Millions of businesses start without the desired capital. They born under a strict budget and only with one priority; create the product or service as fast as possible. Under those circumstances, many important things are left behind.

Useful? Embed this infographic on your website.

Being one of them the management of data. The most common scenarios are: (i) you use several service providers and it is difficult for you to track how they process and store your data, (ii) you chose cost-saving service providers and they are not responsive, either transparent in their operations which makes you wonder, (iii) you opt for a cheaper but an outdated system that does not record efficiently any collection or processing of data that can guide you. 

Either way, this puts you in a tricky situation. If you do not know your data flow, you can not ensure security thus, avoid data leakage, misuses or waste. Also, it’s not possible to respect the rights of your users (data subjects) in relation to their privacy and personal data protection ergo show compliance with the law. And final but not least, by not knowing the whereabouts of your data, you are risking what you just have built; the trust in your product/service on the market.

Considering the above, you could:

  • DO A DATA MAPPING  

Classify what type of data you collect, how it is used, stored, deleted and transferred within and outside your company. Special attention to personal data and transborder data transfers.

  • GET RID OF THE UNNECESSARY MIDDLEMEN 

Apart from the fact that every middleman cost you money which could be saved. By bringing back your autonomy, you will be able to re-organise effectively. It’s easier to set your business goals and carry-out a plan when you have all the data at your disposal and the processes under your control.

Good examples of middlemen are your servers, what if you could move all your data on-premises?, or your email supplier, what if you could develop your own IT solution or use and Open Source tool?

  • PARTNER WITH COMPANIES UNDER THE SAME LAWS 

High chances that you do not need all those suppliers in different regions. You can set everything under one umbrella and inside the European Union. And that would make life easier. 

Imagine that all your suppliers play by the same rules that you do, you will understand each other, help each other, and consequently, be able to rely on each other, to ensure security, enforce data subject’s rights, and growth. 

Moreover, given the recent CJEU ruling that invalidated the US Privacy Shield, a good initiative is to replace US products, such as ERP Microsoft Dynamics or Salesforce by Odoo and do the transition slowly by department to ensure a smooth process. 

Google analytics can be replaced by Matomo. The same goes with Google Suite or Office 365, you could try Nextcloud. Keep your marketing and advertising goals with MyOffrz. Switch from Zoom videoconferencing to Jitsi and from Slack to Mattermost.

There are options out there, that you made need to tweak and enhance but it’s just a matter to bring your attention to it, get back control, re-organise, meet business goals and lead responsibly. 

 

 

    

Jessica Lam

Jessica Lam

Lawyer and Entrepreneur.
Jessica Lam

Latest posts by Jessica Lam (see all)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *