Interview with Bénédicte Wautelet, Legal Director and DPO of the Figaro Group

In what context did you use Adequacy?

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As a media group, we understood, even before it came into force, that the GDPR would fundamentally redefine the way we collected and processed data and that it was imperative for us to embrace this subject without delay. We therefore addressed this problem as early as 2017, and treated it from the start as a business project. From then on, we quickly understood that we would need help so that each of our BUs and subsidiaries filled out treatment records.

We therefore launched a call for tenders in 2017, in order to see which players were present on the market, what were the existing offers.

Adequacy was selected in particular for two major advantages: it was an off-the-shelf tool, natively designed for the management of the RGPD on the one hand, and on the other hand, its deployment could be supported by teams of consultants who worked on both organizational and operational aspects of the tool, but also from an operational point of view since they helped us complete all of our processing sheets. This was very important for us because we knew we didn't have the bandwidth to do everything ourselves.

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What benefits do you get from the Adequacy solution?

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It is a comfort and a security: the fact that it is in Saas relieves us of the responsibility to manage and develop it. In addition, the relationship of trust established with Adequacy over the years is very valuable. We rely on what Adequacy tells us to do and we regularly call on teams to train our ambassadors or, as is regularly the case, to integrate new companies recently bought by the group.

The tool is functional, clever and flexible, which makes it possible to adapt to the law and texts that evolve rapidly.

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What do you think is the strong point of the Adequacy teams?

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I really appreciate the complementarity of the Adequacy teams, headed by Christian des Lauriers, who has a very macro vision of the need, who knows our group because he has been by our side for a long time, Alessandro Fiorentino, the product owner of the solution, who is very specialized on the subject, and of course their network of consultants who we can call on in case of particular needs.

I find the webinars that they organize regularly and that my lawyers on the DPO function regularly attend very valuable. We have also set up ad hoc training courses with the teams at home, to train and manage our network composed of more than thirty ambassadors.

Finally, on a more personal level, I particularly appreciate being able to meet and exchange with peers during special moments organized by Adequacy with the user community.

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What is your vision of the DPO of tomorrow?

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It seems to me that the function of the DPO is all the more essential in a company that is particularly invested in the digital sector.

In my opinion, the DPO of a company in which data is central fulfills a function that has both an operational and technical dimension and a legal dimension.

To do this, the DPO must truly put himself in the shoes of each BU, understand the business, how it operates, how it sells, its tools, how they work.

It is both interesting and very demanding.

In terms of evolution, I note that DPO profiles are easier to recruit for broad compliance functions. RGPD and compliance are of course different areas but have common points that require a good understanding of the company and having a business twist and a 360 vision.