Stone Group and Calyx form protection alliance

Firms join forces to offer financial services customers help over impending changes to Data Protection Act

Joining together: Calyx and Stone Group will unite to help financial services firms manage risk

System builder Stone Group has joined forces with managed services specialist Calyx to develop encrypted hardware products and services that comply with changes to the Data Protection Act.

From 6 April, under the revamped Data Protection Fines Act, firms not taking care of their sensitive data could face fines of up to £500,000.

The Stone/Calyx collaboration is primarily aimed at financial services organisations that have hit the headlines for the wrong reasons in the past for data breaches.

The two firms will also offer a dedicated online portal to their customer base: http://calyx.stonecomputers.com/.

Rich Garner, service delivery manager (Openwork) at Calyx, said: “Calyx was tasked by Openwork, which consists of 3,500 IFAs and financial organisations as a directly authorised franchise network, to deliver an encrypted platform which ensures protection for the IFAs should a laptop be misplaced or stolen.

“While Calyx is able to offer infrastructure support and marketing know-how, we needed a reliable source for the hardware itself – having previously worked alongside Stone Group, I was confident of its capabilities to meet this challenge. Flexibility of approach sets the company apart, and I knew that Stone Group was the correct choice to deliver this project in a timely manner,” he added.

Matt Knowles, group financial services manager at Stone Group, said: “As recent high profile examples show, data protection is particularly important in the financial sector, and under the new guidelines it will be very easy for an organisation to fall foul, even unknowingly, and become liable to potentially crippling fines.

“The collaboration with Calyx represents an important step change for Stone Group, and access to a market we have so far not approached. Combining our experience in protecting and handling particularly sensitive public sector data, with the financial services market experience of Calyx, a hugely attractive service can be provided to financial institutions that ensures absolute peace of mind in data protection."