Sales organizations need to comply with GDPR. This is what you need to do with your sales contracts.

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The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the biggest revolution in data privacy and protection laws in more than 20 years and applies to sales as much as to marketing. 

It will completely change the way companies in the EU and beyond will collect, transact and store customer’s data. The new law is coming into place on the 25th of May 2018 and companies are both worried and confused as to what needs to be done in order to be compliant.

Accordium can help companies become GDPR compliant with all their sales contracts, data collection in the last mile of deal closing and through esignatures.

But what exactly is GDPR?

The GDPR law was passed in 2016 after years of negotiation. It builds upon the core principles of the EU Data Protection Directive and places a significant emphasis on business accountability and individual consent. The EU’s executive body summary of GDPR obejectives goes as follows:
“The objective of this new set of rules is to give citizens back control over their personal data, and to simplify the regulatory environment for business. The data protection reform is a key enabler of the Digital Single Market which the Commission has prioritised. The reform will allow European citizens and businesses to fully benefit from the digital economy.”

Ok, so what does that really mean?

GDPR is designed to give power back to private individuals over how companies collect and use their data.

There are two key pillars of GDPR that regulate 1) how data is collected and 2) how it is stored.

1) Data collection must be opted-in by users

Any data must be collected through an opt-in consent by the end-user. That means, a users must be fully aware of what data is being collected and what it will be used for before sharing it actively.

2) User data must be stored securely and only as long as needed

Not only must data be stored in a secure space, but it must also not kept longer than necessary. Users now have the right to be completely forgotten by a company, ie. if requested, a company must delet all of a user’s data.

Additionally, companies should not store data longer than is necessary to deliver a service. It is not fully defined what a reasonable time frame is yet.

Secure data storage also means that a data breach must be reported immediately.

Read this 2min rundown of GDPR by my co-founder Daniel Richardson.

Do Salespeople need to worry about GDPR?

Do you have an online presence and do you have any users or customers in the EU? Then the answer is yes. GDPR does not differentiate between EU and non-EU organizations, what matters is where the end-user is located. Anyone who collects some kind of data from EU-based users, even if its just cookies on the website, has to be GDPR compliant.

How can cloud solutions help sales organizations be GDPR compliant?

As a cloud solution in the contract management space we help companies in various aspects of GDPR compliancy. This can be through the way you obtain consent to collect data through Accordium Sign, how you store your contract and sales data, how you sign contracts between data controllers and data processors.

Here’s an explainer video on Accordium.

 

Accordium converts prospects to paying customers with the click of a button. We help sales teams perform better in the last mile of deal-closing.
We aim to maximize the revenue in a company and the efficiency of its sales floor with automated workflows, negotiations, e-signatures, and data insights. Salespeople will be able to spend more time on selling, and sales leaders will get accurate insights into an all-digital closing process.

1) GDPR Compliance by Obtaining Consent Through e-signatures

The GDPR defines requirements for obtaining consent to process an individual’s personal data. This consent must be specific, informed, unambiguous, freely given, and documented.

Accordium e-signatures can help to making sure this is the case. We make it easier to obtain affirmative consent at the point of data collection – in real-time. Accordium Sign, our proprietary esignature solution, allow companies to demonstrate consent with a court-admissible tamper-evident audit trail.

2) Ensuring the Right to be Forgotten

Not only the way information is stored, but also the amount of time is important. Every user has the right to be forgotten and data should not be stored longer than necessary.

Accordium can help you meet those requirements.

We make it easy to erase all personal data when a contract has been completed. The personal data is easy to access at any time

3) Keeping your Data Organized: Storage of Contracts and Other Data

One of the key aspects of GDPR is the storage of data. We tackle this both through our product design and features, as well as our technical approach in software architecture.

By using Accordium contract management solutions you ensure that such data is saved in a secure place, minimizing the risk for data breaches.

We ensure an an organized archive that provides you with a navigable setup and a grand overview of your legal documents. You can import all your old documents and store them with the new ones so that everything is kept in one place.

Software security is an ongoing effort at Accordium as we believe security is always an operating concern and not a feature. We make sure that we use battle tested libraries and up to date software to run Accordium’s services.

Accordium relies on Amazon AWS data centers. This ensure highest security, thanks to its innovative architecture.

Additionally all your contracts will be fully encrypted on our servers, minimizing the risk for exposure in case of a data breach.

Read more on Accordium’s commitment to data security here.

4) Contracts Between Data Controllers and Data Processors

GDPR also regulates requirements for contracts between data controllers and the suppliers they use to process the personal data they control (data processors).

Accordium Sign, our own esignature solution, can help in the process of updating such agreements quickly. This also involves ensuring all GDPR required terms are used correctly in such contracts.

Through Accordium Templates and Automation, it will be easy to update all contract templates instantly, ensuring your sales team only uses the correct and compliant versions of your contract templates, instead of some heritage version. By enforcing the use of one contract management tool companies can minimize the risk of employees using outdated contracts.

Whatismore, Accordium gives senders complete visibility of where each document is and who has yet to sign, with automated reminders to help speed the process along.

To sum up, Accordium can play a key role in your GDPR strategy by collecting consent from new and existing customers, as well as signing and updating contracts with suppliers who process personal data on your behalf.

Talk to us to find out how we can help your specific case.

– Alex

This article provides basic understanding of GDPR and should not be understood as legal advice.

 

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