The multinational company built data inventory and enabled data protection with Data Discovery as a Service 

Client background

Client: A leading Energy & Utilities company

Industry: Energy & Utilities

Area of operations: UK and USA

Revenue: £15 Billion

Challenge

The client had major challenges in discovering and managing personal data that was spread across their vast data ecosystem consisting of 600+ data applications. Their applications and systems landscape consisted of multiple diverse technologies including legacy systems and other applications. Many of these systems were old and thus, there was lack of clarity about systems carrying personal data.

The client needed an appropriate solution that would support data discovery and creation of data inventory to help discover and protect data as required for GDPR compliance.

Solution

Wipro implemented Data Discovery as a Service using a data security intelligence and analytics product, and solutions for managing unstructured data on the client’s systems and applications  to help discover and build inventory for personal data.

Solution highlights:

• Recommended the apt data discovery solution. Wipro performed technical due diligence using 40 parameters spread across five groups on a range of different technologies. The shortlisted technologies were scored across functionalities, technical measurement norms and client-provided prioritization criteria. The outcome of this exercise helped in selecting the right technologies for the business problem at hand.
• Helped the client define personal data in the context of its business. Wipro team worked with the client’s business team to create 96 ‘domains’ that defined personal data.
• Conducted several workshops with business and IT stakeholders to reduce the number of systems through a process of logical deduction and process mapping. This helped bring down the list of systems from 600 to a candidate list of 50+ systems.
• Applied best practices to discover personal data within these 50+ systems. The ability to discover data within a large number of domains was one of the key considerations.
• Applied innovative techniques to scan all the unstructured data estates, which consisted of over three Million documents and multiple technologies.

Business impact

The implementation of the data discovery solution enabled the client to take a holistic approach towards compliance, data discovery and data protection, and helped:

• Identify and classify personal data across the data ecosystem and create a register of systems with personal data
  
• Present informative dashboards and reports on personal data
• Perform risk scoring, risk score trend analyses, user behavior analytics and identification of high risk conditions and anomalies
• Identify gaps in remediation and security control orchestration
• Reduce the scan time for discovery of personal data by 10-15%

“Wipro team delivered ‘structured and unstructured data discovery engagement’ for the client as part of GDPR compliance. The engagement started with the team assessing customer needs and suggesting the best possible technology solutions. The engagement had stringent deadlines and demanded high level of data accuracy due to regulatory nature of the engagement. Wipro team delivered the solution on time, exceeding client expectations. ”

- Raman Awal, General Manager, Information Management – Data, Analytics & AI, Wipro