What do users of data privacy management software think about their software? At G2, we ask. G2 is the world’s largest tech marketplace, where B2B tech users can review the software and services they use and read other software reviewers’ insights to discover tech solutions that best fit their needs.

What do data privacy management software users want?

In the Winter 2022 release of the G2 Grid^Ⓡ report for Data Privacy Management software, which is based on real-user reviews, we uncovered software users' thoughts on the top 10 products in the category. In this article, I will focus on how data privacy vendors could see the most improvement in their products. 

89% of data privacy management user needs are met, leaving room for improvement

On average, only 89% of data privacy management software users' needs are currently being met with the software they are using. This is a satisfactory average for the software category, but it’s not stellar. The products with the highest scores for meeting their users’ requirements include DataGrail and Osano, meeting their users’ needs at 93%.

In an attempt to uncover what some of these unmet needs are, I ran a language analysis on G2’s reviews for the entire category. I found that 17% of what reviewers cite that they like the least about the product they use include words stating that the software is “hard to use.” Other commonly negatively cited themes include “user interface” and “processes.”

This unmet need is surfaced in the Winter 2022 scores for Data Privacy Management Software Ease of Setup and Ease of Use ratings, as well. The software category’s average score for both is just 83%, which isn’t bad, but it does leave room for buyers to want to find an easier to use solution at license renewal time. 

Of the top 10 data privacy management software solutions, Osano scored highest for Ease of Setup, followed by DataGrail at 91% and TrustArc at 90%. For Ease of Use ratings, Ethyca scored highest with 95%, followed by Osano at 94% and DataGrail at 93%. 

User adoption remains moderately poor

Imagine spending a significant amount of your budget on a data privacy management solution only to have some of your employees who are licensed to use it. That’s the reality with today’s user adoption of the top 10 data privacy management solutions. The average user adoption for the category is a meager 59%. The category’s best performers are Osano at a 72% adoption rate, followed by DPOrganizer at 70%, and SAI 360 at 67%.

What can data privacy management software providers do?

What can data privacy management software providers do to improve their software users’ experience? 

Understand their needs. Empathize with them. 

Software such as user research software, enterprise feedback management software, survey software, and customer journey analytics software helps companies better understand their customers’ needs. 

The bottom line is that making the initial setup of data privacy management software easier can improve the mediocre user adoption rates we see today. Perhaps software vendors accomplish this with a more intuitive user interface, or perhaps they achieve that with more implementation services. 

So, what are data privacy management buyers to do?

Before purchasing software, buyers must know their needs. Buyers can learn more about data privacy management software on G2, read the complete guide to data privacy management, along with other resources related to data privacy software. Then, comparing data privacy management software solutions and reading real user reviews of the software can help helpful. 

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and am not offering legal advice. If you have legal questions, consult a licensed attorney. I also don't give fashion advice, relationship advice, or movie recommendations. Trust me, this is for the best.