Integrating SAP Data Retention Manager

SAP Data Retention Manager helps manage the storage and retention of data, ensuring compliance with data retention policies and regulations. In relation to SAP Subscription Billing, it can be used to manage the retention of billing and customer data, ensuring that necessary information is stored for the required period while also enabling the purging of obsolete data to declutter the system and comply with data privacy and retention requirements.

The integration of SAP Subscription Billing and SAP Data Retention Management provides the capability to manage the retention periods for customer billing and subscription data. By utilizing SAP Data Retention Management, the user can identify and delete individual and corporate customer data that falls outside the defined residence/retention periods.

Additionally, the integration allows for the identification of customers who no longer have active business or subscriptions, enabling the user to assess and potentially trigger the deletion of their data.

Let’s consider a use case:

A specialist in data privacy and protection (DPP) has the capability to verify whether data subject information can be removed by using the functionalities of SAP Data Retention Manager. Let’s look at a typical order-to-payment scenario, according to the following graphic.

When a customer places an order, there are defined regulations about how long data subject information can be maintained in a system after end of business (EoB). During the residence period, as shown in the chart, data subject information can be used for several purposes, such as analytics, reporting, or warranties on the purchased goods. Yet when the residence period is over, the data subject’s personal data is blocked from the system, unless a new business process is triggered. The blocked data can only be used for legal auditing purposes. Once the retention time expires, the data subject information is deleted from the system.

This graphic illustrates the lifecycle of data usage, retention, and deletion in a business context. Here's a breakdown of the key elements:

1. Data in Use for Business Purpose:
   • Consent: Data collection begins with obtaining consent.
   • Contract to Supply: Data is used to establish and manage contracts.
   • Delivery: Data is used for delivering goods or services.
   • Payment: Data is used for processing payments.
2. End of Business: This marks the point where the business activities related to the data have concluded.
3. Residence Period: This is the period during which the data is actively used for business purposes.
4. End of Purpose: This marks the point where the data is no longer needed for the original business purpose.
5. Blocking: After the end of the business purpose, the data enters a blocking phase where it is no longer actively used but is retained for specific reasons such as legal audits.
6. Legal Audits: Data may be retained and blocked for legal audit purposes.
7. Retention Period Example: 10 years: This indicates an example retention period, suggesting that data may be retained for a specified duration (for example 10 years) after the end of its business purpose.
8. End of Retention: This marks the point where the retention period ends.
9. Deletion: After the retention period, the data is deleted.

Now that you have a better idea of how of SAP Data Retention Manager manages data retention policies when integrated with SAP Subscription Billing, let’s look at the integration of SAP Personal Data Manager.