Companies that put the data house in order as part of privacy regulation in Europe last year realized tangible benefits for the business and have experienced shorter sales cycles and a lesser impact of data breaches as a result.

That’s part of the key findings from the 2019 Data Privacy Benchmark Study released in January by Cisco Systems Inc. The study compiled responses from 3,200 data privacy professionals around the world.

“The organizations that aren’t ready for General Data Protection Regulation are seeing three times as many records impacted by a breach,” said Robert Waitman (pictured, right), director of security and trust at Cisco. “We’re also seeing system downtime that’s 50 percent longer.”

Waitman spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Cisco Live event in Barcelona. He was joined by Michelle Dennedy (pictured, left), vice president and chief privacy officer at Cisco, and they discussed the potential for adding data as a valued item on corporate balance sheets and Cisco’s involvement in possible federal data privacy legislation this year. (* Disclosure below.)

Causal connections for data

Cisco’s newly released study provides further evidence of data’s increasing value in the business, to the point where it may not be too far-fetched to see it valued and declared as an asset on the balance sheet. Data quality and solid governance practices can translate into positive momentum for competitive advantages, such as speed to innovation or faster launch times.

“Find causal connections to data,” Dennedy said. “That’s how we’re going to get that data on the balance sheet.”

Bipartisan collaboration in Congress these days is about as rare as wearing shirtsleeves in January in the Midwest, yet there is interest among leaders in both parties for privacy legislation this year. Cisco Chief Executive Officer Chuck Robbins plans to be involved in privacy policy discussion at the federal level, according to Dennedy.

“Chuck is actively engaged in the debate for U.S. federal legislation for privacy,” Dennedy said. “You’re going to hear his voice ringing very loudly through the halls of Washington, D.C.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Cisco Live event. (* Disclosure: Cisco Systems Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Cisco nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE