Are you prepared?
Preoday has pledged to help its clients navigate upcoming changes to data security regulations and achieve General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance. As part of its promise, the mobile and online ordering technology provider for hospitality businesses has established a dedicated business helpline, contactable on [email protected].
With the GDPR activating on 25 May 2018, Preoday is concerned that there will be many casualties from unprepared restaurants and restaurants/venues that fail to understand and, more importantly, adapt quickly to the regulations. The company aims to guarantee its clients are not among them, ensuring also that they understand the sweeping implications the GDPR has for data ownership and control, and therefore, precious customer relationships.
Thomas Brooke, Preoday’s expert on the GDPR explains: “Preoday is committed to helping its clients understand and address the GDPR requirements. Industry data has shown great variation in the levels of preparation that businesses have made. This in itself is a concern as it means no clear picture of the state of the market can be formed, though we believe a high number of small and independent outlets do not realise the impact the GDPR will have on them. Digitisation is transforming the hospitality industry, but businesses that fail to understand the GDPR risk both heavy fines for non-compliance and also loss of ownership and control of customer data. With less than 10 months to comply with the GDPR mandates, the time to act is now.”
The conflicting industry data includes a survey from IT network, Spiceworks, whichreported 40 per cent of organisations in the UK have started to prepare for the GDPR, while forensic security company, Guidance Software, placed this figure much lower at15.7 per cent. IT services firm, Bluesource, says50 per centare taking steps to prepare for compliance but law firm, Boyes Turner, claims90 per cent of those it asked are in some state of readiness. Finally, research firm Veritas Technologies found in its survey that 31 per cent of respondents believe they are already the GDPR ready but, within that group, only two per cent actually were.
What is clear is that companies, large and small, in hospitality and other industries, are in different stages of preparation for the GDPR. In order to assist hospitality companies on their journey to compliance, Preoday has created a comprehensive guide that can be downloaded and used as a reference document. The guide explains what the GDPR means for hospitality businesses and provides advice on developing a data strategy in preparation for the GDPR.
Brooke added: “The GDPR can appear daunting to small businesses, some find the regulation very confusing and others may not even realise that the GDPR applies to them. But we do understand what the GDPR means for the hospitality industry and we are committed to educating and supporting businesses as well as providing them with solutions that help them become compliant with the GDPR.”
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