Information management configuration overview
The process of information management has a number of contributory factors that need to be configured at the outset in order to inform daily activities, operations and functions. These configuration components enable the housing organisation to define specific parameters in line with their own procedures and standards, underpinned by robust monitoring and tracking controls necessary to demonstrate compliance under the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Additional values and attributes can be appended to the records at any time, as required, although maintaining comprehensive information from the start will reap its own rewards. The challenge, therefore, is not simply one of compliance but also to implement a clear strategy for the use of tenants' personal data and how those policies are executed, communicated and upheld, being supported by a logical and future-proof parameter set. There are two key components that fall under the category of information management configuration: Information management consent maintenance and Information management data classification maintenance. Their inherent structure and usability should also focus on making data tracking processes easier and more streamlined.
Information management consent maintenance - The high standard set by GDPR for obtaining consent means putting individuals in control of how their personal data is shared with others, thus building trust and customer engagement, as well as enhancing the housing organisation's reputation for honesty and probity. For consent to be valid, it must be freely given by the tenant, specific to the particular circumstances in which the data is being used and capable of withdrawal at any time. The end user therefore has the opportunity to create any number of consent types, mapping each of these parameters to a calendar, which reflects the required frequency for the consent outcome review framework. Whilst the outcome of an explicit consent request can be simplified as 'Granted', 'Refused' or 'Other' - the default master categories configured within the system - numerous consent outcome classifications can be defined and then mapped onto their master counterparts.
Information management data classification maintenance - Individuals have the right to access the personal and supplementary information that is held on record, allowing them to verify the processing legitimacy around such data. In order that social housing providers can maintain and compile data compliance metrics to the desired level of granularity, a series of grouping elements - referred to as 'information tags' - can be defined, bringing together any subset of database columns, contact reference types and generic form fields that are pertinent to their lawful and compatible data processing activities. As part of their configuration, these information tags are mapped to specific custom types, which serve to identify and characterise aspects of relevant data when seeking consent and monitoring reviews e.g. Personal Identifiers, Medical Identifiers, Tenancy Agreement Information, etc.
Information management data archiving maintenance - The principal aim of data archiving is to reduce the primary storage consumption within Civica Cx Housing, ensuring that all display grids and search engines are processing only the most pertinent information, with all historical records preserved within a separate database should they ever be required in the future. All records to be identified for archiving are managed within separate batches, with system scheduled tasks executing the custom rules to compile the target list of entities in each instance.
Information management data disposal maintenance - Where a 'right to be forgotten' request is received by the housing organisation, the creation of a disposal batch is a convenient and streamlined route to identifying the relevant contact record, and ultimately applying controlled anonymization routines to that data set. Disposal batches can be generated in one of two ways: manually, via the New Manual Batch action button, or automatically, via the scheduled task Data Disposal Batch Creation. For manual batches, inter-related criterion used to identify individual contact records can be established through a comprehensive search engine (highly practicable in circumstances where a subset of contacts are to be managed as one cohort). In contrast, automatic batches are compiled using expressions constructed within the Advanced Statement Builder, or via a custom SQL stored procedure.
Separate help articles have been created for each key aspect of information management configuration, including: