With less than four months to go until the new data protection law comes into play, businesses are being urged to prepare fully, as the changes will be seismic – and as complex as a Vacheron Constantin timepiece.

The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is being introduced on 25 May 2018 designed to ensure that good data protection is the cornerstone of any business policy and practices.  It affects all aspects of business processing and how data is handled.  The risk for failing to comply is ‘damage to both public reputation and bank balance’, according to Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, who recently spoke to business leaders at a Wall Street Journal event.

Anticipating the changing GDPR environment, this month CAM is finalising its six-month compliance journey with a specialist legal firm.  As the ‘controller’ of our own data and that of our hosted clients, it’s imperative that we are fully compliant.  We introduced CAM Cloud some 18 months ago to provide a completely robust and reliable hosted solution offering total peace of mind to CAMEO users.  The CAMEO system is hosted in our data centre, allowing operators to work without the hassle of maintaining their own server and backup.

The compliance process uses a dedicated GDPR tool that involves a series of questions that provide an easy view of whether a company is compliant or not and what needs to be implemented to address any issues.

From this month, CAM is in a position to provide this online tool to our customer base. Working through the questions is a simple process, removing many of the complexities around GDPR. As the tool is created and updated by specialist lawyers our customers can be confident the latest legislation will be included when the need for review arises. CAM can also support our customers with elements of this process via the purchase of hours through our TOTAL Care scheme. 

We have also reviewed our core software to support our customers as ‘processors’ of data. In addition, we will be making amendments to marketing opt in / opt out flags within CAMEO, as under the new rules, customers must opt in while the opt out option becomes null and void.  Therefore, the software releases in May will append the flags to fit in line with legislation and will also ensure the opt in data is carried over as per the ‘legitimate interest’ section of GDPR.

At the moment GDPR awareness and understanding appears still to be low among UK business, yet government has made it plain that no business is exempt, and Brexit is no excuse for tardy and ineffectual data protection.  A small investment now to ensure a business’ data processing is legitimate will avoid a potentially large fine and more later on.

- Ryan Naughton, Operations Director

Exhausts, Tyres & Batteries Worcester Ltd has invested in CAM Cloud to host its Cameo system in CAM’s data centre.  The managed service will provide quality, hassle-free maintenance of its server and backup solution at its site on the Blackpole trading estate providing complete peace of mind.

Carl Stanley, IT manager at the Blackpole trading estate, Worcester, says, “The CAM Cloud hosted solution will ensure we are totally secure and can offer our customers the best possible service at all times.”

Hot on the heels of its recent acquisition, Tructyre has gone ‘live’ with e-jobsheet to manage its direct fleet and third-party work amongst its tyre technician community.

Tructyre, a founding member of the UniSerV User Group, is now benefiting from the integration of e-jobsheet into CAM’s UniSerV platform, which will link it, where a connection exists on the TiDaeXTM platform, to its third-party customers. e-jobsheet will also assist Tructyre to service its direct customers as the app supports all functions required by a commercial tyre service provider – be it for breadowns, planned work, supply only, inspections, as well as fleet audits.

Anne Parker, Group Business Support Manager of Tructyre and Chairwoman of the UniSerV User Group says, “Within a week of going ‘live’ with e-jobsheet, Tructyre was completing over 500 jobs amongst its fitting workforce each work day. We are really pleased with the way our tyre technicians have embraced the new platform so enthusiastically. And the clear benefit of using one digital tablet app across all of our tyre and fleet management needs gives us great confidence as well.”