GDPR Compliance Software

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires organizations handling European Union citizens’ personal data to keep their data secure and levies large fines to those companies failing to comply. The personal data covered in GDPR can be those of customers, prospects, employees, and even suppliers. Furthermore, GDPR is applicable to any company in or outside the EU. If your organization controls, stores or processes any EU citizens’ personal data, your company must adhere to GDPR and are potentially liable.

Most companies who fall under the GDPR umbrella realize the hefty fines are only a portion of the total risk of noncompliance. The consequences of failing to comply also include loss of goodwill, detrimental effect to your brand, negative stockholder reactions and overall loss of credibility in the market.

Administration

To ensure GDPR compliance and further mitigate risks, CENTRL allows multiple administrators to manage their part of a company’s overall GDPR compliance process. As with most larger companies, GDPR compliance is owned by the Data Protection Officer (DPO) yet the DPO rarely micro manages at a department or group level. Instead, different departments have their own compliance administrators who need many of the core administration functions to fulfill their department’s needs. While most other GDPR software vendors allow only one administrator, CENTRL allows multiple departmental administrators to manage their departmental tasks. In these cases, the DPO or highest level administrator manages the entire process.

Departmental administration is just one component of CENTRL’s approach to GDPR compliance software. The guiding principles in CENTRL’s GDPR compliance software are to simply and efficiently automate the many processes involved with GDPR compliance to mitigate a company’s risk. This reduction in compliance risk leverages CENTRL Privacy360’s proven, multi-dimensional platform delivering advanced audit, control, and reporting capabilities wrapped around an intuitive interface.

Processors and Controllers

GDPR differentiates between personal data processors (like a credit card company or cloud based file sharing application) and controllers (those companies who own their customer database). While some companies are either processors or controllers of personal data, most companies are both controllers and processors of personal data. As an example; CENTRL is controller of our customer database but also a processor of our clients’ data when they use Privacy360, Assess360 or Vendor360 applications. Because most companies are both processors and controllers, the CENTRL solution provides both controller or processor specific functionalities with the ability to combine the two perspectives holistically for complete control over the entire organizations’ GDPR compliance.

Best practices for evaluating a GDPR compliance software partner

When evaluating GDPR compliance process software, look for a partner who adheres to the core elements of any long term, effective, and efficient GDPR compliance solution. These core characteristics include;

• Scalable - The ability to scale to include multiple internal departments, variety of data uses (Marketing, HR, Finance, Support), vast and growing personal data volume and quantity of third party processors.
• Minimize large scale process change - Most people are averse to change. Implement a solution that is intuitive, well supported and requires a minimum amount of retraining. Most CENTRL users are productive after a short training.
• Single platform - Look beyond a process improvement application. Make sure your GDPR compliance software will allow collaboration, documentation control, access control, issue resolution, audit, analytics, and reporting capabilities. All of these capabilities allow you a more holistic approach to your GDPR compliance and the capability of resurrecting all of the components in any past decisions, communications or issues.
• Affordable - There is little correlation between high price and a greater level of compliance. Buy what you need to comply with the ability to grow as regulations evolve.
• Easily managed - The capability of monitoring all aspects of your process are paramount and your administrator shouldn’t require a post doctorate degree to manage the entire process.

GDPR compliance should be taken seriously

Those companies who depend on generic file sharing, Excel, Word and email processes as a way to comply with GDPR have made an intentional or unintentional decision that the minor cost savings of using generic solutions are worth the risk of fines and other negative consequences to noncompliance. A good analogy is wearing a seatbelt when driving a car. There is a high probability that those people who are unbelted will be safe but the risk of serious inquiry or death motivates rational people to prepare for any outcome.

GDPR compliance is not something that goes away if ignored. In fact, country, regional, and global data privacy regulations are still in their infancy. As these regulations evolve, every company will consider data privacy as a mandatory component in the same way companies mandate data security.

For more information on CENTRL’s Privacy360, click here or to receive a demonstration of Privacy360, click here.