IT Governance, Compliance & GDPR Solutions

IT governance, compliance and GDPR solutions

GDPR and ISO 27001 need real technical controls, not policy documents. We implement Microsoft Purview, DLP, automated retention, and audit logging.

What is IT governance and GDPR compliance?

IT governance is the technical enforcement of an organisation's data rules: classification, sensitivity labels, data loss prevention, retention, eDiscovery and audit logging, configured so obligations are enforced rather than only described in a policy document. It is for small businesses facing GDPR, ISO 27001 or a customer security questionnaire. IDE Solutions implements these controls in Microsoft Purview, DLP and Compliance Manager, and sets up unified audit logging with automated compliance reports you can hand to an auditor.

Data Governance in Practice

Microsoft Purview Implementation

Microsoft Purview discovers, classifies, and manages sensitive information across your Microsoft 365, Azure, and multi-cloud environment. We configure automatic classification using trainable classifiers and 300+ built-in sensitive information types, set up data catalog and lineage tracking, and deploy sensitivity labels that travel with your files, so every piece of sensitive data is identified, labeled, and protected wherever it goes.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

Our DLP policies automatically detect and block the sharing of sensitive data across email, Teams chat, SharePoint, and OneDrive: credit card numbers, personal IDs, health records, financial data, and proprietary documents. Employees see real-time policy tips explaining what was blocked and why. Exception workflows handle legitimate business needs. Every blocked action is logged for audit.

Auditing & Reporting

We configure unified audit logging across your Microsoft 365 environment, tracking user activity, admin actions, file access, email forwarding rules, and external sharing. Custom alerts fire immediately when high-risk events occur: bulk downloads, privilege escalation, external sharing of confidential files. Automated compliance reports aligned with GDPR, ISO 27001, and HIPAA mean you can respond to auditor requests in hours. Auditors also ask who is accountable for each mailbox, Team and service account, which is what our Ownership Registry records and recertifies. A customer questionnaire asking about both ISO 27001 and NIS2 is not asking for the same thing twice, see our breakdown of which one your business actually needs before committing budget to either.

Policy Management

Establish clear, enforceable rules for data usage across your organization. We help you define and implement data retention policies that automatically keep business-critical records for the legally required period and securely delete expired data to reduce your compliance risk. From email retention schedules and SharePoint document lifecycle rules to Teams chat preservation and legal hold configurations for litigation, we ensure your data governance policies are not just documented but technically enforced - removing the human error factor from regulatory compliance. In Germany the GoBD sets those legally required periods at six to ten years, well beyond what Microsoft 365's built-in recovery windows can cover on their own.

Governance & Compliance Services

Complete data governance across your Microsoft environment.

How Small Businesses Achieve Compliance

GDPR Compliance Program

A 30-person company processing EU customer data had no formal GDPR framework in place - no data classification, no retention policies, and no documented processing records. We deployed Microsoft Purview to discover and classify all personal data across their Microsoft 365 environment, configured DLP policies to prevent sensitive data from being shared externally, set up automated retention policies aligned with GDPR requirements, and created comprehensive compliance documentation including Records of Processing Activities (ROPA). The entire GDPR framework was operational within 6 weeks.

Result: Full GDPR compliance in 6 weeks, audit-ready documentation

Data Leak Prevention

An employee at a recruitment agency accidentally shared a spreadsheet containing 2,000 candidate personal records to an external email address. After this near-breach, we implemented comprehensive DLP policies across their entire Microsoft 365 environment. The policies now automatically detect personal data patterns (names, addresses, social security numbers, bank details) and block external sharing via email, Teams, and SharePoint. Employees receive real-time policy tips explaining why an action was blocked and how to share data securely through approved channels.

Result: Zero accidental data leaks since go-live, real-time employee guidance

Legal Hold for Litigation

A law firm received a court order requiring the preservation and production of all email communications between two parties spanning a two-year period. We placed legal holds on the relevant mailboxes using Microsoft 365 eDiscovery, performed content searches across Exchange, OneDrive, and Teams using date range and keyword filters, reviewed the results for relevance, and exported the responsive documents in a court-ready format - all within the tight court-imposed deadline.

Result: eDiscovery completed in under 4 hours, court deadline met

Automated Data Retention

A healthcare provider was storing patient records, appointment data, and billing information indefinitely across SharePoint, Exchange, and OneDrive - violating both GDPR and German healthcare data regulations. We designed a tiered retention framework: active patient records retained for the legally required period, archived records moved to compliant long-term storage, and expired data automatically and permanently deleted with full audit logging. The practice now passes regulatory inspections effortlessly.

Result: Compliant data lifecycle fully automated, regulatory inspections passed

Sensitivity Labels Rollout

A financial services firm handling client investment portfolios and personal financial data needed to ensure that confidential documents were always encrypted and access-controlled - regardless of where the files were shared or stored. We deployed Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels that automatically classify and encrypt documents based on their content. Files marked "Confidential - Client" are encrypted in transit and at rest, with access restricted to authorized personnel only. Even if a document is accidentally shared externally, it remains encrypted and unreadable.

Result: All confidential documents encrypted by default, protection follows the file

Compliance Score Improvement

A mid-sized company's Microsoft Compliance Manager score was sitting at a concerning 34% - indicating significant gaps in their data governance, access controls, and retention policies. We systematically worked through every Compliance Manager recommendation: enabling audit logging, configuring DLP policies, deploying sensitivity labels, setting up insider risk management, implementing information barriers between departments, and training staff on data handling procedures. Within 60 days, their compliance score reached 91%.

Result: Compliance score: 34% → 91% in 60 days

Typical Governance Outcomes

Illustrative scenarios based on typical engagements, not quotations from named clients.

Example scenario: Insurance Brokerage (35 users). An insurance brokerage with 35 users has no compliance framework, no data classification and no retention policies, and therefore a real exposure to GDPR fines. We build a complete governance programme with Microsoft Purview and DLP in roughly six weeks. It is set up so that it stands up to review by an external auditor and gives the company a sound legal footing.

Example scenario: Staffing Agency (25 users). At a staffing agency with 25 users, an employee tries to email the entire client database to a private Gmail address the day before handing in notice. The DLP policies we configured block the message immediately and alert the compliance officer. Without such a Data Loss Prevention rule, the result would be a serious data breach with GDPR consequences.

Example scenario: Law Firm (20 users). A law firm with 20 users has to find and preserve every email between two parties over a two-year period for a complex dispute: thousands of messages spread across several mailboxes. With eDiscovery we configure the search, place legal holds and export everything in a format suitable for court, typically within one business day. Done by hand, the same task takes weeks.

Example scenario: Financial Services (60 users). A financial services company with 60 users starts with a Microsoft Compliance Manager score of around a third. Within about two months we raise it to roughly 90%, which gives the board a measurable view of data governance. We do more than implement tools: we train the team, document everything and review the compliance posture every quarter.

Why You Need Governance Experts

A failed GDPR audit or data breach can cost a small business tens of thousands in fines, plus the damage to client trust. Our certified compliance specialists know GDPR, ISO 27001, and industry regulations in depth. We don't just advise on policies; we implement the technical controls in Microsoft Purview, DLP, and Compliance Manager that actually enforce your legal obligations.

The regulatory side moves faster than most policy documents. Our guides on NIS2 supply-chain obligations, the EU Cyber Resilience Act and what auditors actually ask for show which requirements reach a company your size and which evidence satisfies them.

Compliance requirements rarely wait until you are ready. Contact us to discuss which controls your business actually needs — and which it does not.

Governance & Compliance: Frequently Asked Questions

Technical controls, daily work and audit evidence.

Are policy documents enough for GDPR compliance?

No — GDPR and ISO 27001 expect real technical controls behind the paperwork. That means automatic classification and sensitivity labels through Microsoft Purview, Data Loss Prevention that actually blocks risky sharing, retention that is enforced rather than described, and audit logging that proves all of it happened.

Will Data Loss Prevention block legitimate work?

It is tuned not to. Employees see real-time policy tips explaining what was blocked and why, exception workflows cover legitimate business needs, and every action is logged instead of silently dropped. The goal is that sensitive data stops leaking without the sales team noticing anything but a tooltip.

What evidence do we get for audits and customer questionnaires?

Unified audit logging across Microsoft 365 tracks user activity, admin actions, file access and external sharing; custom alerts fire on high-risk events like bulk downloads or privilege escalation; and automated compliance reports aligned with GDPR give you documentation you can hand to an auditor instead of assembling it by hand.