Ricoh underlines link between managed print and GDPR

The idea that GDPR is having a beneficial impact on those resellers pitching managed print services has emerged over the past few weeks because of the pressing need for customers to secure data ahead of the compliance regulations.

GDPR took centre stage at a recent event run by Ricoh UK, with the vendor using a platform to highlight the challenges faced by partners and customers.

“No vendor or supplier can guarantee GDPR compliance, and that responsibility starts and rests with each organisation," said Mike Irvine, vice president and general manager for software and European programme management at Ricoh.

“Ricoh uses the CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity & Availability) principles of privacy and security in every product and service we develop. These principles are very important to all organisations when they are deciding how to improve the security of their information systems," he added.

The other complication has been the moves by some vendors to provide channel partners with a GDPR solution that appears to solve all of the customer problems.

Bill Forest, IT Director at M2, said that the Ricoh event challenged that view and should encourage managed print specialists to look at what they were delivering to customers.

“It’s important to remember whilst IT vendors and suppliers can organisations improve their GDPR health, no one product or service will categorically make you GDPR compliant," he said.

There have been some concerns that multifunction devices might store data that could be compromised and become a weak link with others in the industry sounding warnings in recent weeks.

“As well as considering data breaches, organisations also need to reflect on the personal identifiable information of individuals present in their enterprise systems, such as a company’s print/copy/scan infrastructure, and how to comply with individuals’ rights concerning that data,” says Martin De Martini, Co-founder and CIO at Y Soft.

“Looking at the typical enterprise workflow solutions management setup, which includes network printing, scanning, copying and managing physical access to MFDs, there are a number of obligations related to the providing organisation under GDPR. This includes the likes of the processing of personal data by enterprise workflow solutions being secure and having all personal data that is processed by any of the services identified, amongst other obligations," he added.