Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. Most businesses today manage enormous amounts of data and this comes with numerous considerations as it must be handled both efficiently and safely. The following contributed discusses four rules for this and is entitled, The 4 Rules Of Business Data.
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Businesses work with data every day. Whether they collect, analyze, transfer or interpret, enterprises rely on data at every single step of their processes. With million sensitive pieces of information being stored and used as part of business activities, no company can afford to fail behind data management standards. Indeed, with the acquisition of confidential and sensitive data comes the responsibility of using these judiciously and safely.
Companies have a digital liability to honor for their employees and clients by following an explicit data management strategy. Admittedly, while every company is free to design their policy, you can find an overarching guideline to help you navigate through the troubled waters of data management. Typically, businesses are expected to respect four data rules:
Cloud computing offers excellent data accessibility
Make them compliant
Since May 2018 and the launch of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by the EU, the words data compliance have been on every mouth. In reality, data compliance refers to the need for a company to comply with the legal requirements in force regarding their data processes. For citizens from the EU zone, GDPR is the main data compliance body. However, you’ll find that your business needs to obey a variety of legal requirements depending on the kind of data you use. Medical data, for instance, respond to the HIPAA compliance – which you can ensure using the managed compliance services from NAHS for example. Schools and other education institutions need to comply with a different set of requirements. Banks also rely on specific data compliance bodies. In other words, your data need to be processed accordingly to the specifications in your sector.
Protect them from accidental loss and damage
Your data are precious. Losing them doesn’t only affect your day-to-day activities, but it also damages your credibility. Consequently, companies need to protect themselves from data disasters as best as they can. Every 
business need to deploy an effective and secure backup solution to recover everything that is vital to your business survival. Keeping a copy – physically or digitally, or even both – is primordial.
Make them safely accessible to your team
Data management requires sharing, collaborating and research within the data collection. While holding physical data backups can be helpful in the case of loss or damage, it’s a waste of time when it comes to encouraging your teams to work together. Making your data accessible through a secure digital interface, such as cloud computing, employees with the ability to access the information they need in a click. However, the key focus about cloud solution is their security; your data should be only accessible to your coworkers.
Ensure they are correct at all times
Last; but not least, most confidential people data are deemed to evolve through time. People, indeed, can change their address, name, specific data preferences, and so on. As part of the GDPR regulations, users are allowed to request access to their information, for correction or removal purposes. Similarly, you need to maintain your customer data accurate even outside of the GDPR zone, which implies providing customers with the opportunity to correct the information.
Every business that works with data needs to follow the 4 rules of data management: Compliance, protection, accessibility, and correctness. Failure to respect these rules can lead to a loss in reputation, revenues, and competitiveness.
