PA Consulting

Global Telecommunications Company: Turning Privacy and AI Governance Into Operational Performance

Impact at a Glance
From Compliance to Performance
Bringing Focus Back to the Risk Register
Redesigning Assessments
Connecting Privacy to the Wider Enterprise
Learn More About Privacy Automation

Overview

Industry: Telecommunications

Region: Global operations across more than 80 countries

Company size: Enterprise

Solutions: Privacy Automation

Impact at a Glance

More than 70 percent reduction in open privacy risk items

The privacy risk register was rationalized and refocused on genuinely high-risk processing, restoring it as an effective tool for leadership oversight and prioritization.

Over 50 percent reduction in assessment question volume

Assessment frameworks were simplified and consolidated, reducing effort for business users while maintaining rigor.

Improved quality and consistency of privacy data

Connected programme elements and automated workflows enabled clearer, more reliable privacy information across regions and business areas.

Faster, more confident decision-making on high-risk processing

Privacy shifted from a compliance checkpoint to a practical enabler, supporting business decisions at global scale.

Increased business engagement with privacy processes

Clearer guidance, reduced complexity, and automation improved participation and adoption across the organization.

From Compliance to Performance: Making Privacy Operate at the Speed of the Business

A global telecommunications company operating across more than 80 countries had already built one of the strongest privacy foundations in its sector, including Binding Corporate Rules approval. With PA Consulting’s support, the organization deployed OneTrust at scale, putting the right architecture in place across the business.

The next challenge was not regulatory compliance, but operational effectiveness. Privacy needed to reduce friction, simplify how work got done, and focus attention on genuinely high-risk activity. The organization partnered with PA Consulting and One Trust to shift its program from compliance-led to performance-driven.

“We had invested significantly in our privacy program and achieved regulatory milestones that set us apart. But after a global rollout of that scale, there is always work to do.”

– Group Head of Privacy, Data and Cyber Regulatory Office, Global Telecommunications Company

Bringing Focus Back to the Risk Register

A global deployment at this scale inevitably generates volume. Over time, the privacy risk register had grown difficult to manage, combining genuine risks with duplicates, historic findings, and items that no longer required action. As a result, it had become less effective as a decision-making tool.

PA Consulting supported a structured review of all open items, completing remediation activities where required and documenting a clear rationale for every decision. The outcome was a reduction of more than 70 percent in open risk items, restoring the register as a focused, credible basis for leadership oversight and faster, better-informed risk decisions.

Risk management was then future-proofed by redesigning how risks are raised within the platform. Rather than being flagged broadly, risks are now triggered only for genuinely high-risk processing activities and cross-border transfers. Lower-risk issues are handled through task-based workflows and resolved before assessments are completed, preventing unnecessary volume from building up again.

Redesigning Assessments Around Clarity and Consistency

As the program scaled globally, privacy assessments had become increasingly complex. Multiple assessment types and expanding question sets made completion time-consuming for business users, with overlapping themes answered repeatedly and declining consistency in responses.

The assessment framework was consolidated and simplified. Overlapping assessments were merged, outdated questions removed, and overall question volume reduced by more than 50 percent. Core programme elements, such as legal basis, privacy notices, and processing purpose, were connected into a single, coherent framework, supported by conditional logic, automation, and workflows that reduced manual effort and minimized the risk of error.

“Privacy assessments should help the business make good decisions about data. When the process becomes a barrier, people disengage, and the quality of what you capture drops.”

– Sharad Patel, Global Head of Data Privacy and AI Governance, PA Consulting

Clear, practical guidance was rewritten and tested with business teams before wider rollout, improving usability, consistency, and data quality. The redesigned assessments were built to feel like a natural part of how the business operates, rather than an opaque compliance exercise.

Connecting Privacy to the Wider Enterprise

With the core program running more efficiently, the next phase focuses on how privacy connects into the wider enterprise landscape. Privacy data currently exists across governance, risk, procurement, and data management systems, but has yet to flow into OneTrust in a consistent, structured way.

PA Consulting carried out a discovery exercise across these systems, mapping data flows and prioritizing integrations based on value. Alongside traditional integrations, the organization is exploring how intelligent and agentic AI capabilities can help orchestrate data movement, trigger actions, and reduce manual intervention, creating a clear, executable roadmap for continued maturity.

“This was never a one-off implementation. Redesigning a system people already rely on, while keeping it running, is where the real value was created.”

– Ana Fernandes, Data privacy and AI governance expert, PA Consulting

Learn more about Privacy Automation

PA Consulting

Global Telecommunications Company: Turning Privacy and AI Governance Into Operational Performance

Table of Contents

Overview

Impact at a Glance

From Compliance to Performance: Making Privacy Operate at the Speed of the Business

Bringing Focus Back to the Risk Register

Redesigning Assessments Around Clarity and Consistency

Connecting Privacy to the Wider Enterprise

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