Mary White is Irish trade mark agent and EUIPO professional representative at Hanna Moore & Curly.

Hanna Moore & Curley are European patent and trademark attorneys that help clients protect and use their intellectual property to establish and maintain commercial advantage.

A firm advocate of the value of document scanning and proper management of data, Mary speaks with us on her experience of working with Datascan

How did you begin working with Datascan?

In a previous role I would have engaged with Datascan on quite a significant project.  I was practice manager at a large medical clinic and they were the company that transformed all our paper files into digital.  So when I moved to my new role it made perfect sense to once again get Datascan on board.

What significant advantage did Datascan offer over others?

In my opinion, there are two layers to scanning.  The first is the competency of being able to do the job, and the second is actually caring about the client and ensuring they get a quality service consistently.  That is what we get from Datascan.

As in any law practice is it critical to get it right, we cannot afford to take chances or make mistakes.  It’s a massive trust to give your documents to an outside party and you need to be confident that you can rely on them to look after that data and keep it secure at all times.

We are certified to ISO 27001 so we know how important that international standard is when it comes to trust.  We actively seek out suppliers that have it too, that was another reason why we were comfortable working with Datascan.  Our requirements include having a SLA in place, due diligence and references so when a supplier has ISO 27001 in place we know this is covered and that we can trust them.   Even before GDPR I was selective in my suppliers but now it is critical as time has moved on and our expectations are higher.  It is critical that data that we send out is delivered securely and handled securely at all stages, that there is a chain of who did what and when, how it was handled and stored.

ISO 27001 involves a framework, it forces systematic approaches and makes you examine all areas.  I know how thorough the process is, so I can have confidence in another business that has gone through the process.  Being independently audited, it is expensive and time consuming to get ISO 27001, so I know a supplier that has gone through the process is serious about their business.

How have you found the experience this time?

In our law practice, there needs to be a chain of compliance on how we manage data.  With GDPR there is also an end of life cycle that is important.  What I appreciate from Datascan is the flexibility, when I want data returned a certain way to suit our systems they oblige me.  They will also come up with solutions suggested to make things easier for us.  From the first box of paper to be scanned we had a plan in place that helped us get exactly what we needed.  The quality of the service is consistently high.

How has document scanning made your work easier?

When we get a data protection request, we need to put our hand on the file quickly.  We need to respond immediately and accurately and with digital files that are indexed correctly this is more achievable.  Having to redact information on files takes time so I don’t want to waste any other time searching for the original file.   Like any business we rely on our reputation.  When we can respond quickly and accurately with information to our clients they appreciate it and recommend us to others.

Working with Datascan Document Services has always been a pleasure.  Their achievement in being certified to ISO 27001 has only re-enforced what they had been doing as best practice anyway.