Database marketing veterans Bob McKim and Evelyn Schlaphoff formed a security and privacy compliance auditing firm called MRE Enterprises LLC.
MRE helps companies meet consumer privacy compliance and security regulations resulting from laws such as Gramm-Leach-Bliley and Sarbanes-Oxley. The Los Angeles firm, formally launched in January, works with various industries, but many current clients are in the financial industry. Most of its customers have 1,000 to 10,000 employees.
MRE compliance audits detect gaps or deficiencies in operations and identify areas of weakness or noncompliance in an effort to prevent violations and hefty fines.
“The audits identify where companies collect information on consumers, particularly focusing on where they collect non-public information such as account numbers, Social Security numbers and other information that isn't readily available,” Schlaphoff said. “We'll determine a company's compliance strengths and weaknesses and help ensure it is operating in full compliance.”
The audit also helps prevent liabilities by ensuring that outsourced vendors' activities are aligned with the company's compliance program.
“Even if a company does this type of process in-house and believe they are following guidelines, many companies want us to come in and validate that they are,” McKim said. “It is important to have an outside independent auditor today making sure that a company is in compliance.”
McKim and Schlaphoff started MS Database Marketing in 1991, later rebranded as msdbm. It was purchased in August 1999 by private holding company Jordan Industries. In April 2002, McKim was named CEO of SourceLink Software Solutions Group, a subsidiary of Jordan that was spun off from MS Database Marketing. McKim retired in late 2003, and Schlaphoff was named CEO/president of SourceLink Los Angeles. She stayed in that position until late last year.
McKim and Schlaphoff cited their database marketing experience for their knowledge of regulatory requirements for consumer and business personal data.
Schlaphoff said “a lot of employees don't understand that it's not OK to take customer data home and work on it at night. In many companies, the real issue is training inside the organization.”
Also, many companies don't limit employee access to information. Many disgruntled employees who leave companies take data with them.
Melissa Campanelli covers postal news, CRM and database marketing for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
