A customer has invited you to IntegrityNext. Here is what the portal may ask, what you probably already have, and who needs to fill the gaps.
| First question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| What is IntegrityNext? | A sustainability and compliance platform. Customers use it to request and review information from their suppliers. |
| Is it free for suppliers? | Yes, for invited suppliers. IntegrityNext says creating a profile, answering requests, and sharing with customers involve no fees. |
| How is it different from EcoVadis or Sedex? | IntegrityNext uses short Yes/No questionnaires per topic and is free for invited suppliers. EcoVadis is a paid, analyst-reviewed rating with a 0–100 score. Sedex is a paid membership where you complete a self-assessment and share audits such as SMETA. |
| Can a certificate replace the questionnaire? | For some topics, yes. IntegrityNext says a certificate for a certified management system completes that topic. Without one, you answer the questionnaire instead. |
| How long does it take? | IntegrityNext says the questionnaires have 5–22 Yes/No questions and should take no longer than 60 minutes. Finding and checking evidence usually takes longer. |
Platform details and links checked 4 October 2026.
IntegrityNext says invited suppliers can use the platform free of charge. Depending on the assessment topic, you can upload a recognized management-system certificate or answer a short questionnaire.
The portal is where you submit. It does not have to be where you first discover that a certificate expired, a policy covers the wrong legal entity, or nobody knows who owns the requested figure.
On this page
- What is IntegrityNext?
- Check the invitation and existing profile
- What IntegrityNext asks
- IntegrityNext vs EcoVadis vs Sedex: what is different for you
- Which topics should you prepare for?
- How long will it take?
- Prepare privately before the portal
- Check evidence before you rely on it
- What to do when you do not have the answer
- When the next customer asks the same questions
- What happens after you answer
- How Questionnaire Pass works with IntegrityNext
What is IntegrityNext?
IntegrityNext describes itself as a sustainability and compliance platform. Companies use it to request, manage, and review sustainability and compliance information from their business partners in one place.
If you received an invitation, one of your customers uses IntegrityNext to collect this information from its suppliers. IntegrityNext says it combines supplier self-assessments with media monitoring to help customers monitor their suppliers.
For you as the supplier, it is free. IntegrityNext says participation is free of charge for invited companies, and its terms state that use of the platform with a supplier account is free of charge. Costs apply only if you want to use IntegrityNext to assess your own suppliers.
Check the invitation and existing profile
Before gathering documents, confirm four things:
- The legal entity. IntegrityNext says one sustainability self-assessment is required for each legal entity. A group policy may be relevant, but the profile and answers still need to match the company that received the request.
- The requesting customer. Check which customer sent the invitation and whether the email names a deadline or contact.
- An existing company profile. Do not create a duplicate because a different colleague received the invitation. IntegrityNext support can help consolidate multiple profiles.
- The right contributors. A shared supplier profile can have multiple users. Invite the colleagues who own the relevant information instead of guessing on their behalf.
Typical contributors include HR for labor practices, health and safety for incidents and procedures, facilities or finance for energy data, compliance for ethics and data protection, and procurement for supply-chain controls.
What IntegrityNext asks
The exact topics depend on the customer request and your profile. IntegrityNext currently lists areas including environmental protection, human rights and labor, health and safety, business ethics, supply-chain responsibility, data protection, cybersecurity, and product-related compliance.
For an assessment topic, the official supplier guidance describes two possible routes:
- upload a recognized certificate for a certified management system, or
- complete the topic questionnaire
If you do not have a qualifying certificate, complete the questionnaire instead. IntegrityNext says the questionnaires consist of 5–22 Yes or No questions and that filling out a questionnaire is weighted the same as uploading a certificate. When you upload a certificate, IntegrityNext asks for the date until which it is valid. It asks you to combine several certificates into a single PDF file. IntegrityNext's guidance also acknowledges that some questions are geared toward larger companies, even though smaller businesses can still complete them.
Read the wording in your actual account. Do not assume that an old screenshot, a colleague's assessment, or a generic checklist exactly matches the questions assigned to your company.
IntegrityNext vs EcoVadis vs Sedex: what is different for you
Customers choose the platform. You usually answer on the one your customer uses. Some suppliers are asked to use more than one. The differences below are what each platform officially states about the supplier side.
| IntegrityNext | EcoVadis | Sedex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A sustainability and compliance platform where customers request information from suppliers | A sustainability rating of your company's management system | A platform where suppliers share ethical, social, and environmental data with multiple customers |
| What you are asked to do | Upload a management-system certificate per topic, or answer a questionnaire of 5–22 Yes or No questions | Complete a tailored questionnaire and upload supporting documents (up to 55) | Complete a profile and a tailored self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ), link to customers, and share audits |
| Who pays | Free for invited suppliers; the requesting customer subscribes | The rated company pays a subscription that depends on size, plan, and location | Supplier membership is £224 (Standard) or £374 (Supplier Plus) a year per site; suppliers pay for their own SMETA audits |
| Who checks your answers | IntegrityNext does not verify the accuracy of your entries | EcoVadis analysts assess your answers and documents | SMETA audits are carried out by Sedex-approved Affiliate Audit Companies |
| What your customer gets | Your answers and certificates, automatically shared on submission, with a green, yellow, or red result per questionnaire | A scorecard with a score from 0 to 100, valid for 12 months; medals depend on percentile rank | Your SAQ and audit information for the customers you link to |
| Timing | IntegrityNext says answering should take no longer than 60 minutes | A few hours to a few days to complete; results typically 6 to 8 weeks after submission | Not stated on the Sedex pages we checked |
Certificates and audits such as SMETA
The three platforms treat external evidence differently:
- IntegrityNext: The certificate route is for a certified management system in the assessment topic. The supplier guidance we checked does not list SMETA or other social audit reports as a replacement for a questionnaire. If you have a SMETA report, ask your customer whether they want it, and do not assume it completes a topic.
- EcoVadis: Analysts review your supporting documents. EcoVadis says a company that has provided a valid, relevant sustainability audit report, such as SMETA or BSCI, conducted within the previous two years, will generally not be selected for an EcoVadis site verification.
- Sedex: SMETA is Sedex's own audit methodology. Sedex says only Sedex members can have a SMETA audit conducted by an Affiliate Audit Company. Membership also lets you share non-SMETA audits, and Sedex says audits are needed only if a customer specifically requests one.
Do not move to a different platform because it seems easier. Answer where your customer asked. If you already hold an EcoVadis scorecard or a SMETA report, tell the customer and ask whether it can be used alongside or instead of their request. The decision is theirs.
The EcoVadis supplier guide and the Sedex SMETA audit preparation guide cover those platforms in more detail.
Which topics should you prepare for?
Your assigned topics may differ, but these are the practical places to look for owners and records:
Human rights and labor
Start with HR or the person responsible for employment practices. Relevant material may include working-hours and wage procedures, rules on child and forced labor, equal-opportunity practices, worker representation, grievance channels, and related training or records.
Health and safety
Ask the person responsible for workplace safety about the health and safety management system, risk assessments, training, incidents, corrective actions, and any current certification. Check which sites and worker groups each record covers.
Environment
Facilities, operations, finance, or an environmental lead may own energy, emissions, water, waste, permits, environmental procedures, and ISO 14001 information. Confirm the unit, reporting period, legal entity, and sites before reusing a figure.
Business ethics and compliance
Compliance, legal, HR, or senior management may own the code of conduct, anti-bribery controls, conflicts-of-interest rules, reporting channels, data-protection measures, and training records.
Supply chain and product compliance
Procurement and quality teams may hold supplier requirements, due-diligence procedures, risk reviews, conflict-minerals information, product compliance records, and corrective-action evidence.
These are preparation prompts, not a reproduction of the IntegrityNext questionnaire. Your account shows the topics and wording your customer actually assigned.
How long will it take?
IntegrityNext says answering the questionnaires should take no longer than 60 minutes. That covers the answering. It does not cover finding the evidence behind each answer. Your total time depends on how many topics were assigned, whether a certificate can be used, whether the correct profile already exists, and how quickly colleagues confirm the answers.
The clicking is rarely the uncertain part. Finding the current document, checking its scope, and getting an answer from the right owner usually determines the schedule. Review the assigned topics first, then use the questionnaire time estimator if you need a planning range based on your own situation.
Prepare privately before the portal
IntegrityNext says its questionnaires are available only online, not as PDF or Word downloads. It also says that clicking Submit or Update at the end of a questionnaire immediately makes your answers visible to your inviting customers. A certificate upload is submitted when you click Save. A private working file gives you somewhere to resolve ambiguity, check the evidence, and agree the wording before that happens.
Use the questions assigned in your account as the source of truth. For internal response preparation, put the questions you need to answer in a private Excel, CSV, PDF, or Word working file. Do not publish or redistribute IntegrityNext questionnaire content.
For each question, capture:
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Question | The exact wording and topic |
| Proposed answer | The exact fact or draft response, when known |
| Answer status | Yes, No, Not applicable, Unknown, or Not yet measured |
| Scope | Legal entity, site, workforce, or reporting boundary covered |
| Period | The date or reporting year the answer relates to |
| Evidence | Certificate, policy, record, calculation, or other source |
| Owner | The person who can confirm the answer |
| Gap | What is missing or still needs checking |
IntegrityNext preparation workbook
If you want a starting structure, the free supplier sustainability assessment checklist helps identify likely data owners, documents, and gaps. Use only the rows relevant to the request in front of you.
Ready to turn your working file and records into reviewable drafts? Prepare my IntegrityNext answers with Questionnaire Pass — €99.
Check evidence before you rely on it
A document is useful only if it supports the answer you are making. Before uploading or citing anything, check:
- Entity: Does it cover the invited legal entity?
- Sites: Does it include the facilities relevant to the question?
- Topic: Does it actually support the Yes answer, rather than merely mention the subject?
- Status: Is it approved, signed where appropriate, and currently in force?
- Dates: Is the certificate valid, and is the underlying data from the requested period?
- Confidentiality: Can you share the document with the requesting customer? Would an approved excerpt or redacted copy be more appropriate?
Do not upload a generic policy simply to fill a space. Do not imply that a group certification covers your entity if it does not. Keep a note of the file and passage supporting each answer so the same claim can be checked again later.
What to do when you do not have the answer
IntegrityNext's supplier instructions say you can answer No when a requirement is not in place. If you are unsure or do not have the information yet, IntegrityNext says you can leave a question as "No answer", invite a colleague, and return later. A questionnaire counts as complete only when every question is answered Yes or No and all required fields are filled in.
Keep these states separate:
- No: the requirement is understood and is not currently met
- Not applicable: the requirement genuinely does not apply to the entity or activity, where the questionnaire permits that response or explanation
- Unknown: the correct owner has not confirmed the answer
- Not yet measured: the activity may exist, but there is no reliable figure for the requested period
A missing policy is not a reason to write one overnight and present it as established practice. A missing figure is not zero. If context can be added, state what is known, what is not available, and what evidence supports the statement.
IntegrityNext's terms place responsibility for accurate and truthful entries on the supplier and state that IntegrityNext does not verify the accuracy of information entered or results generated. Treat every submission as your company's claim.
When the next customer asks the same questions
IntegrityNext already lets you share your profile with other customers who request it. The repetition that remains happens elsewhere, when a different customer sends a spreadsheet, a PDF, an RFP, or another portal asking similar things in different words.
Even without buying a product, keep a private, source-backed working file so you can:
- find the approved wording and supporting source again
- adapt an answer to a different scope or reporting period
- see when a certificate, policy, or figure has gone stale
- reuse facts across IntegrityNext and other customer questionnaires
- leave unsupported questions visibly unresolved
Reuse is not blind copying. Recheck the entity, scope, dates, units, and exact wording every time.
Questionnaire Pass covers one questionnaire. It does not include the reusable answer library for later requests. If more customers are likely to ask, compare Questionnaire Pass with ESG Passport; the full Passport keeps approved answers for reuse.
What happens after you answer
IntegrityNext says questionnaires may be adjusted annually. When an assessment is marked for an update, you can review the questions, save incomplete work, involve a colleague, and submit once the answers are ready.
Your customer decides how it uses the profile and assessment information. Avoid assuming that a color, individual answer, or missing certificate has one universal procurement outcome. If the customer requests clarification or corrective action, respond to that specific request rather than trying to reverse-engineer an undocumented pass mark.
How Questionnaire Pass works with IntegrityNext
Questionnaire Pass prepares one response outside the portal. Here is the complete handoff:
- You provide a private working file and your records. Put the IntegrityNext questions you need to answer in an Excel, CSV, PDF, or Word file for your company's internal response preparation. Add any relevant text-readable utility bills, waste records, fleet-fuel records, payroll or HR summaries, policies, and certificates. Scanned PDFs without readable text are not supported.
- Questionnaire Pass prepares a response for review. It separates material supported by your records from suggested wording and unanswered gaps. You review and edit every draft, see the value or source used where one was found, and export the approved answers in the format of the questionnaire file you supplied.
- You finish inside IntegrityNext. Copy the approved answers into the correct supplier profile, upload the evidence requested there, make any final portal-specific choices, and save the completed topic. Questionnaire Pass does not log in, retrieve questions, verify evidence, decide what your customer will accept, or save anything in the portal for you.
That manual portal step is part of the job. Questionnaire Pass reduces the research and drafting before that step. It does not remove it.
Official IntegrityNext guidance
Claims and links checked 4 October 2026.
- What is IntegrityNext?
- Are there any costs involved?
- What resources will be required from me?
- How do I complete an assessment?
- How do I upload certificates?
- How do I submit my answers?
- Our company has more than one profile
- How can I invite a colleague?
- Can we get the questionnaires in PDF or Word format?
- What if the questions do not apply to our company?
- How do I review an updated assessment?
- IntegrityNext terms and conditions
Official EcoVadis and Sedex sources
Checked 4 October 2026.
- EcoVadis: What is the EcoVadis assessment process?
- EcoVadis: Subscription costs
- EcoVadis: On-site verification and audits
- Sedex: Supplier membership
- Sedex: SMETA audit