--- sourceDocument: Brazil Governance, Risk, and Compliance sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/governance-risk-compliance Release : - brazil ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Brazil Governance, Risk, and Compliance ft:clusterId : - grc bundleId : - grc workflow : - Technology --- # Smart Assessment Engine # Smart assessments with Third-party Risk Management {#ariaid-title1} Release version: Brazil Updated September 10, 2026 ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 6 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. ## Summary of Smart assessments with Third-party Risk Management Third-party Risk Management (TPRM) now integrates with the Smart Assessment Engine (SAE), enabling customers to create and manage questionnaires using a modern, configurable template system within the Vendor Management Workspace. SAE supports both internal and external assessments, offering enhanced organization, automation, and a standardized user experience compared to the Classic assessment engine. To use SAE, customers must enable the related property, after which only SAE templates can be created and used for assessments. Show full answer Show less ## Key Features * **Enhanced Navigation and UI:** A streamlined interface supports continuous scroll layouts, inline guidance, and improved navigation for better user experience during assessments. * **Configurable Questionnaires:** Create TPRM-specific SAE templates with risk area attributes, previous response options, grouped questions, and attachments directly in Vendor Management Workspace. * **Reference Information and Filtering:** Add helpful reference data to templates and filter unanswered questions to facilitate efficient questionnaire completion. * **Auto-save and Risk Rating:** Work is saved automatically per question, and risk ratings are accurately recorded post-submission. * **Versioning Support:** Templates support version control with deep copies; published templates cannot be edited in place but must be versioned. * **Integration with Portals:** Internal assessors use the GRC portal, external parties use the third-party portal, and question-level comments and flags enhance collaboration. * **Extended Scoring and Duration:** Flexible risk scoring, score normalization, and assessment duration definition improve assessment standardization and management. * **Management and Reassignment:** Roles such as TPR assessors and managers can reassign SAE questionnaires as needed. ## Limitations * All new assessments must use SAE templates; Classic engine assessments and creation of issues from responses are no longer supported. * Some question types (percentage, ranking, image scale, custom metric) are unsupported and require conversion or redesign. * Signature functionality and automatic questionnaire attachment based on inherent risk are not supported currently. * Excel export in the third-party portal is unavailable for SAE assessments. * Repeating assessments are unsupported; duration data must be manually migrated between instances. * Templates with empty sections due to unsupported questions cannot be published; customers must update or remove those sections. * Management rules relying on older templates may not function correctly until templates are updated for SAE. ## Practical Guidance for ServiceNow Customers TPRM administrators should configure SAE-based questionnaires and set up tier-based, provider-based, or event-driven management rules to control assessment distribution. Assessors and managers benefit from a unified, user-friendly assessment experience, facilitating standardized risk evaluation and mitigation. Customers planning to migrate from Classic to SAE should carefully manage template conversions, address unsupported question types, and follow best practices for versioning and template updates to ensure smooth transition and ongoing functionality. With the integration of Smart Assessment Engine (SAE), TPRM now supports both the Classic assessment engine and SAE. You can create questionnaire templates and add instructions, questions, and reference information by creating templates using SAE in the Vendor Management Workspace. ## SAE overview {#tprm-sae-using__section_zhk_15s_m1c} The Smart Assessment Engine in Vendor Management Workspace enables you to create both internal and external questionnaires using configurable templates, logical grouping of questions, inline guidance, and automations. In the Vendor Management Workspace, you can view the templates available for TPRM. Confirm that the assessment template category is set to one of the supported TPRM template purposes. Also confirm that assessment targets are set to Third party and Engagement, along with any related components such as subsidiaries or engagement risk assessments that apply to your assessment. Only the assessment templates that are published are available for performing the assessments. For more information about the Smart Assessment Engine application, refer to [Exploring Smart Assessment Engine](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/UTj7b8zYI3NFniIo8rfKyw "The ServiceNowSmart Assessment Engine (SAE) helps you reduce the manual burden and costs of your assessment processes through automation."). Note: To use Smart Assessment Engine, you must enable the Smart Assessment Engine enabled \[sn_vdr_risk_asmt.sae_enabled\] property. After setting this property, you can't create new assessments and questionnaire templates using the Classic assessment engine. For the full list of prerequisites, including required scoped applications and template migration, see [Migrating from Classic Assessment Engine to Smart Assessment Engine](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/8pyb~YoXCeyd3eomkIl~hQ "Learn what changes when you migrate from the Classic Assessment Engine to the Smart Assessment Engine, including feature differences, limitations, and setup requirements. This overview can help you and your team evaluate the impact before enabling the new engine.") and [Migrate a template to an SAE template](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/PW2E4K~0mthmpL0JsqXWxw "Migrate an existing questionnaire or document request template to a TPRM SAE questionnaire template. You must migrate all classic templates to TPRM SAE templates or create new ones before you can use SAE in TPRM."). ## Benefits of using the Smart Assessment Engine experience {#tprm-sae-using__section_akr_sbl_4fc} The new assessment experience offers the following benefits. * Enhanced navigation: Use the improved navigation for a better user experience. * Assessment support: Conduct assessments for both internal and external parties in one standard UI. TPRM SAE questionnaire templates are extended to include additional attributes such as the risk area and the option to include previous responses, which aren't available in the base SAE templates. TPRM SAE templates must be created directly within the Vendor Management Workspace to ensure that they include the necessary attributes and can be used for TPRM assessments. * Organize questions: Group questions into subsections and sections for better organization. * Add attachments: Attach the files directly to the individual questions. * Add reference information: Add reference information to a questionnaire template to help ensure that assessors and respondents can access the necessary information they need while completing a questionnaire. * Filter questions: Quickly identify and filter unanswered questions. * Auto-save for questionnaires: Save your work automatically as you complete each question within a questionnaire. * Standardized risk rating scale definition: Override the default risk rating scales at the template level for both internal and external assessments. * Assessment duration: Define the duration of an assessment when creating a questionnaire template. * Combine assessments: Respond to questionnaires by using the same SAE template in a single, streamlined view. * Risk scoring and score normalization: Standardize the risk scores for a consistent evaluation using the more flexible scoring settings available in SAE. * Support for the GRC and third-party portals: Internal assessment responders can use the GRC portal to access and complete internal assessments and external assessment responders can use third-party portal to complete external assessments. * Question-level comments, worknotes, and flags are available in SAE assessments. Any user with read access to an assessment instance can add and view question-level comments. Worknotes and question flags require a role assigned at the template category level. TPRM reviewers, assessors, and managers have this access in all out-of-the-box TPRM template categories. Third party and engagement contacts can view and respond to question-level comments but cannot access worknotes or set question flags. * When a question triggers a skip, downstream conditional questions are hidden and sections containing only skipped questions are visually de-emphasized. Assessments render in a continuous scroll layout, making it easier to focus on relevant questions without scrolling past hidden content. * TPR assessors \[sn_vdr_risk_asmt.vendor_assessor\], TPR managers \[sn_vdr_risk_asmt.vendor_risk_manager\] roles, and Third-party risk (TPR) administrators \[sn_vdr_risk_asmt.vendor_risk_admin\], can reassign SAE questionnaires to another user. * Risk rating after submission: The risk rating for an assessment is now correctly written to the assessment record after the third party submits their response. {#tprm-sae-using__ul_hx1_p5r_4fc} ## Smart Assessment template versioning {#tprm-sae-using__section_sae_template_versioning} SAE templates in TPRM now support explicit versioning. Each version is a full copy of the template (deep copy). When a new version is published, the previously published version is automatically retired. Retired versions remain visible for reference but can't be used for new assessments. To create a new version of a template, use the Create Version action on the template record in the Vendor Management Workspace. Editing a published template in place is no longer supported --- you must create a version instead. Template versions can also be deleted. For more information on template versioning in SAE, see [Template versioning](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/N8An5eVO0OAFUtJHrGDHYQ "Template versioning enables organizations to maintain multiple versions of assessment templates over time. The ongoing assessments continue to exist even if a their related version is retired or superseded by new versions."). Templates shipped through the Unified Content Management (UCM) module are also versioning-compatible. For more information about activating and updating templates through UCM, see [Activate or update Smart Assessment templates](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/TltCbY9sdF9mqzX5jMonhw "Manage SAE templates for TPRM from the Unified Content Management page in the Vendor Management Workspace. You can view available templates, select template versions, activate or update templates for use in Third-party Risk Management assessments, and update templates when newer versions are released."). ## Smart Assessment Engine limitations {#tprm-sae-using__section_k41_ch5_rfc} SAE with TPRM has the following limitations. * All new assessments must use SAE questionnaire templates. * Third-party risk assessors can no longer create issues from the View responses page. Issues generation rules can be used to create issues automatically. * The signature feature isn't supported. * Automatic attachment of questionnaires to external assessments based on inherent risk questionnaire (IRQ) responses or IRQ-calculated risk tiers is currently not supported in Smart Assessment Engine. * The following question types aren't supported: Percentage, ranking, image scale, and custom metric aren't supported. You must either convert these question types to supported formats before migration or create new questions in the template designer after migration. Note: For the percentage and image scale question types, customers can use the Number type and Radio button type, respectively. Ranking and custom metric question types aren't supported. * In the Third-party portal, the Excel export option available for Classic assessments is not supported for SAE assessments. * If a section in the classic template contains only unsupported questions, an empty section is created in the TPRM SAE template. TPRM SAE templates with empty sections can't be published; therefore, you must either add replacement questions to these sections or delete the empty sections before publishing. For more information on migration results, migration limitations, and creating TPRM SAE questionnaires, see [Results of migrating a template to a TPRM SAE template](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/X4yl1EZRtjgC3BbJi05URg "You can view the templates that were migrated to Smart Assessment format.") and [Create a TPRM SAE questionnaire or document request template](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/0KK1qc~_6Mh_E6iRhdMe9g "Create a TPRM SAE questionnaire or document request template that supports SAE for risk identification. After integrating SAE, new users must create SAE templates, and existing users can create additional templates after migrating their existing ones."). * Repeating assessments aren't supported. You can use Event-driven management rules. * When transferring TPRM SAE questionnaire templates between instances, the update set won't include the duration information. Users must export the duration information manually from the `sn_smart_asmt_duration` table and import it into the target instances. * If an assessment template isn't updated to support SAE assessments, the related tier-based, provider-based, and event-driven management rules won't run as expected. * The TPRM scoring migration proceeds only if there were no errors during the template migration. If there were errors, the TPRM scoring migration doesn't occur. {#tprm-sae-using__ul_shv_kfg_wfc} Note: For more information on migration results and migration limitations, see [Results of migrating a template to a TPRM SAE template](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/X4yl1EZRtjgC3BbJi05URg "You can view the templates that were migrated to Smart Assessment format."). ## What to explore next {#tprm-sae-using__section_gxd_mvh_ldc} To get started, the TPR admin configures the assessment questionnaire and the TPR manager configures the tier-based, provider-based, or event-driven management rules that determine when an assessment is sent to a third party or engagement. Based on the assessment results, appropriate risk mitigation measures are identified and implemented. To learn more about configuring and using SAE with Third-party Risk Management, see: * [Smart assessment configuration](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r3lQiD~5eaY9U9F5LjYAIQ "The TPR manager and TPR admin roles involve a broad variety of responsibilities. After the TPRM base system is set up, you configure Smart Assessment Engine specific settings as well as other assessment settings that enable and enhance everyday risk-assessment tasks. TPRM admins can enable SAE and work with SAE templates.") * [Migrating from Classic Assessment Engine to Smart Assessment Engine](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/8pyb~YoXCeyd3eomkIl~hQ "Learn what changes when you migrate from the Classic Assessment Engine to the Smart Assessment Engine, including feature differences, limitations, and setup requirements. This overview can help you and your team evaluate the impact before enabling the new engine.") * [Migrate a template to an SAE template](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/PW2E4K~0mthmpL0JsqXWxw "Migrate an existing questionnaire or document request template to a TPRM SAE questionnaire template. You must migrate all classic templates to TPRM SAE templates or create new ones before you can use SAE in TPRM.") * [Results of migrating a template to a TPRM SAE template](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/X4yl1EZRtjgC3BbJi05URg "You can view the templates that were migrated to Smart Assessment format.") * [How legacy metric types are migrated to sections in templates](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/DmdlHkT1OLjKQrS~iUKtxA "Legacy metric types are migrated to specific sections in the assessment templates in the Smart Assessment Engine application.") * [Create a TPRM SAE questionnaire or document request template](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/0KK1qc~_6Mh_E6iRhdMe9g "Create a TPRM SAE questionnaire or document request template that supports SAE for risk identification. After integrating SAE, new users must create SAE templates, and existing users can create additional templates after migrating their existing ones.") * [Add instructions and questions to an assessment template](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/~gxE9bEbzWx5wRS60Xqksw "Add instructions and questions to an assessment template by using the Smart Assessment Engine application. You can use instructions and questions to help gather precise and relevant information from designated responders.") * [Add reference information to an assessment template](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/Za~gr7paaWMdbCCDzSQ~Fw "Add reference information to an assessment template to help ensure that assessors can access to the information they need while responding to assessments by using the Smart Assessment Engine. With an assessment template, you can minimize the need for external references and can improve the efficiency of the assessment process.") * [Scoring assessments](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/sCdaNCisxJUPwQGyoTRT7g "Scoring in Smart Assessment Engine is a systematic way to evaluate responses to various questions within an assessment. By attributing scores to answers, you can translate qualitative responses into quantitative data, offering a measurable and comparable outcome for each assessment.") * [Normalization in assessment](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/uSINWpyE8NK7GNSbpS2lYw "Normalization in Smart Assessment Engine refers to adjusting assessment question scores to a common scale to promote fair comparison and prioritization.") {#tprm-sae-using__ul_szq_5vh_ldc}