Member Article

Managing director of Teesside outsourcing company says working from home doesn’t mean call centres can allow data security to slide

14/01/2021

As the UK enters another COVID-19 lockdown, Martin Anderson, managing director of Lemon Business Solutions, has warned that remote working is no excuse for lax data management.

Martin Anderson, managing director of Lemon Business Solutions, said: “We know what lockdowns have in store and are now much more prepared to deal with the challenges. For example, in our own industry, we know that lockdowns over the past year have resulted in significant spikes in calls to call centres. The industry is booming, and we expect that this trend will continue throughout the current lockdown and into the future.”

Citing data from across his sector, Martin has warned that a combination of remote working and increased call volumes, could lead to organisations finding themselves compromised on data protection: “Many businesses continue to be overwhelmed by the number of calls they receive, citing COVID-19 and working from home in cases of lengthy waiting times. There is a real risk that where there are staff shortages and a lack of resources, call centres could find themselves open to data breaches.

“As an industry we need to continue to comply with the Data Protection Act and GDPR as we work from home. As a company we have made sure that we are continuing to deliver the same, if not better, data protection and I would advise other businesses to follow suit.

“Many call centre workers continue to work from home and the EU foreign affairs wing found high levels of pandemic-related cyber-attacks in the previous lockdowns. This means that we, as an industry, need to step up and strengthen our data security and protection.

“At Lemon, we have a mixture of staff working in the office and remotely during this lockdown, as they have done throughout the pandemic. We have invested in data protection services to ensure that our clients retain their trust in the level of data protection that we provide.

“As an outsourcing company, we take data protection very seriously and are credited with Information Security Management ISO 27001, the global gold standard for securing information. It is a framework that helps us to establish, implement, operate, monitor, review, maintain and continually improve our information security management system. It provides confidence to our clients and callers that their data remains private and secure.”

In an appeal to partners, colleagues and those with data management responsibilities, he concluded: “Lockdown is no longer a new thing for call centres, and it is imperative that we continue to provide the highest quality data protection for our callers, whether we work from home or from the office. As an industry, we can’t allow the mistakes of the previous lockdowns slide this time.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Caroline Walker .