The expression "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” can be applied to many everyday challenges, including developing your GDPR compliance strategy.

Organizations doing business in the EU or who are employing EU citizens and residents already understand that they must comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) by the May 2018 deadline. But some organizations still fail to see the positives in taking on a project like this. 

I urge you to use this time to solidify your overall GDPR compliance strategy to get a quick return on your investment.

Here are a few payoffs you could potentially see from implementing a comprehensive plan:

  • Better data- and analytics-driven decision-making — Visibility around data and access to data can help with both GDPR compliance and other IT or business initiatives.
  • Long-term customer/brand loyalty — Customers want to know that the company they are buying from cares about protecting their data.
  • Greater organizational agility — Having automation around data access in place allows your organization to be nimble to respond to business changes and needs.
  • Reduced cybersecurity risk — Security controls that are put in place for GDPR compliance can potentially help you protect against threats such as ransomware.
  • Higher-value allocation of IT staff — Some automation tools are flexible enough to not only automate the enforcement of data policies, but automate many other IT tasks.
  • Reduced overall compliance and audit costs — Organization most likely have multiple regulations to comply with, so streamlining auditing will help with more than just GDPR
  • Avoidance of GDPR-related fines — GDPR has set up pretty hefty penalties for those who are not in compliance of the regulation.
GDPR Compliance Strategy Food for Thought

Because GDPR is viewed as a top-priority initiative and the cost of not complying could be devastating, many IT organizations will have a healthy budget and resources to implement a strategy. Set yourself up for success by spending plenty of time getting your strategy in place over the several months and effectively utilizing your budget and/or resources. Regulations do change and new legislation is always popping up, but if you take the right data protections measures now, you will have the right tools in place to make your life much easier in the future.

Whether you are just starting your GDPR compliance journey or already in the process of to developing your GDPR strategy, keep the possible payoffs in mind. Also, remember that some requirements will not be met by technology alone because they must be done at an organizational process or policy level. For example, creating new data collection procedures or appointing a GDPR data protection officer. A comprehensive GDPR strategy requires a mix of internal process creation, policy changes, and technology.

Ivanti Can Support Your GDPR Compliance Strategy

Ivanti helps you implement your General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) strategy with unified IT solutions to assess risk, enforce policies, secure data, respond to incidents and requests, and prove compliance. If you are in the process of tackling GDPR, take the assessment and contact Ivanti to discuss how we can help simplify compliance for you. 

Ready for GDPR? Take the test.