January 28th is the tenth anniversary of European Data Protection Day. Initiated by the Council of Europe in 2007, it calls on organizations, companies and in particular citizens to act with greater sensitivity when handling data. This day of action for more data protection has meanwhile enjoyed an international career too and organizations in the USA and Canada take part in what is known there as Data Privacy Day.

Safe Harbor and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – in Europe data protection is currently a hot topic. On the occasion of Data Protection Day, you will find below a short appraisal by Andres Dickehut, CEO of Consultix GmbH in Bremen, of the latest developments in Europe and how they affect companies.

Consultix, a German marketing and IT service provider, can look back on over 20 years’ experience. The owner-managed company delivers web-based services for digital marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) and operates in over 80 countries. ProCampaign, its customer engagement platform, is its flagship. The data of more than 50 million consumers are stored in the firm’s own high-security data centers in Germany.

Consultix is technology leader in the processing of personal data and has received several awards – also as the first CRM provider – for its pioneering role in the field of data protection and data security, including “EuroPriSe”, the European Privacy Seal.

Please feel free to use the contents below for your own research or editorial work. If you have any questions, we are happy to answer them.

Statement on the occasion of European Data Protection Day
Message from Andres Dickehut, CEO of the German marketing and IT service provider Consultix GmbH 

Data protection is a major competitive advantage

“German companies should understand the breakdown of Safe Harbor and the entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as an opportunity and take care of data protection in a binding manner. For their customers’ sake alone, if nothing else. For this, the European Commission has set them a time limit in the framework of the General Data Protection Regulation of two more years. Waiting unnecessarily too long here should be avoided.

Data protection is friend not foe

Assessment and measures

I am speaking from my 20 years’ experience in consulting and product development when I say that data protection is not a burden but a competitive advantage for companies. We help companies by providing them with an assessment which forms the basis for optimizing those processes which are relevant to data protection. We can already achieve a lot here for the people in charge of marketing and data protection. One of the measures derived can be to reduce the number of data processing applications and centralize customer profiles in order to make them less vulnerable. We can offer technological solutions here too.

Our solutions for digital marketing, CRM, customer engagement, hosting and cloud services are all founded on a certified and very high level of data protection. Our national and international clients from over 80 countries know to appreciate this. As a result of the current debate, we are holding a lot of discussions right now on this topic.

The issues discussed match the main statements in a recent study by KPMG and Bitkom: the Cloud Monitor 2015. According to the report, 83 percent of the German managers interviewed expect their cloud providers to operate their data centers exclusively in Germany. 80 percent also want their headquarters to be in Germany too. The majority additionally consider it essential that the provider is accredited by an independent body. We can confidently tick all the boxes here. Our continuous investment in the highest level of data protection has proved its value for us and now offers us several competitive advantages. We are passing on these advantages to our clients.”

About Consultix GmbH:

Consultix GmbH has its headquarters in Bremen and operates at international level as a provider of marketing and IT services. The German, owner-led company was founded in 1994 and delivers web-based services and software for customer relationship management (CRM), customer loyalty systems, digital marketing and e-business. Global brands trust Consultix and its solutions, advice and extensive customer support. Flagship is the ProCampaign customer engagement platform. Consultix is technology leader in the field of personal data and has received several awards – also as the first CRM provider – for its pioneering role, including “EuroPriSe”, the European Privacy Seal, and TeleTrust’s “IT Security Made in Germany” (ITSMIG) seal. Alongside its digital business solutions, Consultix provides dedicated hosting as well as cloud services in its own high-security data centers in Germany.

Media Contact
Christian Colmer
Communications Manager
Consultix GmbH
Wachtstrasse 17-24
28195 Bremen, Germany
Tel: +49 (421) 333 88-0
E-Mail: Info@consultix.net
Web: www.consultix.net
Imprint: www.consultix.net/imprint