The ROI of Privacy Management: Driving Innovation and Growth Across the Business

Data Privacy Programs Improve Operational Efficiency

Written by Matt Davis, CIPM (IAPP) | Jul 23, 2025 10:36:03 PM

Data Privacy Programs Improve Operational Efficiency

Operational efficiency is critical to maintaining a competitive edge. But that efficiency is elusive in many businesses. 

The High Cost of Manual Subject Rights Management

Handling subject rights requests (SRRs) can be a painfully resource-intensive project. The financial burden of processing these requests averages $1,5243 per manually handled SRR (often involving HR, legal, IT, and compliance teams), leading to inefficiencies and higher costs.

And the bad news? It gets worse as SRR volumes increase. In fact, 60%4 of businesses report an increase in SRRs over the past year, with some handling over 5005 requests weekly. It adds up, as does the time spent on this manual work. Many organizations find they can’t process the requests fast enough to be in line with regulations, raising their risk of non-compliance.

Subject Rights Management Without Tears

During the first year of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), organizations in the IT sector had to process nearly 900,000 SRRs. Given that the average cost of manually processing an SRR is $1,524, that works out to a total cost of nearly $1.3 billion. A 10% reduction in cost from process efficiency could have saved $130 million; a 30% improvement could have saved approximately $390 million.

McKinsey6 estimated that automation could raise global productivity growth by 0.8% to 1.4% annually. A privacy program that automates SRR processes and workflows to help teams to handle more requests, faster, is a solid investment that delivers both compliance and cost savings. 

Integrate, Deduplicate, and Automate Your Way to Operational Excellence

A robust data privacy program can automate processes, map data, and assess systems, information, and processes in departments across the business to not only support compliance but also directly enhance a company’s operational capabilities across non-privacy functions.

Data privacy programs streamline processes across departments, reducing friction and improving workflows.

How to Drive Operational Efficiency with Osano

By automating key workflows, enhancing data visibility, and fostering collaboration between departments, Osano helps organizations optimize operations while staying compliant with privacy regulations.