DataGuard - United Kingdom Reviews 14

AVOID THIS COMPANY - MUCH BETTER INDEPENDENTS AVAILABLE:

We engaged Dataguard Agency for support with ISO 27001, but our experience has been extremely disappointing.

At the time we signed up, ISO 27001 was transitioning from the 2013 standard to the 2022 standard. We were not made properly aware of the practical implications of this transition. Dataguard allowed our company to work towards the 2013 standard, despite the fact that this would then require further support and additional work to transition to the 2022 standard afterwards.

In our view, this created unnecessary duplication of workload and avoidable disruption for our team. We would have expected much clearer guidance from the outset, particularly from an agency advising on compliance standards. Had the transition been properly explained, we could have made a more informed decision and planned the certification work more efficiently.

We also found the sales process concerning. Around the time of signing up, I received repeated phone calls from the sales team, who appeared very keen to secure a contract for 1 September, which we were told was linked to the German financial year. Naively, we signed up. However, after the contract was secured, there was then no meaningful contact until 15 September.

After what had already been a poor experience, I attempted to raise these concerns with a senior colleague at Dataguard. Unfortunately, the meeting only added to our frustration. I found the individual’s approach to be rude, abrupt, and dismissive throughout. Rather than acknowledging the concerns or trying to understand the impact on our company, the response felt defensive and lacking in empathy.

One of their colleagues, Finn Collins, also appeared taken aback during the meeting by the tone and attitude displayed. For us, this reinforced the wider issue: placing a company on the 2013 standard and then later requiring a transition to the 2022 standard, when this could have been explained more transparently from the outset, reflects a disappointing approach to customer care.

A further issue has arisen around payment. Despite one of Dataguard’s employees confirming that no money was owed to the company, Dataguard has continued to pursue what appears to be a disputed “half month” payment. This is now around 18 months later, and debt collection agencies from Germany have become involved. We remain unsure how this will end, but the situation has caused unnecessary stress and frustration.

Overall, our experience has left us feeling that the process was not managed transparently, proactively, or fairly. We would have expected clearer advice, better communication, and a much more reasonable approach to resolving disputed charges and customer concerns.

We needed urgent project start for our ISMS and ISO certification. Consultant has been assigned within 1 week. We got the certification in first attempt.

Can't get hold of anyone. Been trying to reach them for months.

Using both parts of the solution, compliance and security. The customer success team has been very helpful.

Didn't get much value from it at all and they refused to let me out of an incredibly lengthy contract term - no flexibility for small businesses. Wouldn't advise using them unless you are prepared to be fleeced into a long term subscription that adds limited value.

We have been working with Dataguard for two years, but we didn't feel it was worth the money. They weren't proactive in reaching out, and it felt that we were not getting much for the monthly fee. Except for the first set-up period of one month, there was no communication after that. We were expecting that they would help us improve our data protection processes, but that didn't happen.

Dataguard has been extremely helpful to go over ISO 27001:2022 and GDPR requirements. Both security and privacy requirements have been covered. They fulfilled the role of DPO as well. I can recommend their services. Ben, Yazid and Jonathan were really helpful across the whole process.

Challenges with Communication and Delivery, along with Deceptive Contract Considerations.

Our experience with communication and delivery has been less than satisfactory. We encountered difficulties in receiving timely responses and prompt delivery of services. It is important to note that our engagement with this company involved committing to one-year contracts, which unfortunately limited our ability to terminate the agreement once we became aware of their inadequate performance.

Regrettably, we incurred significant expenses amounting to thousands of pounds, primarily attributed to the company's provision of basic spreadsheet templates for our completion. Moreover, their responsiveness was inconsistent, with minimal communication until payment was requested.

Throughout our professional engagements, we have encountered various challenges, but it is rare to encounter a company that operates in such an unprofessional manner. These experiences have led us to question the integrity and reliability of the services provided by this particular organization.

We are a small not-for-profits & have been using DataGuard as our external DPO for just under a year and have just renewed again for the next 12 months. I would have no hesitation in recommending their services to small companies who do not have dedicated resources for their data privacy needs. Caroline has been especially helpful and extremely knowledgeable and has helped to organise our GDPR requirements into manageable segments that we have worked on together.

We have used DataGuard to set up and help with our Privacy Policy. Both our DPO and Customer Success Manager have been knowledgeable, approachable and available helping in making the process as smooth as possible.
We have been able to put all our employees through the Academy training which is digestible and relevant, the admin area makes the process easy to track and confirm the training completed.
They are very customer driven and continue to make great improvements to an already great platform!
Thanks DataGuard!

DataGuard provided us with consulting support to help our small, remote, cloud-based business achieve ISO27001 certification. Throughout the process they were very helpful and knowledgeable, and were able to advise us on best practice as well as regulatory requirements thanks to their large team with broad experience across a number of sectors. They have also been able to provide our employees with InfoSec training, and have been constantly improving their offering both online and offline.

Very professional, friendly and thoroughly organised.

I called Dataguard for a quote for a data protection policy for my company. Although I did not take a policy out due to unforeseen circumstances, I found your advisor Felix Austin-Walker very good to deal with on the phone. He was polite, knowledgeable and not pushy.

Felix had a great mannerism about him, so much so, Dataguard should use him to train others on how to speak with members of the public on phones.

I would happily recommend Dataguard to friends, family and other business owners if required.