Three ways to ensure privacy during a pandemic: What links COVID-19 to new regulations? by Gwendoline Huret
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he past year has been both interesting and challenging, and in my conversations with executives in data management across global companies, two recurring concerns are commonly mentioned. The first is unsurprisingly the impact of coronavirus on their company and their role. Typically, organisations have completely changed their way of working with data this year for one simple reason: employees are now accessing it directly from home. This poses a series of infrastructure and security issues that must be resolved in accordance with enterprise record and data management policy. The second issue has been around for longer, but continues to pose concern for many compliance officers, legal representatives, or even IT security experts: privacy. So, what do these top records management concerns have in common, and can they both be addressed together? In this article we will illustrate that opting for a strategic data management portfolio can help kill two birds with one stone.
Part I: The impact of COVID on data management Unexpected times call for unexpected measures. The ‘new norma’ from an IT perspective is now clearly remote working. Offices that do open must respect strict cleaning and social distancing protocols, which often lead them to encourage workers who can do so to continue working from home. Whether for the protection of employees or customers, meetings are being held virtually, and every activity that can be done through a remote call is done that way.
In society, healthcare has become crucial. In most organisations now, so has a strong IT department and data management strategy. Technology is what has enabled companies to somewhat withstand this pandemic, and it should be clear in everyone’s mind that technology is what will differentiate the successful outliers. Let’s be specific: in a world where a pandemic imposes remote working, the necessary technological tools must be made available to enhance and provide a seamless working from home experience. These tools and corresponding strategy should cover three core areas: 1. Communication 2. Secure identification 3. Collaboration and secure data access More on these later.
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