ApexIQ Companion™Apex Edge Sales Engineering™

Quality audit intake form

Choose a path, then work through the 4 steps. Every field is optional. The more context provided, the sharper and more specific the audit.

Answers in progress on this browser have been restored.
No field on this form is mandatory. Complete what you know and skip what you do not. Each answer makes the audit more targeted: full briefs produce specific, deal-moving feedback, while empty briefs produce generic notes.

What are you submitting for audit?

Select a path above to continue. The remaining steps adapt to your choice.

This step describes the artefact. What it is, who wrote it, where it is going, and when you need the report. None of it changes how the artefact is assessed. All of it changes how useful the report is to the person who has to act on it.

Who is asking

All fields optional
Who we reply to. Example: Priya Raman, Principal Sales Engineer
The team requesting the audit. Example: Northwind Systems
Where we acknowledge the request and confirm the return date. Example: priya.raman@northwind.example

About the document

All fields optional
Example: Storage Architecture Proposal: Acme Corp
Exact filename of the file you will attach. Example: acme-proposal-v02.docx
Example: v02, Draft 3
Pages or words. Example: 8 pages, 2,400 words
Customer, internal, public, or a public sector buyer. This changes what counts as a blocking issue. Example: to the customer's CTO and procurement lead
Name and role.
If different from the author.
Allow 2 working days.

When it goes to the customer, if known.

The issuer

RFP and security questionnaire responses
A response is scored against the issuer's questions, not against a general standard. Without the 3 items below the writing is scored, and requirement coverage, current control state, and the mandated format cannot be checked. Each of those is a blocking issue.
Paste the numbered requirements, or name the attached file and section. Requirement coverage is checked against the issuer's numbering, not against ours.
A false yes and a true yes read the same on the page. Name the owner and the date they confirmed. Without this, exception and commitment discipline is reported as unverified.
Word limits, file format, file naming convention, attachment limits, and the submission deadline. A non-compliant return is set aside before it is read.

What comes back

A document audit returns an overall verdict, a scorecard across the assessed areas, the blocking issue result, the biggest issues, a claim and evidence audit, a language and style list, a section-by-section assessment, and a list of missing evidence, assumptions, and risks.

It also returns a revised structure and a set of recommended priority actions.

About the presentation

All fields optional
Example: Acme Corp: Storage Architecture Review
Exact filename of the file you will attach. Example: acme-storage-review-v01.pptx
Example: v01, v00-03
Total including appendix.
Customer, internal, public, or a public sector buyer. This changes what counts as a blocking issue. Example: to the customer's CTO and procurement lead
Your name and role.
Allow 2 working days.

When it will be delivered, if known.

What comes back

A presentation audit returns an overall verdict, a scorecard across the assessed areas, the blocking issue result, the 5 biggest issues, a list of missing evidence, risks, and assumptions, and notes on what should move to speaker notes or the appendix.

Where nothing is blocking, it also returns a recommended slide order and specific edits slide by slide.

About the copy

All fields optional
Example: Storage platform landing page
Exact filename, or the page address. Example: landing-storage-v03.md
Example: v03, Draft 2
A brand line and a notice are assessed differently from persuasive copy: they are judged on accuracy and clarity rather than on persuasion.
Where it will appear.
Words. Example: 480 words
Name and role.
If different from the author.
Customer, internal, public, or a public sector buyer. This changes what counts as a blocking issue.
Allow 2 working days.

What comes back

A copy audit returns an overall verdict, a scorecard across the assessed criteria, the blocking issue result on specificity and proof, the biggest issues, a claim and proof audit, and a language and vagueness list. A brand line is scored on accuracy and on whether it claims a direction rather than a guaranteed result. A notice is scored on accuracy, completeness, and clarity, with persuasion not assessed.

About the register

All fields optional
Example: Acme Corp evaluation risk register
Exact filename of the file you will attach. Example: acme-risk-register-v04.xlsx
Example: v04
Total, including closed rows.
How often it is meant to be updated, if there is one. Example: weekly at the deal review.
Who maintains it.
Customer, internal, public, or a public sector buyer. This changes what counts as a blocking issue.
Allow 2 working days.

What comes back

A register audit returns an overall verdict, a scorecard across the assessed criteria, the blocking issue result, the biggest issues, a row sample with the method stated, a row-level audit, a column assessment, a recommended structure, and a review cadence.

About the model

All fields optional
Example: Acme Corp 3-year total cost model
Exact filename of the workbook you will attach. Example: acme-tco-v06.xlsx
Example: v06
A printed or exported copy shows results and hides construction. Without the live file, formula transparency and sensitivity are reported as unverified.
Example: 3 years, GBP.
Name and role.
Customer, internal, public, or a public sector buyer. This changes what counts as a blocking issue.
Allow 2 working days.

What comes back

A model audit returns an overall verdict, a scorecard across the assessed criteria, the blocking issue results, the biggest issues, an assumption audit naming every input and its provenance, construction findings by cell, a sensitivity table, and the result as presented against the result as tested.

About the diagram

All fields optional
Example: Acme Corp storage data flow
Exact filename of the file you will attach. Example: acme-data-flow-v02.drawio.png
Example: v02
A formal notation, or your own key. Either is fine. Neither is not.
Where it will be seen. Example: full slide, projected, and printed A4 in mono.
Name and role.
Customer, internal, public, or a public sector buyer. This changes what counts as a blocking issue.
Allow 2 working days.

What comes back

A diagram audit returns an overall verdict, a scorecard across the assessed criteria, the blocking issue results, the biggest issues, an element-level audit, a notation and key assessment, and a recommended redraw with a point-first title.
This step shapes the audit. The file shows what is on the page. It does not show who you need to convince, what they believe today, or what has to change. Sharp answers here produce targeted feedback. Skip anything you do not know.

The brief: document

All questions optional
Q1 What should happen as a direct result of this document being read? Example: Obtain signed approval for a 60-day PoC. The customer's CTO should leave with a clear commitment to a start date.
Q2 Role, seniority, and technical knowledge level. Example: CFO and CTO at a 2,000-person financial services firm. The CFO is financially literate, not technical.
Q3 Secondary audience: procurement, legal, technical team, board. Example: Procurement will review the commercial terms. The IT infrastructure lead will assess technical feasibility.
Q4 If the reader does only 1 thing after reading, what is it? Example: Approve the PoC scope and budget. Or: sign the statement of work by 30 June.
Q5 Anything which must not appear: confidential topics, pricing not yet agreed, competitor mentions. Example: Do not reference competitor X by name. Internal list pricing must not appear.
Q6 Unstated assumptions which change the scope, price, or recommendation if wrong. Example: Assumed 10 TB per day ingest, not yet verified. Pricing assumes list, and the discount is subject to approval.
Q7 Customer results, usage data, deal evidence, technical validation, benchmarks, or a named source. State what you hold even where it did not make the page, because it changes the advice from "cut the claim" to "add the proof". Example: 3 reference customers at similar scale, and a 2026 internal benchmark on the 40 TB configuration. Neither is cited in the document yet.
Q8 Conditions which would make it incorrect, inappropriate, or premature. Example: If the customer's legal team rejects the NDA, the commercial terms in Section 4 change.
Q9
What output would you like from this review?

The brief: presentation

All questions optional
Q1
What is this presentation meant to achieve?
Inform and train decks carry no decision and no ask. Where you select one of these, decision clarity, commercial consequence, and recommendation are reported as not applicable rather than marked down, so the deck is not penalised for questions which do not apply to it. The audit states this.
Describe the specific goal in your own words. Example: Secure approval for a 6-week PoC with 3 named accounts.
Q2 Roles, seniority, and technical depth. Name any known sceptics and the person who holds the final decision. Example: CTO and 2 senior architects at Acme Corp. Technical depth is high. The CTO is sceptical about tape and holds the budget decision.
Q3 The specific decision, action, or belief which should change. Example: The CTO agrees to proceed to a PoC. The architects understand why tape outperforms cloud for cold data at this scale.
Q4
How will this presentation be delivered or used?
Q5 Presentation time, discussion time, and whether you can skip slides. A 30-slide walkthrough does not fit a 30-minute decision meeting. Example: 20 minutes to present, 25 for discussion. The architecture detail can be dropped if the room moves fast.
Q6 Notes, a proposal, an architecture diagram, customer research, a financial model, product docs, or data. Example: Discovery call notes from 2 sessions, the draft reference architecture, and a TCO model built with the customer.
Q7 Customer results, usage data, implementation evidence, deal evidence, technical validation, benchmarks, or field evidence. State what you hold even where it did not make a slide. Evidence is one of the scored areas and it can block sending. Without this, a missing proof cannot be told apart from a proof left in the appendix. Example: 2 named reference customers, and a validation run at 40 TB. Neither is on a slide yet.
Q8 Integrations, data, security, implementation effort, dependencies, performance, architecture, or governance. Example: The sync runs every 24 hours and cannot be event-based before Q2 2027.
Q9 Budget, revenue risk, renewal risk, margin, timeline, capacity, customer commitment, or market pressure. Example: The budget closes on 31 October, and 2 enterprise renewals depend on this landing.
Q10 What will Finance challenge? Engineering? Security? The sceptical executive? Example: Finance will challenge the 3-year TCO baseline. The CTO will challenge restore times.
Q11 Product gaps, unresolved technical questions, legal or commercial sensitivities, or anything off the table. Example: Do not reference LTFS performance benchmarks. None otherwise.
Q12
What output do you need from the audit?

The brief: copy

All questions optional
Q1 One action. Example: book a 30-minute technical review.
Q2 Role, seniority, and their current position. Example: presales leaders who already run deal reviews and think their process is fine.
Q3 Example: technical wins are inspectable, and most teams cannot inspect them.
Q4 State what you hold even where it did not make the page, because it changes the advice from cut the claim to add the proof.
Q5 Confidential topics, unagreed pricing, competitor names, claims not yet approved.
Q6
What output do you need from the audit?

The brief: register

All questions optional
Q1 Example: whether we proceed to a paid proof of concept.
Q2 Example: the Account Executive and the Sales Engineer, weekly, plus the regional director at the gate review.
Q3 The most important answer on this form for a register. Completeness is scored against the source: the issuer's requirement list, the customer's criteria, the objections raised, or the asset list. Attach it, or name it and say where it sits. Without it, completeness is reported as unverified.
Q4 Example: rows 12 to 18 were closed by the Account Executive, and the evidence has not been seen.
Q5 State what exists even where it is not linked in the register.
Q6
What output do you need from the audit?

The brief: model

All questions optional
Q1 Example: the CFO signs off the business case on the 3-year net figure.
Q2 The current-state figure the whole result rests on. Name the system, document, or person, and the date. Example: the customer's own 2026 support ticket volumes, supplied by their service desk lead on 14 August.
Q3 List them. An honest assumption clearly marked survives scrutiny. An unlabelled one does not.
Q4 Licence, implementation, migration, training, and internal effort. An excluded cost with a stated reason is fine. A missing one is not.
Q5 State what you hold even where it did not reach the model.
Q6
What output do you need from the audit?

The brief: diagram

All questions optional
Q1 The most important answer on this form for a diagram. One sentence. Without it, the question criterion is reported as unverified. Example: where does customer data leave their estate, and who holds it at each point.
Q2 Example: the customer's security architect, deciding whether the design clears their review.
Q3 If it does, the audit checks where it crosses a boundary of control. Say what data and between whom.
Q4 Example: their identity provider is shown for context and we are not touching it.
Q5 Directions, dependencies, or a mechanism you have not verified.
Q6
What output do you need from the audit?

Additional context

Optional
Deal stage, customer history, previous feedback, key objections you anticipate, or the parts you are already unsure about. Example: Follow-up to a discovery call. The customer has seen a competitor's pitch. The TCO comparison feels weak, so please pay particular attention to it.

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