It now seems a while since the furore of GDPR swept the nation back in May of this year, but the consequences of the updates made to the way businesses hold and manage data were far-reaching and compliance is now compulsory.

So what exactly is GDPR?

In case you missed it, GDPR stands for the ‘General Data Protection Regulation’ and this rules and governs how as an organisation you manage and hold data on your customers, suppliers and any other contacts. This has taken over from the Data Protection Act 1998, which after 20 years in force was in need of a refresh due to the mass advances in technology and volume of data available on individuals in modern-day society as a result.

Most of the attention and publicity surrounding GDPR was on the type of opt-in or other reason you needed in order to legally contact customers, prospects and others. The new regulations were interpreted by many as meaning that people now needed to ‘opt-in’ to correspondence from your organisation, rather than ‘opt-out’, which in turn meant people were hit with swathes of emails from organisations asking them to opt-in to future correspondence.

Do you know if your phone system is GDPR compliant?

So that’s largely the email side of things, but with advances in the technology surrounding telephony and communication systems in recent years, large amounts of data on those calling you can be easily accumulated and retained.

Have you considered what you do with that data? How you manage it? Can you prove you have a method of deleting records after a relevant request? The question is, do you know if your phone system is truly compliant in this new GDPR world?

How do we handle GDPR for our telephony clients?

We’ve been supplying phone systems to businesses across the South West and beyond for more than 25 years, so as you can probably guess, we’ve seen a fair amount of change over that time. One thing we’re proud of is that we’re able to consistently keep our clients ahead of the technological curve and GDPR compliance is no different.

Our systems come with the ability to easily search by name or by number; you can then simply delete all references including any recordings (if you work within an industry where recordings are required for legislative purposes or simply used for customer services and training).

If someone asks to be unsubscribed, you can simply remove them at the click of a button, assuming there is no legal requirement for you to retain the information.

What do you need to do?

If you’re unsure of where you stand when it comes to your phone system and meeting the new requirements of General Data Protection Regulation then it’s worth undertaking our free review of your phone system in order to highlight any areas that you need to alter and update. You can get more information on our free review here:

https://equationsvoiceanddata.co.uk/free-phone-system-review

For more information on our services and how they can improve your communications and even save money on your current costs, please give us a call on 01237 420010 and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.