Digital transformation is the hot topic for organizations across the globe. It is nothing but the reinvention of an organization through the use of digital technology to improve the business functionality and productivity. To outperform other business enterprises smart business owners are opting to use digital technologies such as mobile technology, social media and smart embedded devices to elevate business strategies. Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the newly launched application of Microsoft to equip business organizations with advanced digital transformation tools. This application was launched on November 1, 2016. This is a software-as-a-service suite which combines Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) capabilities together to rebuild business models. Dynamics 365 suite provides intelligent business applications across finance, sales, customer service, marketing, operations, field service and project service automation.
In this article, we will discuss about the privacy and compliances of Dynamics 365.
The first crucial concern that will come in any business owner’s mind before moving sensitive information to cloud is the safety and security of business data. No one will risk or compromise with data security over any advanced technology no matter how beneficial it would be for the business. Before accelerating your organization’s digital transformation, you need to have the knowledge of whether your preferred cloud software suite has passed all the check boxes to gain your trust of meeting your organization’s security standards. Microsoft provides that assurance about it’s security and compliance practices which intend to protect sensitive customer information against accidental loss, unauthorized access or disclosure and unlawful information fatality.
Let’s take a look at how Microsoft Dynamics 365 comply with the security, privacy and compliance policies. Microsoft undergoes third party audits every year by internationally recognized security auditors. The following are the major audits and certification controllers who have validated the security standards of Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics 365.
1) SSAE 16/ISAE 3402 Standards
The above security standards are established by American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board of the International Federation of Accountants. This security auditors provide an opinion on the factors like –
-????????? if company’s control policies are described fairly or not.
-????????? If company’s control policies are designed effectively or not.
-????????? If company’s control policies are effective from a particular date.
-????????? If company is running effectively over a specific period of time. This particular audit comes under SSAE 16 ( SOC 1) Type II and (SOC 2) Type II. Microsoft has passed both of the validation types.
Microsoft Global Foundation Services (GFS) provides infrastructure services for data centers and network centers for Office 365 and Dynamics 365 and for its customers. GFS is SSAE 16 Type II certified today.
2) ISO/IEC 27001
ISO/IEC 27001 is the most widely recognized certifications considered by business organizations. This security standards defines guidelines for initiating, implementing, maintaining and improving data security management in an organization. Office 365 and Dynamics 365 have been verified by ISO standards which encourages the customers to review the publicly available ISO standards on ISO standards website. British Standards Institution (BFS) is also another independent auditors who have aligned the privacy policies along with European? data protection regulations which is known to be the strictest in the world. Thus, customers become sure about Microsoft’s security standards and the privacy policies.
3) ISO 27018
ISO/IEC 27018 establishes objectives and guidelines to project measures of protecting personally identifiable information. Office 365 and Dynamics 365 have qualified all the standard code of practice for public cloud verified by ISO 27018. The major three categories incorporated by ISO 27018 standard are as follows –
-????????? Customers can be stress free as Microsoft is advertising-free. That means customers don’t have to worry about the information that is used in Office 365 is used for marketing purposes.
-????????? Company has a defined policy to return and secure the disposal of personally identifiable information.
-????????? Office 365 has the feature to proactively? identify and informing customers if information is ever requested by law enforcement agencies.
The ISO 27018 certification ensures strong privacy protection of Microsoft’s Office products.
4) Safe Harbor
European Data Protection Union has the strictest privacy policy than US or most other countries. This data protection standard has an agreement with US Department of Commerce to legally transfer data from Europe to US by complying with Safe Harbor principles. Microsoft is Safe Harbor certified hence the reason with Office 365 and Dynamics 365 information can be transferred from Europe to US for processing.
The above mentioned accreditations proves that Microsoft provides world class security and compliance practices across international, national and state level business requirements. These certifications accurately validates the fact that how Microsoft keeps promises given to customers to meet security and compliance needs of an organization by constantly monitoring the infrastructure.