The GDPR - necessary evil or new opportunities?

What can the new GDPR do for us?

The Regulation forces us to review all processes that involve some form of personal data. This in turn means that we will have to adapt several of these processes to meet the new requirements.
We will also need to review our data and classify it in order to identify our personal data in the future. Two heavy jobs to be done - but why not take the opportunity to look at how we can streamline, automate and classify our data in other ways that give us other added value?
While you have to analyze your data, you can take the opportunity to make other changes that lead to streamlined processes, reduced administrative costs and perhaps new insights into your customers.
Office 365 offers a great platform for digitalization and automation. Many of our customers have taken the step into Office 365 already, but now it's time to take the next one.

Questions to ask yourself

- Can we automate some of our manual processes?
- Can we classify our data in other ways that benefit us in other contexts?
- Can we take the opportunity to digitize other data at the same time?
- Can we identify other opportunities?
If we are to believe Gartner, digitalization is the way to go. Stop wasting money on business systems - digitize instead!

Let's make it concrete. Vacations and absences need to be managed. Usually, this involves several steps that have to be carried out manually:

- Vacation request is initiated
- Approval from manager
- Update of holiday list
- Communication to payroll office

- Book in calendar
- Create an absence message

What these steps have in common is that the same data must be processed at all stages. Many companies handle the steps separately and in many cases manually.
When we digitize our environment, new opportunities open up. We can reuse the same data in different contexts.
With the help of Office 365 flow, these steps can be minimized from six to two - Request and approval.
Last but not least, being GDPR ready is a quality stamp that you will be able to use in many contexts - not least as a competitive tool.