Matthew Atherfold

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Dublin & London · Enterprise AI · Data · Transformation
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2016–20192 min read

Dell Technologies · Director, HR Data Governance & GDPR (Global)

Stood up Dell HR's Collibra data-governance programme and led GDPR readiness across the global Salesforce estate.

Common definitions, ownership and controls across enterprise HR data plus a global GDPR programme across Dell's Salesforce instance. Recognised by Collibra's 2018 Distinguished Data Governance Program award post Dell–EMC integration.

Case at a glance— 01
Problem type

Govern high-stakes work

The mandate

Establish enterprise data governance that regulators, auditors, works councils and executives would trust, and land GDPR readiness across a global Salesforce estate touching Legal, HR, Finance, Operations, executive leadership, vendors and external…

Workstreams

4

Distinct parts of the intervention

Headline result

2018

Collibra Distinguished Data Governance Program award

Measured outcomes— 02
2018
Collibra Distinguished Data Governance Program award
4% WW revenue
GDPR exposure managed
Global
Salesforce estate covered
121
Systems catalogued across Dell + EMC
The situation— 03
Context

What was happening.

Dell operated one of the largest corporate HR and commercial data estates in the world across 150K+ employees and a global Salesforce instance spanning sales, marketing and service. Post the EMC acquisition, definitions, ownership, lineage and retention were fragmented across Workday, VMS, Tableau, the Data Lake, the HR Analytics Portal and Salesforce, with the GDPR go-live date (May 2018) fixed and 4% worldwide revenue at stake.

Mandate

What had to change.

Establish enterprise data governance that regulators, auditors, works councils and executives would trust, and land GDPR readiness across a global Salesforce estate touching Legal, HR, Finance, Operations, executive leadership, vendors and external counsel, without stalling the business.

What changed

The moves that made the difference.

4 workstreams made up the intervention. Each card shows the key moves, with the deeper detail available where the work was more complex.

01

Collibra Governance

3 moves
  • Stood up Collibra as the enterprise governance platform for HR: business glossary, data dictionary, lineage, stewardship model, issue and breach process across Workday, VMS, Tableau, the HR Data Lake and the HR Analytics Portal.
  • Defined the stewardship operating model (data owners, stewards, custodians) and a governance council with clear intake, decision rights and escalation.
  • Specified Information Lifecycle Management (production / archive / purge) as the foundation for right-to-erasure across all HR systems.
02

GDPR On Salesforce

3 moves
  • Led GDPR programmes across Dell's global Salesforce instance ahead of the Act going live, partnering with Legal, HR, Finance, Operations, executive leadership, external counsel and multiple vendors.
  • Defined lawful basis, consent capture, retention, cross-border transfer and data-subject-rights handling, and translated them into Salesforce configuration, integrations and downstream data flows.
03

Highlights

1 move
  • WORKS COUNCILS & DPOs, Partnered directly with EU Data Protection Officers and works councils across the EMC integration to negotiate data flows, retention and use-case scope before deployment.
04

Recognition

1 move
  • Programme recognised by Collibra's 2018 Distinguished Data Governance Program award following the Dell–EMC integration.
What I would carry forward
“Governance only sticks when Legal, Finance, Ops and the business co-own it with the data team. Collibra was the platform; the real work was operating-model, decision rights and enablement.”
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