Data Protection Quotes. How often do you get asked for data protection quotes? If you’re a freelancer or a small business owner, you might be surprised at the number of times you receive these requests.
Let’s face it, data protection is a high profile topic right now because of the many high-profile data breaches we’ve seen over the last couple of years.
In the early days of computers, the likelihood that a company would have to go through the expense of data protection was fairly low. But with the advent of portable devices and cloud storage, that has completely changed. Nowadays, it seems like everyone wants to make sure that their data is safe from potential attacks. So how do you provide data protection quotes when you’re being asked for them every day?
1. Do Your Homework
It might not seem like it at first, but gathering information about your clients is an important part of your job as a freelance IT consultant. The more you know about your clients and their business practices, the better you can tailor your solutions to fit into their workflow. And if there’s one thing we know from experience, it’s that there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution!
What kinds of questions should you be asking your clients?
Here are some suggestions:
1=What kinds of devices do they use? 2=What kind of data do they handle? 3=What kind of network infrastructure are they running on? 4=What kind of offsite or hosted storage do they use? 5=How much data do they have in total? 6=Are any third parties involved in handling their data?
Who are these third parties and what kind of access do they have to the data? What security measures are already in place (if any)? How are these measures being implemented (if any)? How much downtime can they tolerate without affecting their business processes (if any)?
Is there any special equipment that needs backups and restores (e.g., tape drives or tape libraries)? How often will you need to back up this equipment and how big will each backup be? What kind of support will you need from us if anything goes wrong? (This is especially useful when offering 24/7 support.) Will there be any restrictions on how many restore requests can be made per month? (Especially useful for companies with lots of sensitive data.)
The more information you have about your clients’ business practices, the better prepared you’ll be to write a relevant quote for them!
2. Get To Know The Different Types Of Data Protection Contract Agreements
If you’re an IT consultant, then you know the importance of having a solid contract with your clients. However, it can be hard to keep track of all the different types of data protection contracts out there.
Here are some of the most popular ones:
When you’re writing data protection quotes, here’s what you need to keep in mind:
The Data Protection Agreement
The Data Protection Agreement protects the client and the IT consultant. This includes defining the terms and conditions of the relationship between the two parties as well as outlining what rights and responsibilities each party have during the course of their relationship. Because it includes a lot of legalese and legal jargon, it’s best when there’s a lot of sensitive data involved (e.g., medical records or financial information).
The Data Contribution Agreement
The Data Contribution Agreement is for outsourced projects where one party will be handling all aspects of a project except for one or two components. This is to specify what those components are, what they are for, and who is responsible for them.
For example, if you’re hired as a subcontractor by an IT company to install a new network infrastructure in one of their offices, this type of agreement could be to specify where you will be responsible for handling network security while they handle everything else (routers, switches, firewalls, etc.).