routine requests automatically. The win was not just a product upgrade; it was a vendor relationship reset, with a partner the team believed would stay responsive as their needs evolved.