Tag Archive for: GDPR

New MultiTAS GDPR add-on

No doubt most of you (if not all) will be tired of hearing about GDPR and what it means for your business. We’re sure that, by now, your business has followed the rules to the letter and all of your data is safely and securely managed in a GDPR-compliant way. No? Well, read on. We may just be able to help…

The way in which your business can obtain and use sensitive data has changed. Your business now needs solutions for assessing, implementing and maintaining GDPR compliance everyday. To help TASBooks users, Infoplex has developed an essential GDPR add-on for TASBooks.

Data Compliance Manager

Our Data Compliance Manager can help your business handle sensitive financial and personal data efficiently.  The add-on will search the TASBooks database and ‘wipe clean’ any data that is no longer needed. If a customer wants to be ‘forgotten’, the Data Compliance Manager can locate any records associated with that customer and remove their data securely.

With Data Compliance Manager, your business can safeguard customer and supplier data but retain business-critical information. This includes contracts, transaction data and VAT records. You can search the TASBooks database using in-built filters – such as customer, supplier or marketing codes – and make changes individually or in bulk.

We know what you’re thinking. Why now? Is it necessary? How much is this going to cost? Well, to help you out and explain things a bit more, we’ve put together a quick list of the most common (obvious) questions and some answers.

Why aren’t TAS doing this? Surely this means that TASBooks will be mothballed?

Not at all. Sage and TAS are under no obligation to update their software to make it GDPR-compliant.  Under the GDPR legislation, the burden for compliance shifted from software developers (like Microsoft or Sage) to the consumer (your business).  It is now your responsibility to make sure that your business and your software is compliant.

What does that really mean for you and your business?

Well, you could ask TAS to develop a solution for you. They will either say no or attach a pretty hefty price tag to it, along with a new support contract.

So why Infoplex and why now?

We’ve been the official TAS development partner for some years now. As such, a number of businesses reached out to us before the GDPR deadline asking for advice and help.  We explained the situation to them.  We’ve had time to look into the issue and work out how we could best help TASBooks users.  The Data Compliance Manager is our solution to the problem.

I thought GDPR was done and dusted at the end of May. Why are you asking me about this now?

If only. If only… It’s not as clear cut as that, we’re afraid.  Your business needs to identify, analyse and manage the data it holds everyday.  Data that was relevant to your business last week may no longer be so next week.  Your business needs a way to manage that change as quickly and as easily as possible. To put it simply, GDPR is for life, not just for 25th May.

How much is it?

We don’t know. We’re still working that out. It’s based on a lot of different factors, including the amount of time that we’ve spent developing it. What we can tell you is that not only will there be a one-off charge but there will also be an annual recurring fee too.

Why is there a recurring fee?

We want you use the latest software.  Every so often, we will let you know that there’s an update to the GDPR add-on and you can download the latest version.

Why will there be an update?

First, the GDPR rules will change.  At the moment, ‘personal data’ is anything by which a person can be identified.  The problem is that we can be identified in lots of different ways, not just our name or our address.  The definition of ‘personal data’ will change and we want to update your software to reflect that.

Second, there’s a new law called the ePrivacy Regulation.  It will complement the GDPR and offer individuals control over all their data and ensure that businesses handle data with care. It will be approved by the end of 2018 and come into effect next year.  To make things easier for your business, we’re going to update our GDPR add-on when the ePrivacy Regulation comes into effect.

Third, there’s Brexit.  We don’t yet know how data protection requirements will change after Brexit.  During the transition, we expect there to be ‘regulatory-alignment’ and ‘divergence’.  We want to help you stay in control and will be updating GDPR add-on as appropriate.

When is it available?

Soon. We’re testing it out at the moment. We’re seeing how easy it is to break (we’re experts at breaking things). Once we’re certain it’s ok, we’ll release it.

In the meantime… if you want to know more about it, why not give George a call on +44 (0)1592 598100 or send him an email at sales@infoplex.co.uk

GDPR and Infoplex

It doesn’t matter where you are in the world or what type fo business you run.  Let’s be honest. There’s no escaping it. What are we talking about? The EU’s new data privacy laws – the GDPR.

We hear you. We’re as fed up with it as you are. No, really. We’ve given up hope of having any semblance of a normal life for the next month or so as we work towards compliance. We are not immune to it.

That’s why we’ve been sending out emails right, left and centre to all and sundry in the last weeks. It’s just one element in our GDPR strategy. Yes. We have a strategy. Quite frankly, we’re as surprised about it as you are.

So, what is it exactly that we are doing? Glad you asked…

  1. Consent for marketing. The new rules mean that we are not allowed to get in touch with you to advertise new products or services unless you tell us that we can. We can contact you about software updates. We can contact you about security patches. We cannot contact you about our products (such as MultiTAS or eTAS) unless you say “Yes please, Infoplex. Tell me more.” We cannot tell you that we’re offering a 25% discount unless you say so. That’s why we’ve emailed everybody we know to make them aware of the changes and to ask them to agree to hear from us. So far, we’ve sent out 4 emails and if you haven’t already seen one, then maybe check your junk mail folder. It may have slipped in there.
  2. Updating our privacy policy. The GDPR is there to make things clearer for you and for us. It will make it easier for you to see what information we have about you, how we obtained it and what we do with it. From our perspective, it makes it easier for us to know what we can and cannot do with it. In keeping with the theme of simplicity, we’ve updated our privacy policy. We’ve ripped out the boring legalese and made it as simple and transparent as possible. It tells you who to get in touch with at Infoplex to discuss your data (Hello Douglas! *waves*), tells you what types of data we may have about you (contact details, technical data, etc.), what we do with it, where we keep it and what you can tell us to do with it.
  3. Accessing your data. Taking the whole simplicity and transparency theme a bit further, we’ve come up with nifty way to help you gt in touch with us and find out what we know about you. With the help of our friends at Paperform, we’ve built a simple online form that you can use to contact Douglas and ask about your data, make any corrections to if there’s a problem with it or even delete it.
  4. Helping you with your database. This is a funny one. We realised that when you get in touch to discuss a problem, we usually hop on to your computer, rummage around behind the scenes and fix the problem with TASBooks. We’ve always assumed that you know that we do this – not least of all because it’s in the Terms & Conditions. How else are we going to fix the problem otherwise? We’ve now tightened up on and it has a real impact upon you. From 25th May, you will be required to fill in a form online before we can help you. The form makes clear that you are asking us for help and that you consent to our accessing your database to help you. If you do not fill in this form, we will not help you. It doesn’t matter if you have a support contract or not. You have to fill in this form first.

That’s about it really. If you’re familiar with what your business is doing for GDPR compliance, then you’ll know that there’s a whole raft of measures in the background that are also being implemented. That’s what we’re doing to. Privacy assesments. Risk assessments. Shopping lists. Oh! You were paying attention. That’s good to know.

These are the steps that will impact you the most. These are the steps that are designed to help you as much as they are us. Fingers crossed, everybody, that they don’t change their mind again next year!