ENSURING DATA PROTECTION


Rick Stoor, MD of TemplaCMS, asks: are your key software suppliers supporting your GDPR compliance?


On 25 May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force throughout the EU. That includes the UK, whose government has confirmed that it will fully implement the regulation, irrespective of Brexit.


If you are the director or owner of a UK cleaning contractor, you will most likely have completed your preparations, or be putting the final touches to them. However, included in the regulation were some key stipulations, relating particularly to the administration of your staff’s personal data, which may still require you to hold some discussions with your payroll/HR software providers if you have not already done so.


GENERAL AREAS OF COMPLIANCE To recap, you will have picked up on the general guidelines requiring that data must be: (a) processed lawfully, fairly and transparently; (b) collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes; (c) limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which it is processed; (d) accurate and kept up to date; (e) kept for no longer than is necessary; and (f) processed in a manner that guarantees its security. On these six points you will have drawn up checklists and policies to ensure you comply with the regulation.


SUPPLIER SUPPORT This then leads to three particular areas where you may need your software providers’ additional assistance to make sure they help you comply, namely data security, transparent processing and retention for no longer than is necessary.


To guarantee data security, you must ensure that if your data is held externally by a provider – i.e. for support purposes – then it must be capable of being anonymised, for example by removing the names. To guarantee transparency, you must be able to interrogate your software and print out any data you hold about a staff member.


To guarantee the data is not held for longer than is necessary, your software will need to offer you a default position whereby data relating to staff leavers is removed from the system after a certain period, for example at year end after any statutory retention requirements, unless you specifically choose not to do so. This doesn’t mean you can’t hang on to data. For example, you might need to retain it to defend a tribunal case. The key is that you are able to justify your actions, if challenged.


Cleaning contractors who use TemplaCMS integrated contract management software to manage their key business processes, including payroll, will find these features built in to the software itself. We have assessed our clients’ data processing activities, highlighted the


10 | CONTRACT CLEANING SUPPLEMENT 2018


“To guarantee data security, you must


ensure that if your data is held externally by a provider then it must be capable of being anonymised.”


systems and processes using personal data and executed the technical changes needed to help our clients comply with the regulation.


One of the most attractive features of TemplaCMS is that all data, whether personal or general data relating to contracts, transactions, time and attendance or billing, need only be entered once to the system. That’s because all a contractor’s business processes, as can be seen from the diagram on this page, form part of one integrated system and therefore feed off the same data stored in the central contracts database – what we like to call ‘one version of truth’.


Not only does this save time on administration, it greatly reduces the risk of transcription errors when keying data from one system to another. By licensing TemplaCMS, you effectively replace your combination of unconnected legacy systems with a single software solution, enabling your revenue to grow without a corresponding increase in administration costs – a benefit enjoyed by leading cleaning contractors in the UK, Ireland, Europe and Australia.


www.templacms.co.uk twitter.com/TomoCleaning


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22