ISO 27001 Achieved + 100 Hours Saved! Quality Early Years’ Smart Move with SecureSlate

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UK-based Quality Early Years is a leading provider of exceptional early childhood education services, operating a network of nurseries and preschools across the United Kingdom.

With a strong commitment to fostering a safe, nurturing, and highly secure learning environment, Quality Early Years prioritizes the robust security of all information they handle. Recognizing the trust placed in them by parents, they continually strive to adhere to the highest international standards in data protection and operational excellence.

Challenge

In the early years education sector, the responsibility of safeguarding sensitive data, especially that of young children, is paramount. Quality Early Years, deeply committed to creating a secure environment, recognized the critical need to formalize their security practices through ISO 27001 certification. However, they encountered several hurdles.

“Ensuring that our entire team, with varying levels of technical expertise, consistently adheres to stringent security measures for the personal and health-related information of the children we care for was a significant concern.”

Catherine, Director at Quality Early Years

The traditional approach to building an Information Security Management System (ISMS) aligned with ISO 27001 requirements seemed like a monumental task. Defining policies, establishing procedures, and implementing effective controls across their growing team demanded significant time and resources that could otherwise be focused on their core mission of providing exceptional early childhood education.

Coordinating these security efforts across multiple educators and administrative staff presented a logistical challenge, and efficiently onboarding new team members with a clear understanding of their security responsibilities was also crucial.

Furthermore, Quality Early Years understood the increasing importance of demonstrating their commitment to information security to parents, regulatory bodies, and potential partners. Achieving ISO 27001 certification would serve as undeniable proof of their effective security capabilities.

To navigate this complex process and achieve ISO 27001 certification efficiently, Quality Early Years sought a partner who could:

• Provide a clear and structured pathway to ISO 27001 compliance.
• Offer tools that are user-friendly and accessible to a team with varied technical skills.
• Facilitate seamless collaboration and coordination of security efforts across the organization.
• Streamline the onboarding of new team members with security awareness.
• Ultimately help them achieve certification in a timely and efficient manner without overwhelming their existing resources.

Solution

To overcome these challenges and achieve ISO 27001 certification, Quality Early Years chose to implement SecureSlate, a comprehensive compliance management platform known for its user-friendly interface and robust features designed to streamline the certification process.

SecureSlate provided Quality Early Years with key solutions as:

• Centralized Policy Management: SecureSlate offered a centralized platform to create, store, manage, and disseminate all necessary information security policies and procedures required by ISO 27001. This ensured all team members had easy access to the latest guidelines.
• Simplified Risk Assessment Tools: The platform provided intuitive risk assessment tools that guided Quality Early Years in identifying, analyzing, and treating information security risks relevant to their operations and the sensitive data they handle.
• Asset Management Capabilities: SecureSlate allowed Quality Early Years to effectively identify and manage their information assets, a crucial requirement for ISO 27001, ensuring appropriate security controls were applied to each asset.
• Streamlined Coordination and Collaboration: SecureSlate’s features facilitated seamless coordination of compliance tasks among multiple team members, allowing for easy assignment of responsibilities and tracking of progress.
• Efficient Onboarding for Security Awareness: The platform’s structure and readily available policy documentation made it incredibly easy to onboard new team members with a clear understanding of their security responsibilities and the organization’s ISMS.
• Audit Readiness Features: SecureSlate provided tools and reporting capabilities that helped Quality Early Years prepare for their ISO 27001 audit by organizing evidence and demonstrating adherence to the standard’s requirements.

“SecureSlate has been incredibly valuable for our team. It offers comprehensive tools that make coordinating compliance involving multiple people much easier. We can now easily assign tasks related to our ISMS, track their completion, and ensure everyone is aware of their responsibilities within our ISO 27001 framework.”

Catherine, Director at Quality Early Years

Results

Quality Early Years completed their ISO 27001 implementation and received their certification within approximately 8 weeks.

Immediately, the ISO 27001 certification became a significant asset in their communication with parents and stakeholders.

“The fact that we have achieved ISO 27001 certification, facilitated by SecureSlate, has significantly boosted the confidence of parents entrusting us with their children’s care and data.”

Catherine, Director at Quality Early Years

Since implementing SecureSlate, Quality Early Years has noticed a considerable reduction in the time and effort required for managing their ISMS, with the centralized platform streamlining policy management, risk assessments, and audit preparation, ultimately saving them over 50 hours of valuable administrative time.

In the process, SecureSlate has also become Quality Early Years’ trusted ISMS, helping them support good security practices while enabling them to act with agility on all matters related to information security.

“SecureSlate is incredibly valuable for our team. It offers comprehensive tools that make coordinating compliance involving multiple people much easier. We particularly appreciate how seamless it will be to onboard new team members. Overall, it’s a well-rounded and essential for our compliance, especially as we pursued our ISO 27001 certification.”

Catherine, Director at Quality Early Years

With ISO 27001, Quality Early Years primarily focused on ensuring their security practices and strengthening their processes. They have successfully managed both. Their onboarding process now integrates security seamlessly, their policies are consolidated within SecureSlate, and the platform provides clear visibility into their ISMS, fostering a stronger security culture across the team.