How does the system know this is the same question as with another customer

One supply chain question, multiple formulations per portal

The system matches on the underlying question, not on the text of the portal. "Describe your ISMS" and "do you have an information security policy compliant with ISO 27001" are the same question for the system, because both refer back to the same control objective from Annex A of ISO/IEC 27001. The same applies to the ten measures of Article 21(2) of the NIS2 Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2555): a customer portal asking for "incident response plan" and another asking for "procedures for cyber incidents" point to the same measure from that list. The system recognizes the question by its meaning, not by the word.

That matching works differently per subject, because the sources are structured differently. For sustainability, the anchor point is the basic module of EFRAG VSME, the voluntary standard to which many procurement questionnaires refer without stating it themselves — even a question that only mentions "scope 1 and 2 emissions" is recognized as part of that module. For identity and business data, the anchor point is the fixed structure of the business register: a portal asking for "company registration number" or "KvK-nummer" is the same question as a portal asking for "legal entity identifier based on the Business Register Act". Where no fixed standard exists — for example, a question about business continuity planning that is formulated differently by each bank — the system recognizes the question by the pattern of previous answers you have confirmed to similar formulations.

Recognition follows the standard, not the portal

Where a European or international standard is established — the basic module of EFRAG VSME under Directive (EU) 2022/2464, Annex A of ISO/IEC 27001, or the ten measures of Article 21(2) of Directive (EU) 2022/2555 — recognition is most stable there, because portals almost always refer to those same underlying points, even with their own words. Where that is lacking, the system builds on consistency in previous answers; you confirm yourself per question with yes or no whether the linked formulation is correct.