About Castlebridge Associates

Information is the fuel of Business. 

Castlebridge Associates was founded with the simple mission to help organisations handle that fuel with appropriate care to ensure optimum fuel efficiency and maximum business effectiveness.

Careless handling and management of information can be explosive, potentially causing damage to your business or polluting your relationships with your customers, suppliers or partners.

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Latest Press Releases

Latest action from Data Protection Commissioner highlights value of Planning for Protection

Submitted by Administrator on July 13, 2010 - 11:53
City: 
Wexford, Ireland
Contact: 
Daragh O Brien

The announcement today that the Data Protection Commissioner has written to three VECs to address concerns regarding the handling of personal data serves to emphasise the need for Data Controllers to ensure they are planning for protection and thinking ahead as to how their information assets will be shared, disclosed, secured and protected. This is not a technology solution, but requires Data Controllers to ensure they plan properly and execute those plans consistently.

Embarrassing Council Carelessness breaches acceptable Data Protection Standards

Submitted by Administrator on July 2, 2010 - 19:27
City: 
Wexford, Ireland
Contact: 
Daragh O Brien

Personal data is held on trust by Data Controllers and appropriate standards of care must be in applied when engaging in any processing of personal data. While it is distressing for the individuals whose data is inappropriately disclosed, Data Controllers must be conscious of the damage to reputation and customer confidence that flows directly from lack of awareness of and appropriate care and attention to Data Protection duties.

 

Continuing litany of errors raises question about the "Quality Culture" in the SEC

Submitted by Daragh O Brien on June 22, 2010 - 10:19
City: 
Wexford, Ireland
Contact: 
Daragh O Brien

For the second year in a row the Leaving and Junior Certificate examinations have been plagued by avoidable failures in quality management. These failures, and the responses thus far from the State Exams Commission, raises questions about the "culture of quality" in the SEC. Castlebridge Associates echoes the comments of the Irish Second-Level Students Union, who have described carelessness by those who set the exams as unacceptable and easily avoided.

Data Protection duties not optional

Submitted by Daragh O Brien on June 21, 2010 - 17:03
City: 
Wexford, Ireland
Contact: 
Daragh O Brien

Today's announcement by the Data Protection Commissioner that a leading Irish printing firm has been required to register with the Data Protection Commissioner is a timely reminder that the duty to protect personal data being processed by any organisation is not optional.

The printing company RR Donnelley Document Solutions  was acting as a Data Processor for telecommunications providers who were Data Controllers. As such, under Section 16 of the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003, they were obliged to register with the Data Protection Commissioner.

While certain exemptions to the requirement to register with the Data Protection Commissioner exist, these are limited in their scope and are counter-balanced in the legislation by an equally clear list of activities which require registration.

HSE Childcare crisis highlights value of Information as a fuel for effective decision making

Submitted by Daragh O Brien on May 25, 2010 - 15:07
City: 
Wexford, Ireland
Contact: 
Daragh O Brien

The unfolding tragedy of children and young adults who have died in the care of the Health Service Executive has cast a harsh light on the failings of the system and, significantly, of the management and governance of critical information within that system.

Ultimately, Information is Fuel for decision and action in organisations so the awareness of the value of information and the effective planning, management, and governance of that Asset should be a critical management responsibility, particularly where the quality or availability of information can cost lives.

Featured Blog Posts

Small Print, Big Headache

Submitted by Daragh O Brien on July 29, 2010 - 18:11
Tagged:

Over the past few months I've been involved in a number of events related to Cloud Computing and have had countless conversations about the pros and cons of outsourcing, as well has having studied a number of business arrangements that boiled down to someone being a Data Processor for someone else, a Data Controller.

I have found that my message in each of these apparently disparate situations can now be boiled down to:

  • It's the Information, Stupid and
  • The Fine Print can frustrate your intent and
  • If you can't find who is responsible for the thing, then it is you who is responsible.
These mantras span the domains of Data Protection, Data Governance, and Information Quality, but for the purposes of this post I'll be using examples from the Data Protection sphere.

Recent Tutorials

Subject Area: Information Quality Management

Information: The pure business fuel (BizCamp South East 2010)

This is a recording based on a presentation that I delivered to BizCamp South East 2010 at Waterford Institute of Technology in June 2010.

 

The topic of the presentation is a discussion of how Information is a pure business fuel. It is an introductory level presentation and I'd welcome discussion and debate on the topic here.

Subject Area: Data Protection

Obscured by Clouds - Data Protection and Cloud Computing

This past month I presented at the Cloud Camp events in Dublin and Cork with a 10/15 minute presentation (depending on how much I rambled) on the Data Protection issues raised by Cloud Computing.

I've packaged the presentation as a tutorial which runs to about 17 minutes. It was put together in a hurry (because slideshare doesn't like slide animations in powerpoint) so the audio is a little bit jumpy in places, but I'll be redoing this as a more in-depth tutorial in the coming weeks.

 

Data Protection Registration as a planning tool

Our philosophy is that Compliance done right is a benefit, not a burden. Compliance with the Data Protection Acts is no exception. 

While registration with the Data Protection Commissioner is a statutory duty under the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003, there are a number of exemptions which can be availed of. As a result, many businesses or organisations have not had the statutory need to think in depth about the information they use in their operations.