Gearing up for the GDPR

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How 2source4 pivoted to provide managed services for its customers

Founded 10 years ago focusing primarily on reselling IT products and solutions, 2source4 is a Gold Microsoft partner that has since pivoted its business to deliver manage services for its customers—capitalizing on a managed services market projected to grow to as much as $257.8 billion by 2020.

Focusing on Azure, Office 365 and EMS, 2source4 has worked with its customers across Europe in order to transition them to the cloud while providing vital value-added services wrapped around its technology solutions. Managed service providers have unique knowledge of their customers’ businesses, and 2source4 is no exception. With tech security concerns on the rise and the recent regulatory environment of Europe in a state of flux, 2source4 took it upon itself to expand its portfolio of security services. 2source4 now offers a security dashboard to help its customers stay ahead of evolving security threats while partnering to help its customers’ organizations prepare for the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Using automation to drive value from Microsoft’s Operations Management Suite

2source4’s security risk dashboard is a tool that allows its customers to clearly see where they might have gaps in their security. The dashboard enables customers to best utilize Microsoft Azure’s operations management suite by allowing customers to easily see when a new device enters their network or when a device doesn’t match set security policies. By compiling management into a single dashboard, it enables its customers to assess their environment’s security concerns from a single pane of glass, automating processes that might otherwise inhibit the customer from realizing then full value of the Microsoft solution.

To further enhance its customer’s security, 2source4 has also partnered with Mimecast—leader in the email security space—to bring yet another service to bear in aiding its customers. Supplementing the existing security services within Office 365, Mimecast and 2source4’s partnership empowers comprehensive security for their customers.

Partnering to drive GDPR compliance

The GDPR is widely trumpeted as one of the most important changes in data regulations in the past 20 years. The regulation was designed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, protect and empower all EU citizens, and shape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy. While the regulation was approved in April 2016, broad enforcement of the policy is delayed until May 2018—date many businesses are finding to be approaching all-too-rapidly.

2source4 has adopted its solution-driven approach to help its customers stay ahead of the GDPR regulation, partnering with other companies to provide a comprehensive approach to helping its customers stay compliant.

Solving for its customers’ technology concerns

“We are an IT company, so first and foremost we help our customers identify where the technical compliance issues exist within their organization—for example, tagging data and using firewalls or Mimecast to ward against breaches and inbound/outbound data compliance issues. We also make sure that the users are aware of what they should and should not do to remain compliant,” said Ernst Veen of 2source4.

A holistic approach to data compliance

2source4 also understands the importance of approaching the GDPR from a legal perspective. It partners with regional law firms to help their customers better understand their own privacy statements and personal identification data. It brings in professionals from Microsoft to talk to these customers, helping their employees understand what they can do to ensure their organization is compliant with the GDPR regulation and, more importantly, that their own customers’ data is protected. It also brings in lawyers to discuss privacy by design, and how they can go about implementing it in their own organization.

2source4 takes its role of advisor seriously, and has developed assets, webinars and trainings to help disseminate and demonstrate its thought leadership to customers across the EU.

2Source4 is currently enrolling customers in a GDPR masterclass intended to train them on the ins and outs of the new regulation and have also developed a whitepaper speaking to key points of compliance.

Transforming how customers use their data

As it has worked to help customers tag and secure their data in preparation for the GDPR, 2source4 has realized that, beyond merely adhering to data compliance regulations, these efforts can help customers get a better handle on their data so they can use it to add value to their business.

“Many customers don’t realize that there is a cool side to getting ready for the GDPR. If you have tags on your data, you can use AI and PowerBI solutions to add value to your business. For one of our retail customers, for example, we were able to set up PowerBI so they could easily visualize sales conversion rates in their stores,” said Ernst Veen of 2source4.

For one of its customers, consumer foods provider Prins & Dingemanse, 2source4 used PowerBI to help optimize its inventory. As a food provider specializing in seafood, Prins & Dingemanse needed to ensure its food was fresh when delivered to the customer. This requires it to tightly manage supply chains and delivery schedules in order to maximize profits and minimize food waste—processes that can incur massive overhead costs if managed without automation. By going through the process of normalizing its data, it was able to use it to drive actionable insights that benefitted its business—rather than letting the data sit unused and unprotected in a seldom-accessed database. By partnering with 2source4 to build out its PowerBI-enabled solution, it gained newfound, data-driven visibility into its operations, enabling it to optimize its processes accordingly.

As concerns regarding the new GDPR regulation in the EU continue to mount, 2source4 has been able to capitalize on customers’ newfound urgency to transform how they use their data—sing the concern around the new regulation as an opportunity to improve its customers’ security while enabling them to transform the data generated by their businesses into powerful insights that add value for their businesses and maximize the value they realize from their Microsoft solutions.