The new normal of remote work has vast potential to increase the risk of gaps in compliance, data protection and governance—which no organization can afford. As organizations transition to expanded remote work in a post-COVID world, one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to mitigate risk is to integrate information protection, governance and compliance into the solutions that users and organizations already use to communicate and collaborate.
If you are using Microsoft products like Outlook and Teams for remote workers, Microsoft has integrated, native tools for data protection, compliance and governance across platforms, devices and endpoints. By integrating solutions like Microsoft 365 Compliance Manager and Microsoft Information Protection and Governance directly with the productivity platform, Microsoft has made data protection much simpler.
Compliance officers and chief risk officers can not only reduce risk by leveraging these solutions, but also strengthen governance, lower costs, simplify management and empower remote workers in a way that protects sensitive data and enhances workforce productivity.
Here are three key ways these integrated solutions help meet the challenges of the new remote workforce:
- End-to-end coverage with a single view across all platforms: Using a single end-to-end system for data protection and governance can help to ensure that no matter where a document is stored or shared, it remains compliant and secure. With this model, new data can be tracked across all platforms as it’s created. For example, information protection solutions built into Microsoft 365 work across platforms and devices to keep track of sensitive information wherever it lives.
- Integrated policy management: Central management can be used to determine and enforce a wide range of data protection, security and governance policies. You can manage which documents need to be encrypted or watermarked and stop employees from accidentally exposing sensitive data via collaboration tools such as chat or file sharing. You can ensure data protection policies are integrated into everyday productivity applications to automate policy management and eliminate the need for unnecessary bolted-on point products.
- Automation and intelligence: Standardized data such as Social Security or credit card numbers can be automatically identified and classified using Microsoft 365 Compliance Manager. Unstructured data such as product designs or other intellectual property can be flagged using machine learning-powered classifiers. As regulations and company policies change, Microsoft 365 can reclassify, protect or delete information that may become newly regulated or sensitive.
Success Story
Fortuna Düsseldorf, the German football club known as F95, faced a variety of compliance and data protection challenges, such as ensuring the protection of private information about players’ health and contracts and other data in the face of strict General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules in Europe. The issues were exacerbated by the team’s multiple facilities and locations, as well as the use of social media and other mobile platforms by the team’s young, digitally savvy players. To read more about Fortuna Dusseldorf’s story with Microsoft, visit the customer success article here.
The team focused on a three-stage plan built around Microsoft solutions such as Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Compliance Center, Microsoft Azure and more. “We wanted a modern, flexible, efficient workspace for our diverse environment, and we wanted the simplicity of a single solution,” says Samir Sisic, head of IT at F95. When COVID-19 struck, the team was prepared. According to Christian Koke, chief marketing officer for the team, the Microsoft solutions “helped us make the shift to a new way of working within a matter of days.”
Reduce Complexity, Improve Protection
Data protection, governance and compliance have the potential to be more complex and challenging, with new work-from-home imperatives and more stringent regulatory requirements. But just because compliance can be more complex doesn’t mean it should be more complex.
In fact, now is the perfect time to simplify compliance and governance so that your organization can be ready to address the challenges of the new workforce today and into the future.
For more information on how your organization can modernize data protection, governance and compliance, please visit Microsoft and take advantage of the many resources available on this special information hub.
