Electrolux is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of household appliances that has shaped a better living for their consumers for over 100 years. Under all their brands, which also include AEG, Frigidaire, Zanussi and Elektro-Helios, they sell around 60 million household products in 120 different markets per year.

With a strong customer-focused approach, Electrolux understands the importance of offering a fantastic customer experience where trust is a priority, to deliver this it is important for them to use a secure and compliant system to handle the large amounts of data that they processes.

Streamlining global compliance

With extensive and nuanced data protection requirements under regulations such as the GDPR, ePrivacy, and LGPD, Electrolux understands the importance of adapting its data protection program to achieve global compliance.

Electrolux’s previous methods for managing their data processing and assessments were not built for the large-scale operations that the company has reached today. GDPR Lead at Electrolux, Bożena Kuśnierz, found one of their key problems to be that the tools were built for lower volumes of data and the processes were time consuming and inefficient, which made it difficult to fulfil their trust focused customer relations.

“As a decentralized organization, one of our major challenges was to gather information and create customized processes that fit into our global operations,“ said Bożena.

To create an effective program, a centralized platform was required where they could better track and have control over their processes and treatment activities. A centralized platform would also facilitate the creation of customized processes that met their global needs.

Building a mature data protection program with OneTrust

Electrolux evaluated several providers of data protection management solutions and selected OneTrust’s tools for assessment automation, data mapping, cookie compliance, Robotic Automation for DSAR and, consent management.

Bożena described the clear choice after evaluating the options on the market: “After a search of various solutions, we found that there was no other tool on the market that could meet the needs for data protection management at Electrolux as well as OneTrust, there was no doubt in our choice!” 

As a global company, Electrolux has millions of customers and over 50,000 employees around the world, therefore handles a significant amount of data. Electrolux began its journey with OneTrust by implementing the Data Mapping module to gain better control and understanding of where their data was and how it flowed in the organization.

“Our challenge was to map applications and processes, especially those applications that store personal data. OneTrust has made mapping so much easier and we now have a completely new understanding of our data,” said Bożena.

With a centralized platform that can be dynamically updated when changing databases and processes, Electrolux now saves both time and resources compared to their previous manual handling. 

“From using Word documents and Excel files, our processes have become so much more flexible and we save a lot of time by centrally managing our data in the OneTrust platform,” said Bożena.

Electrolux then went on to introduce automated impact assessments and assessments in the organization. This meant that they could automatically send out data protection-related questionnaires to various project managers within the company in order to easily ensure compliance for the various business units.

Following the implementation of these two modules, Electrolux chose the cookie compliance module which is currently being implemented to automatically scan their cookies websites, create custom cookie banners and facilitate compliance with global cookie requirements.

“We found that the cookie compliance module is incredibly good and exactly what we were looking for. We are currently in the process of implementing it globally, we look forward to seeing how it will facilitate Electrolux’s compliance with global cookie requirements,” said Bożena.

OneTrust supports Electrolux’s global data protection program

In addition to implementing the cookie compliance module, Electrolux is putting the next focus on developing efficient processes to comply with LGPD for their operations in Brazil. 

“The LGPD project is now in focus. In Brazil, in addition to our existing OneTrust modules, we also implement Robotic Automation for DSAR, and consent management, which we believe will make it easier to operationalize our compliance there,” said Bożena.

The plan is to expand these additional modules to Europe in the future to create a comprehensive data protection program with processes adapted to Electrolux’s global presence.

“What we really like about OneTrust’s platform is how flexible it is and that it is always updated with new features, which especially helps us to standardize global processes,” said Bozena. “We also like how good OneTrust has been at creating a community in data protection and how they continuously organize really good industry events, we have been to many and it is fantastic to meet other practitioners in the same field to exchange experiences and best practices.”