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GDPR Preparedness & The Lean Data Revolution

  By Paula Bernier, Executive Editor, TMC

The General Data Protection Regulation takes effect May 25. So, if your organization in any way does business in the European Union, now is an excellent time to review the privacy and security aspects of your marketing, sales force, unified communications, and other platforms and processes.

Because businesses that aren’t GDPR-compliant after this date may face fines of up to $24 million or 4 percent of their global revenue.

Companies preparing for GDPR should make privacy and security integral to their unified communications and other systems. Their systems also should enable them to correct and delete customer data if those customers request such changes, explains Groove.

Of course, these are just a few general and partial descriptions of what GDPR will entail. So, you would think anyone affected by GDPR would be hard at work figuring out all the details and what to do to address them. But, in fact, that’s not the case. And, to be fair, it’s in part because people within these organizations are confused about what they need to do to comply with GPDR.

A third of the 200 U.S. and U.K. marketers participating in a recent Act-On survey said they don’t understand the changes or the impact GDPR will have on their businesses. Only half of this group plans to allocate a budget for GDPR this year, according Act-On, which has created this GDPR checklist.

Fifty-five percent of respondents said they don’t believe the rest of their business understands the impacts of GDPR. And thirty-one percent haven’t started to adjust their operations and/or engagement strategies in preparation for the deadline.

“These results are hugely significant, as for those firms that don’t comply with the new regulations the consequences are likely to be severe,” says David Fowler Head of Privacy and Digital Compliance at Act-On.“There’s no question that it would be a massive blow to any firm’s bottom line.

“There’s still time, however, for remaining companies to make necessary changes to stay compliant,” he adds. “They need to be transparent about consumers’ data and have the right systems in place, as well as solid strategies, to stay ahead of the game. No matter how hard businesses try to bury their heads in the sand, compliance to GDPR is inevitable. Being agile and adaptive are essential components for companies, if they aren’t willing to lose millions.”

To date, much of the focus around GDPR has been about the downside of this new regulation. But, BDO says GDPR will lead to a lean data revolution. And that, it indicates, will have some positive implications.

By lean data revolution, BDO means that this new regulation will limit the collection, use, and retention of customer data as companies position themselves to avoid GDPR penalties. Of course, the downside of that is it will limit organizations in what they can do. The good news, however, is that GDPR is likely to prompt businesses to be smarter in what data they collect and store. That could drive down their storage costs, says BDO, and make it easier for them to find and use the data they do keep.