Why you should open your doors for the DMAâs compliance audit

We were recently invited to participate in the pilot of DMA’s extended compliance audit process for data businesses. In doing so we made ourselves wide open to having our policies and processes placed under the microscope. Now, having been through the process I encourage your organisation to open its doors to the DMA, when the initiative is rolled out fully next year.

The process involved a team of assessors reviewing our approach to key data issues such as:

· Supplier and client relationships and contracts

· Consent, privacy, security, age, engagement of data

· Suppression processes

· Retention policy

· Training

· Selection, extraction and delivery of data

The external audit was conducted by DQM GRC on behalf of the DMA, who designed and own the audit process. These independent third party auditors specialise in data governance, risk mitigation and compliance advisory services. Within the organisation we have always taken compliance very seriously, but the chance to have our approach independently assessed in this way was too good an opportunity to pass up on. But why do I think you should do the same?

Since the audit we have an even stronger sense of confidence, that we are approaching data compliance in a thorough and professional manner. Going through the audit process has focused every member of the team on compliance and this continues to be evident in their work each and every day. We also have a clear strategy in place to ensure that we remain ahead of the game, in the face of upcoming regulatory changes, such as GDPR. What is more, it also gives our partners and clients trust that the services we are providing to them enhance their own approaches to compliance.

As data professionals we have a huge responsibility to not only act responsibly, but also be seen to be doing so. Participating in audits such as this are essential to regulate our industry and show that we are committed to ethical best practice. I will give the last word to the Managing Director of the DMA, Rachel Aldighieri, who gives this sage advice: “In an increasingly connected world, data forms the backbone of many businesses. Customers need to be able to trust that any data a company has on them will be treated in the correct way and that any business is being transparent about how they want to use that information.”