Knowledge
Why You Should Budget for a vDPO or Data Advisory in 2025
Setting budgets in your company can be a stressor for many. Legal, product and research teams the like, in particular struggle at this time of year in conversations concerning budgets, especially if that department does not have a revenue stream.
Data protection may bring to mind rules, regulations and restrictions. The good news is that allowing for data protection and compliance can be a business investment rather than simply a risk management tool. Instead, working with a data advisory professional can bring dividends in return for new business opportunities, sales and customer loyalty.
In this article we discuss what is a DPO and the benefits of budgeting for a DPO in 2025.
What is a DPO/vDPO?
A DPO stands for a Data Protection Officer. Under the General Data Protection Regulation, a registered DPO is required for certain companies and provides:
A designated point of contact for the European Commission in case of complaint
A contact for data subjects to communicate with
A contact for the business to discuss privacy and data handling and protection topics with
Typically a DPO is a role directly in the team of the company and is a full time of contractor depending on the needs and requests on the company. A Virtual Data Protection Officer (or vDPO) is a more streamlined service than having an in-house DPO, while meeting your obligations under GDPR. Rather than hiring a full time DPO, a vDPO provides you with a contact for external data questions while meeting your DPO requirement.
Why budget for a DPO/vDPO?
Many companies appoint a vDPO/DPO as they they have a compulsory legal requirement. However some companies instead identify this contact would be helpful for the company and choose to cooperate with a vDPO/DPO.
Notably, the main reason is that the individual can help grow the company and prevent distraction of teams on privacy topics. Some examples of this help are communications and support, PR and customer trust, future planning and growth opportunities. Let’s deep dive into each.
Communications for Support and Sales
If you are receiving a high amount of data related questions or data access requests (SARs) from customers, partners or clients your support team may feel overwhelmed. A privacy professional can instead assist on these email chains or calls.
Having a vDPO on hand can ease work load on other teams from the questions of sales in closing a deal.PR and Customer Trust
If your business does not actually handle personal information due to the infrastructure of the service you may face scrutiny due to the nature or complexity of the business. In these cases businesses sometimes need assistance in communicating how they collect and process data to prevent confusion.
Having a DPO on call can also help in demonstrating the maturity needed in order to work with enterprises as a B2B company, even for new companies.Unlock Market Opportunities
A team may recognise that privacy is a USP in their sector. Already having a DPO on board can help them scale the business faster and identify opportunities early on.
Multi-disciplinary teams also work best. If you are mostly a technical team, having the eyes of a legally educated vDPO can bring a new perspective to potential opportunities. We can work directly with product teams to help identify missed opportunities of features that would cater to enterprise and unlock new revenue.Future Planning
The team may know they will grow the business in a way that they will eventually need a DPO. The cost of not engaging a professional early can mean other teams become distracted trying to find workarounds which have been solved countless times by a DPO.
If you are facing questions or receive multiple privacy related support requests, we offer both standard vDPO and advisory privacy services, and a hybrid Privacy Partner vDPO service which combines the two.
Interested in learning more? Complete our form below to get in touch and have a call with our team.