An extra pair of hands for our clients
DPO Support Services and How External Experts Lighten the Load
Trace may be a boutique data protection compliance consultancy, but we provide services to some big clients. These include international FMGCs, NGOs and fintechs, many of which engage us over long-term contracts of a year or more. Given that these kinds of large organisations will likely have a dedicated privacy team and perhaps an official Data Protection Officer too, you might be thinking “Why?”
The reason we’re as popular among the big firms as we are with start-ups/scale-ups is because, while the scale may be different, many of the issues facing those responsible for data protection issues internally are exactly the same. The need to unite privacy with a host of other distinct and technical disciplines; the difficulty of keeping up with a patchwork quilt of ever-changing international regulations; and, quite frankly, the sheer amount of work many firms need to do to achieve and maintain compliance all mean relatively few don’t need external support of some kind.
The kind of assistance we provide is of a different kind to what perhaps first springs to mind with the term “consultancy”. We don’t just diagnose the problems; we help to treat them too – and with as much involvement as our clients need. That could be contained to a project like completing a suite of essential compliance documentation or something more ambitious like helping them progress in a very broad maturity programme. Seeing organisations through complete technology overhauls or corporate restructures has become something of a specialty.
An invaluable extra pair of hands
Our consultants say they often feel like they’ve been seconded entirely to client organisations, and they mean that in a good way. Once you’ve proven yourself to be a highly useful extra pair of hands who can also quickly plug the organisation into other experts in infosec, law, data governance, compliance copywriting and more, you quickly become a go-to resource. Already being under contract with all assurances in place means you are a cost-effective one for the organisation too.
But you are also firmly an external party, and that can be highly beneficial in itself. Getting a fresh pair of eyes on an issue can be extremely positive, so too can having a different face to freshen the tone if your data protection efforts have slightly stalled. If you need cut-through and momentum, it very often pays to bring in someone completely new. High energy and low baggage gets things done.
We pride ourselves on being highly practical and focused, and our experience has allowed us to develop a programmatic methodology for getting things done both fast and well. We learn about your organisation’s structure, culture and objectives quickly and make building rapport with key stakeholders a priority from day one. The importance of that can’t be overstated when it comes to this area of compliance.
Carrot, not stick
We understand that not everyone within the organisation will be as excited by data protection issues as we are, and making things as efficient and painless as possible means that we build, rather than deplete, the goodwill within your organisation. Our soft skills matter just as much as our industry leading qualifications and experience, and we always try to make things about the benefits better data privacy practices can bring to the teams and individuals we’re working with, rather than leading solely with the risks of non-compliance (as we know other consultancies do). in our view, the “carrot” is always better than the “stick”, despite all the scary examples of enforcement action it is possible to wave around.
Triage and treat is our motto when it comes to potential problems; we don’t like to store them up for others to deal with later down the line. Ours is a highly ethical way of working where long-term contracts come about because we are very good at what we do. If firms feel empowered to aim for more once their original challenges have been resolved, then we know we’ve done a great job.
Trace is a flexible boutique consultancy whose experts stand at the nexus of privacy, data governance, information security and ethics. When we are working with larger organisations, removing the disconnects between those disciplines - and between their departments – is at the heart of our mission. Whether your privacy function is just one person, a small team or a larger one juggling this with many other responsibilities alongside, there will be a lot that we can add or, perhaps more aptly, take away.
Why not let us lighten the load on data protection compliance? Please don’t hesitate to get in touch for an informal discussion of your needs and to hear more about what we’ve helped our consultancy clients achieve.
Read our privacy promise.