Avoid additional work due to GDPR information in the company

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Enterprise Search Software searchIT Reduces Workload with Automated Compliant Reports

Two and a half years ago, the European General Data Protection Regulation came into force – and even in the run-up to it, it caused more administrative effort in European companies. Anyone who thinks that the entry into force of the Data Protection Directive will also mean the end of the extra work is mistaken. For example, more than 70% of the German companies surveyed in a recent survey by Statista stated that the GDPR would have brought them significant additional work during this period. An end to this effort is not foreseeable for the respondents for the time being.

“More than a year ago, we were also able to see a clear upward trend in the working time required for the processing of data protection information among Austrian companies due to numerous inquiries,” reports Christoph Wendl, CEO of the Viennese IT company Iphos IT Solutions and developer of the innovative enterprise search software searchIT. “To remedy this, we have equipped our in-house search engine searchIT with a GDPR plugin that addresses exactly this issue – and significantly reduces the time required to process data protection information, deletion and correction requests.”

End-to-end capture of personal data across all enterprise sources

One of the core points of the GDPR was and is the right to information and the right to be forgotten. This means that companies must provide data subjects with complete information on what data they have stored and for what purpose. On request, these must be corrected or deleted from all instances – and all this within a relatively short period of time. “In everyday business life, it becomes apparent that this data is distributed across various systems in the company – from CRM to accounting, wikis, databases, various file and mail servers. We should also not forget the various backup files and – what is often overlooked – autosave copies and still readable fragments of cached files in the normally hidden and thus invisible AppData folders on Windows systems,” Wendl reports from everyday business life. “At the same time, the deletion and change requests must also be documented. All in all, these are extremely time-consuming and therefore costly activities that divert resources from the core business.”

Enterprise Search Software for Rapid Reporting

The enterprise search software searchIT provides a remedy here via a special GDPR plugin: If a company is confronted with a request for information, all connected sources in the company are searched seamlessly. The entries found in databases, mail and file servers, websites, intranets, etc. can then be output in a legally compliant report at the touch of a button. “This not only saves companies time in the search effort and compilation of the report for the data protection information, they also have the certainty that all sources have actually been searched for the desired data,” Wendl continues.

Documentation of storage and deletion strategies

Another goal of the EU GDPR was to keep personal data for just as long as absolutely necessary. The GDPR plugin uses automated deletion suggestions for “expired” personal data to ensure that this framework is not exceeded and that deadlines are met. “The logged deletion requests prevent data from being accidentally deleted or changed by the four-eyes principle and intelligent routines. Automated recording of changes across sources (history function) can be used to view the deleted data records including additional information (e.g. reasons for deletion) – the processed deletion and change requests are thus properly logged,” Wendl concludes.