With POPIA, responsibility does not rest solely on the CIO or CTO. The burden of proof remains on the responsible party and to comply with data privacy legislation, a cross-functional team is needed. From Finance and HR to Marketing, we all need to play our role to become POPIA compliant.  

The quickest win from a data compliance point of view is to appoint an Information Officer, which is actually a very senior position that can deal with responsibility and ensure there is a compliance framework, adequate measures and standards exist, that a manual for POPIA is developed and available. This is where Itec comes in to provide the Information Officer with the technology tools they need to roll all of this out.  

Ahmore said: “We need to start thinking about how we will approach our customers. If we look at our company strategy, compliance requires us to stand still and re-look who we are, what we are and where we want to go. Why we want to grow in those areas and how we are going to achieve that.” 

Daniel Lötter, Itec South Africa’s Head of Bids and Tenders, explained that Itec as a business has evolved. Traditionally Itec was a very successful value-added reseller, but as a Managed Business Services provider we engage your business with the ADIM model – Assess, Design, Implement and Manage. Itec has aligned itself where compliance, governance and the marketplace is taking us. “From a POPIA perspective, when data comes into your network we start accessing, covering, securing and helping you with this entire process – right up until when the data leaves your network, whether its in print or digital format. From a partnership point of view, Prinsol helps us with the authentication of who accesses the data. Itec’s Managed Business Services is not a one-touch engagement, its ongoing with an SLA so we can share the responsibility and accountability with you.