Secure document storage platforms can play a major role in simplifying data governance and compliance with regulatory obligations. By storing all sensitive documents and customer communications in a managed, centralised repository, businesses can implement a clearly defined set of policies to maximise data privacy and ensure industry standards and best practices are adhered to.
Here’s how that happens:
Document centralisation
Platforms like SecurDocs provide a central location for storing all critical documents, including those relevant to internal governance policies and external regulatory scrutiny. When subject to an audit, all pertinent materials are easily accessible, along with records of who’s had access to them and when.
Document classification
Organisations can set up their own hierarchies and conventions for tagging, labelling and categorising documents. This, along with the powerful search functionalities of the storage platforms, make it easy to retrieve key documents during an audit and demonstrate the data governance practices put in place for managing sensitive information.
Access controls
Administrators of your platform can define permissions to ensure only authorised staff have access to specific documents or categories of document. Generic user roles can be configured to manage access at scale rather than on a document-by-document basis. These controls safeguard against data breaches and ensure that your organisation is complying with its data security obligations.
Multi-factor authentication
Most storage platforms require multi-factor authentication for users seeking to access documents. This adds an extra layer of security that’s particularly important when dealing with sensitive information such as health or financial records.
Workflow automation
Custom workflows can be set up to automate routine internal governance processes. For example, if invoices need to be reviewed by a number of approvers in a particular order before being paid, this can be built into your platform, with the invoice automatically sent to an approver once the previous step is complete. This ensures that your sign-off processes are being followed while minimising ad-hoc communications between stakeholders.
Encryption
Document storage platforms may use encryption as an added firewall against cyber-attacks. Encrypting documents minimises the risk of a data breach when information is shared outside of the organisation, for example with customers or external partners.
Audit trails
Your platform will keep comprehensive records of who accesses or alters your organisation’s documents. These logs can prove critically important if your organisation is subject to legal enquiries or required to provide transparency around internal governance processes.
Version controls
Versioning features in your platform will allow multiple users to collaborate on a single document while archiving all previous iterations. Effective version controlling is a critical part of data governance, as it both ensures work isn’t lost and provides extensive historical records of who made what changes and when.
Document retention
Document storage platforms allow you to create custom policies for retaining and deleting documents. For example, you can design your platform such that customer records are automatically deleted after seven years. This makes compliance with industry standards or regulatory obligations around data retention very straightforward.
All these features make the challenging task of implementing effective governance policies that comply with regulatory obligations simple. When these obligations change over time, it’s easy to adjust your policies to reflect those changes. All Australian organisations that store large volumes of data are subject to some form of data security regulation, and the growing popularity of document storage platforms reflects this need to automate and standardise related data governance processes.
