We’re sure you’ll agree with us when we say compliance is undoubtedly one of the buzzwords of the moment right now, and increasingly so when it comes to technology and the pains currently being experience from digital transformation across all UK business sectors, including housebuilding and development.
Of course, the housebuilding industry is no stranger to compliance, what with all of the industry legislation and regulations governing house-building, and then there’s the other side of the equation to consider too – the admin and paperwork side of things.
Like most sectors, compliance is right at the forefront of many housebuilders’ minds especially since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – the biggest data security shake-up to have ever taken place, which came into force on May 25.
For several months now, companies have been preparing for the long-awaited GDPR to land and have been reviewing and refining their data handling and processing procedures, as well as updating their privacy policies in readiness.
However, the aim of this post isn’t to tell you about GDPR, as we’re sure you’re fully up to speed with it plus, there’s a mass of information that’s readily-available about it. In fact, you only have to type ‘GDPR’ into Google and enough GDPR-related posts appear to last a lifetime. (At last count, we recorded 104,000,000 search results).
Our aim is to tell you how you can improve your data compliance game plan without having to totally reinvent the wheel. And this can easily be achieved by making sure you are getting the most from your existing technology - your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and Microsoft Dynamics platforms.
Hopefully you’ll be in the habit of regularly assessing your deployments to make sure they’re fit for purpose and providing you with the best return on investment. Questions you may want to ask yourself include - How do your Microsoft products and/or services fit within your technology environment? Do they meet the needs of your workforce as well as your business requirements – and now also the increased levels of data security requirements? And are you incorporating the latest best practices to help reduce the risk of data breaches and deployment costs?
These are all key questions that every housebuilder should be routinely asking themselves anyway, but even more so now there’s an added focus on data handling and processing. Taking the time to take a step back and obtain this helicopter view of your deployments is critical to making sure your deployments are successful and that your data security processes are as robust as possible and that nothing’s left to chance. Furthermore, should there ever be a breach in data security, then your organisation has the necessary infrastructure in place to respond appropriately, efficiently and cost effectively.
Compliance is something that all businesses have to give serious attention to, and some sectors are affected more than others when there are safety critical elements to consider. But if companies embrace the technology that is available, and evaluate what technology tools are required in alignment with their business processes and strategy, then compliance need not be the complete headache that most of think it is. Instead, if compliance is viewed as an opportunity, which helps make a business more agile and able to respond rapidly to challenges in their markets, then it becomes easier to gain competitive advantage.
Five things you can do to ensure compliance:
Crimson has a complete series of Discovery Days, Review and Audit Workshops, and one to one consultancy that will help your business to navigate compliance health and fitness by maximising your use of the technologies available. We can help you to successfully review as well as implement IT projects through our specially designed Road Mapping processes.
If you want to go beyond just simply being compliant and achieve competitive advantage, talk to us. For more advice on making sure your processes are future, as well as data security-proofed, or to arrange for an assessment, contact us on 01675 466 477