Data and GDPR, how do we manage it all?
Data and GDPR, how do we manage it all? Mention GDPR and it now fills many businesses with dread. The process to achieve compliance with the new legislation seems to have been chaotic at best, but in reality, we have known about it for a long time and many businesses were working on adapting for its introduction last year and not a few weeks before the deadline.
Even though the ICO has now said that they will not come down hard on businesses in the first year, it is essential that all organisations, commercial and other, get themselves sorted now and don’t leave it too late.
In essence, GDPR will force us all to adopt good practice in our data management and providing we keep to a clearly defined structure and have set policies and data management processes in place, we will be compliant. There are some great sources of information around, not least Charity Digital News which seems to publish good articles relating to data management on a regular basis. I have seen two this week of particular note, firstly this one with a good infographic on GDPR for charities, but it applies to commercial businesses as well and does help clarify the steps you need to go through to achieve compliance.
CRM
Secondly, they published an article about implementing a new CRM system in a charity, in this case Salesforce. The article outlines four steps to a successful implementation of the CRM system, something that can significantly help in managing data as well as helping improve the effectiveness of your sales and business development.
From my perspective, it is important to learn from other businesses and sectors, otherwise we run the risk of remaining in a constant loop and never developing. Look at how other people achieve results, whilst it might not be in exactly the same business area as you, there will always be lessons we can learn. So, when I work with charities and see what they are doing, I can often adapt their approach to a commercial environment and vice versa.
It’s all about keeping your “Eyes Wide Open”.