two customers are asking the same question worded slightly differently what does the system do then

Two formulations, one answer from the chain file

The system recognizes the question based on meaning, not on exact wording, and links both formulations to the same answer in the chain file. If customer A asks "Do you have an ISO 27001 certificate for information security?" and customer B asks "Is your organization certified according to Annex A of ISO/IEC 27001?", that is the same underlying question for the system: has the enterprise implemented and had certified the control measures from Annex A. Both portals receive the same answer from the same file, only in the format that the questionnaire of that customer requires.

This saves effort especially with questions that are essentially the same but worded slightly differently: one customer asks about "employees in FTE", the other about "number of employees on the payroll". As long as the file contains only one figure — see also how many employees the enterprise has — the system enters that figure in both lists, regardless of wording. If the system does not recognize a question with certainty, nothing is filled in automatically: the entrepreneur sees the question open and fills it in themselves. An answer is never suggested without a source in the file.

Why it works this way: one file, multiple formats

This follows from the structure of the chain file itself: the file contains facts and policy documents, not the wording of a specific customer. A question about information security can, for example, refer to the ten measures of Article 21(2) of the NIS2 Directive, or to the control measures of Annex A to ISO/IEC 27001. Both regulations describe similar measures, but with different structures and different terminology. The system establishes the link between the question wording and the underlying fact in the file — for example, whether there is a plan to continue business operations in the event of a serious disruption — and leaves the source unchanged, regardless of which portal asks the question. The entrepreneur confirms each answer with yes or no before it is submitted to the customer.