SaaS buyers rely heavily on RFIs to understand vendor capabilities before moving into detailed evaluation. RFIs help organizations compare features, integrations, security posture, scalability, and maturity — all without requiring the vendor to deliver a full proposal.
For SaaS companies, RFIs are where many deals are won (or lost). Strong, clear responses dramatically increase the likelihood of reaching the RFP or security questionnaire stage. This guide explains how RFIs work in SaaS, what buyers expect, and how teams can streamline high-quality responses efficiently.
A Request for Information (RFI) is an early-stage document companies use to:
RFIs are common when buyers need to educate themselves before defining project requirements. They keep the early process lightweight while helping internal teams align on vendors worth deeper evaluation.
For a procurement overview, see RFP vs RFQ vs RFI: Understanding the Differences.
Software categories are crowded. Buyers use RFIs to filter irrelevant vendors early.
API readiness, SSO support, and compatibility with internal systems are critical.
RFIs check baseline compliance before moving to a full security questionnaire.
IT, security, operations, and business teams all review RFIs together.
RFIs eliminate the need for full proposals from vendors who aren’t a strong match.
SaaS RFIs focus on structured, high-level information across:
For more in-depth analysis, buyers typically issue a formal assessment — see What Is Security Questionnaire Automation?
Not exact pricing — just structure (per-user, tiered, usage-based, etc.).
Despite being early-stage, RFIs can still create major friction:
RFIs are lightweight for buyers — but heavy for teams without organized content.
Iris automates RFI responses using centralized, AI-powered knowledge that keeps messaging consistent, accurate, and up to date. Teams can draft complete RFI responses in minutes instead of days.
With Iris, SaaS teams can:
Company details, product descriptions, integrations, and compliance summaries populate instantly.
Product, engineering, security, and sales all use the same approved language.
Iris allows inline comments, real-time review, and approval workflows.
No formatting chaos or version confusion.
Iris becomes the single source of truth for:
RFIs are the first test in the SaaS buying journey — and vendors who respond clearly and quickly earn a fast path to demos, RFPs, and technical reviews. With Iris, your team can generate high-quality RFI responses in minutes while keeping every answer aligned, accurate, and consistent.
