31 compelling reasons to use software for your RoPA

Context

You are in charge of implementing the Record of Processing activities (RoPA) in your company, which has many subsidiaries and Privacy champions... your mission is to unite all compliance stakeholders around this central register of personal data processing. In addition to being a legal requirement, it is an essential document for establishing effective data protection governance.

Like many privacy leaders, you may ask yourself whether to rely on basic tools such as Excel or Word, or to invest directly in a dedicated SaaS solution like Dastra. It’s the classic dilemma: start from scratch with spreadsheets, or streamline compliance with purpose-built software.

This article is also designed for those who need strong arguments to secure internal buy-in and budget for such a tool.

To help, we’ve compiled 31 compelling reasons to adopt a tool like Dastra to manage your ROPA... And we likely missed a few!

Top 31

1. Benefit from pre-existing templates: Tools often come with a library of predefined processing templates. This is an undeniable advantage that will save you considerable time. Today, most companies need to handle employee payroll, recruitment, etc. Dastra offers you a gigantic library of +300 data processing templates freely accessible.
2. Increased productivity through artificial intelligence: Softwares often include AI assistants that allow you to quickly create relevant processing sheets for your industry.
3. Maintaining a subcontractor inventory: Manage a comprehensive directory of subcontractors with a variety of attributes. There will be no need for redundant data entry. Dastra even allows you to extend your subcontractor's information by creating your own custom fields!
4. Less legal expertise required: It’s surprising, but using a well-designed and user-friendly tool will enable you to understand the structure of a processing sheet more quickly. Often, the tool will provide contextual help defining complex legal terms. An assistant guides you step-by-step in preparing the sheets. This allows users who are not subject matter experts to maintain a record. Many of our clients manage to create their own without prior training on the subject.
5. Assurance of the quality of the information provided: With Excel, you’re starting from a blank canvas, the structure, fields, and consistency depend entirely on you. By contrast, dedicated registry software embeds the expertise of privacy specialists who have already designed robust, standardized templates. This guarantees that all required fields are captured, properly structured and compliant, dramatically reducing the risk of error or omission.”
6. Major productivity gains: A tool allows you to replicate a processing action, perform bulk actions (e.g., adding a category of people to multiple processing records in one action), or avoid redundant data entry. Hence, the data entry work is minor and does not take much of your time, enabling you to focus on what matters.
7. Sharing processing sheets: If the tool is well-designed, it will allow you to easily share processing sheets with all your colleagues or clients, thereby improving the transparency of the company’s information! This is proven to be more difficult & less secury through a drive.
8. Facilitated search: Advanced filtering options will help you extract information from your RoPA. Example: you can list all processing activities that involve certain subcontractors.
9. 360° visualization: A tool will allow you to filter and view your entire record in a user-friendly manner. This is especially important if you have a significant number of processing activities.
10. Statistical dashboard: A tool will often provide you with aggregated statistical reports on processing sheets (e.g., the number of processing activities involving sensitive data, those requiring a PIA).
11. Integration of the PIA: If designed well, the tool will allow you to easily implement privacy impact assessments within the processing sheet (with pre-filled fields).
12. Exports in all formats: Using a tool does not mean you give up on Word or Excel. You can often export your registry in all your preferred file formats (Excel, Word, Markdown...)!
13. Change tracking: Every change made to the registry is audited and saved. This will allow you to know the complete history of the processing activities. It helps you know who made changes, when, and what changes were made. In case of issues, you can restore your processing sheets to a previous date.
14. Facilitated collaboration: Tools (especially Dastra) are often designed for better collaboration between various stakeholders in compliance. Assign tasks to users, set workflow steps, and communicate with other users. Many tools also let you designate processing owners, thus reinforcing user accountability.
15. Delegating work to operational staff: Creating a processing sheet requires the expertise of many operational staff across different departments (IT, Marketing, Development...). The tool will help delegate completion tasks to these stakeholders. For example, you can ask the CRM manager to provide personal data and their retention periods, resulting in higher quality data entry that is closer to the ground reality.
16. Automation of tasks: With data protection software like Dastra, you can set up automatic workflows that will trigger automatic notifications, audits, assignments to owners, or task creations. For example, if a processing operation is modified requiring a mandatory PIA, you can automate the creation of this PIA audit, which will automatically be assigned to the responsible person who receives a notification.
17. Maintaining a data mapping: Very often, the tool will allow you to go beyond mere compliance and assist you in establishing genuine internal data governance through data mapping: inventory of assets, data, and their retention periods.
18. Real-time user notifications: To facilitate teamwork, privacy project members will be notified in real-time of progress on compliance work (via email and/or push notifications).
19. Your data is secure: Unlike static files stored on a hard drive, your processing records will be secure from potential data leaks on a remote server with numerous security measures (backup, encryption...).
20. Extending to other functionalities: Your processing sheets can interact with other application modules, such as conducting risk analysis on your processing activities or managing rights exercises related to the data processed.
21. Real-time insights: A processing sheet editor will often include an intelligent assistant that provides you with advice to improve the information entered in your processing sheet. Generate action plans based on insights!
22. Leverage your existing repositories: Don’t like data entry? You have already worked on a mapping of your entire information system (personal data, subcontractors...). Tools will save you a significant amount of time with the ability to import all information in bulk via flat files (Excel, CSV...) or API.
23. API connections and integrations: Do you have in-house developers and need to synchronize your B2B clients with processing sheets as subcontractors? Synchronizations via API connectors will allow you to automate many tasks! Dastra is a completely open registry tool that has a richly documented REST API.
24. Manage the record as a processor and as a data controller all in one place: In tools like Dastra, there's no need to navigate between the two types of records; everything is centralized and can be interconnected!
25. Advanced taxonomy: Managing hundreds of processing records can quickly become overwhelming. By adopting a taxonomy and classification system, you gain structure and clarity. In Dastra, processing activities can be organized using flexible tags, making them easier to search, filter, and visually identify. This ensures that even large and complex RoPAs remain manageable and audit-ready
26. Customization of your RoPA for your organization: Is your organization complex? Do you have 200 entities, a parent company, subsidiaries, and numerous specifics? A tool will help clarify this and manage the consolidation of certain parts of the registry in parent companies and the management of specific processing activities in subsidiaries. It's the tool that adapts to your organization and allows you to manage your organizational hierarchy.
27. Permissions and access rights: You can allow members access to only certain segments of your record. It’s often possible to customize access rights very precisely. If you want to involve a large number of stakeholders from your organization, it’s essential to have an effective permission granting system. This type of access management is much more complex to handle with traditional physical files.
28. Control and visualization of cross-border transfers: With a tool, you can monitor and visualize data transfers outside the European Union. Transfers can be visualized in a graphical format or flow diagram. The graphical visualization is one of the main advantages of using a registry tool.
29. Quickly and easily identify all potential risks: Does your processing involve transfers outside the EU or not have a PIA even when required? Tools like Dastra provide a sensitivity score that compiles a range of criteria to help you implement appropriate actions or security measures.
30. Manage data protection in your organization: The tool will encourage you to apply the principle of data minimization, thus limiting risks for your organization. Tools like Dastra include a project management system organized in kanban or SCRUM formats to help you oversee your organization's compliance.
31. Building on your own models: That's it! You are now an expert, and you have created a true library of pre-configured processing activities across all areas of your sector. You can now capitalize on this by deploying them in other subsidiaries or companies (if you are an external DPO)! Dastra offers a system that allows you to replicate, transfer, or merge processing activities in any other entity of your organization.

Which tool should you use?

The market offers plenty of options, but their quality can differ greatly. If you’re looking for a solution that truly meets all the key criteria, we recommend Dastra. Here’s how you can get started:

• 🤩 Request a demo: spend an hour with one of our experts to review your project and explore the platform in detail.
• 💰 Explore our pricing: Our Starter plan gives you all the essential features to set up an effective processing record, whatever the size of your organization.
• 🚀 Try our tool for free for 30 days. Quick to set up, commitment-free, and the best way to see for yourself how Dastra can simplify your compliance.

Still not convinced?

If you’re still hesitant about using a tool, we would be extremely happy to discuss it with you, as it’s a topic we are passionate about! You can contact us or request a demo.