On our recent webinar, titled: How to manage a DSARs process (of which you can watch the full recording here: https://www.johnsonhana.com/full-webinar-recording-how-to-manage-a-dsars-process/) we asked our attendees a couple of questions about what they found were the biggest difficulties in managing their DSARs processes.
We conducted these polls in order to gain insight (which we shared with those in attendance) into where the most acute pain points were/are in their DSARs process.
Above is a video clip of the two polls as they were run live on the webinar.
While the results might not necessarily be surprising, we hope they afforded our audience some reassurance that they are not alone in their struggles and, as we outline in our whitepaper (which can be viewed by completing the form below) there are methods and technologies you can use to ease the burden.
Poll question one: In general terms, how would you describe the type of DSARs that you are dealing with?
Our poll found that more than two thirds of respondents described the DSARs their received as “complex”.
This complexity can be problematic because it typically means that either the data involved is sensitive or that the volume of data required to be accessed is particularly large. Either of these is problematic and can quickly swamp an in-house legal team that is already under pressure.
Full poll results:
| Response options | Votes |
| High volume, high complexity | 17% |
| High volume, low complexity | 25% |
| Low volume, high complexity | 51% |
| Low volume, low complexity | 7% |
Poll question two: What has the biggest challenge been for you or your organisation in responding to DSARs?
Responding to this question, almost 60% of respondents highlighted “IT constraints/ challenges in gathering the data” as their main challenge when responding to DSARs.
It’s important to note here, as we did on the webinar, that we also got feedback that there was no “all of the above” option available, and several comments were posted that each of these difficulties applied, and it was difficult to isolate a singular “biggest challenge”.
One of the tips (mentioned both on the webinar and in more detail in the whitepaper) is to ensure that your DSARs procedure document outlines and allocates exactly where responsibility sits for collecting said data, and to identify whether you actually have IT capabilities to gather all the data required from your systems, or whether you’ll need external providers.
Full poll results:
| Response options | Votes |
| IT constraints / challenges in gathering the data | 59% |
| Lack of capacity to review the dataset for production | 19% |
| Lack of understanding / expertise internally in how to respond | 12% |
| Poorly defined processes, resulting in delays | 10% |
About Johnson Hana
Johnson Hana is Ireland’s leading alternative legal solutions provider. That means we disaggregate legal advisory and legal process work, and focus on the latter.
We offer:
Legal Process Outsourcing – whereby a specific legal process is carved out and outsourced to us
Legal Process Secondments – to augment a busy legal team or fulfil a temporary requirement for an experienced legal professional.
Historically, legal advisory and legal process work were tackled and billed in the same way. This means that all legal work has been as costly and time consuming as legal advice.
It doesn’t need to be.
We deliver legal process work through a combination of innovative legal technologies, robust project management methodologies, and expert lawyers. This approach reduces client legal spend by over 50%, while also providing totally transparent reporting and billing. This leaves our clients free to focus on the strategic, advisory work that really adds value.
