Privacy Policy

The website at vcs.consulting is operated by:

VERTEX COMMERCIAL STRATEGIES LIMITED
Company number: 17330057
Registered in: England and Wales
Registered office: 49 Burlington Avenue, York, England, YO10 3TF

VCS Consulting is a trading style and brand operated by VERTEX COMMERCIAL STRATEGIES LIMITED.

For the purposes of applicable data-protection law, VERTEX COMMERCIAL STRATEGIES LIMITED is the controller of the personal data described in this Privacy Policy, except where we expressly state otherwise.

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your data-protection rights or have a concern about our handling of your personal data, please contact us using the contact details published on our website or by post at:

VCS Consulting
VERTEX COMMERCIAL STRATEGIES LIMITED
49 Burlington Avenue
York
England
YO10 3TF

Email: hello@vcs.consulting
Telephone: 0333 880 0036

Please include enough information for us to understand and respond to your request. We may need to ask for information to verify your identity before acting on a request.

The personal data we collect depends on how you interact with us. It may include the following categories.

Information you provide directly

• Your name.
• Your job title or role.
• Your business or organisation name.
• Your business or personal email address.
• Your telephone number.
• Your postal address, where provided.
• Your website address.
• Information submitted through an enquiry form.
• Information you provide by email, telephone, video call, messaging service or social-media channel.
• Details of your project, operational challenge, technology requirements, budget, preferred timescale or business objectives.
• Information contained in documents, briefs, specifications, proposals or other materials you provide to us.
• Marketing preferences and communication choices.
• Any other information you choose to provide.

Information collected automatically through the website

Depending on the technologies used on the website and your cookie preferences, we may collect:

• Internet Protocol address.
• Browser type and version.
• Device information.
• Operating system.
• Approximate geographic location derived from IP address.
• Referring website or source.
• Pages visited, links clicked and time spent on pages.
• Date and time of website activity.
• Website interaction data.
• Technical logs, error data and security-related information.
• Cookie identifiers and similar online identifiers.

Information from third parties

We may receive personal data from third parties, such as:

• Publicly available sources, including company websites and professional networking sites.
• Referrals and introductions.
• Existing clients, suppliers or professional advisers.
• Marketing, customer relationship management, analytics, communications, website-hosting or security providers.
• Event organisers or business networks where you have permitted your details to be shared.
• Companies House and other public registers where relevant to a business relationship.

We will use personal data received from third parties in accordance with applicable law and this Privacy Policy.

We may use personal data for the following purposes:

• To respond to enquiries and requests for information.
• To arrange introductory meetings, calls, workshops or consultations.
• To understand your business requirements and assess whether our services may be suitable.
• To prepare proposals, estimates, statements of work, contracts and other commercial documents.
• To provide consultancy, software-development, product, advisory, support or related services.
• To communicate with clients, prospective clients, suppliers and professional contacts.
• To manage client accounts, projects, billing, payments and commercial relationships.
• To administer and improve our website, services, processes and customer experience.
• To maintain the security, integrity and performance of our website, systems and services.
• To investigate, prevent or address fraud, security incidents, misuse or unlawful activity.
• To maintain business records, comply with legal obligations and establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
• To send business-to-business marketing communications where permitted by law and subject to your rights to object or unsubscribe.
• To obtain professional advice, manage insurance and protect our business interests.
• To consider potential suppliers, contractors, collaborators or recruitment candidates where applicable.

We will not sell your personal data.

We process personal data only where we have a lawful basis to do so. Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on one or more of the following bases.

Legitimate interests

We may process personal data where this is necessary for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, provided that those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms.

Our legitimate interests may include:

• Operating, protecting and developing our business.
• Responding to business enquiries and managing commercial relationships.
• Promoting our services to relevant business contacts, where permitted.
• Improving our website, systems and service delivery.
• Maintaining accurate business records.
• Preventing fraud, ensuring network and information security and protecting our legal rights.
• Obtaining professional advice and managing risk.

You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests in certain circumstances.

Contract

We may process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you or your organisation, or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.

Legal obligation

We may process personal data where necessary to comply with legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, record-keeping or other obligations.

Consent

We may rely on your consent in limited circumstances, including where required for non-essential cookies or where you choose to opt in to particular marketing communications. Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing before consent was withdrawn.

We may send business-related marketing communications about our services, insights, events or updates where permitted by applicable law.

You can ask us to stop sending marketing communications at any time by:

• Using an unsubscribe link in a marketing email, where available.
• Replying to a marketing communication and asking to be removed.
• Contacting us using the details above.

If you opt out of marketing, we may still contact you in relation to an existing or previous client relationship, an enquiry you have made, a transaction, a contract, service information, legal notices or other non-marketing communications.

We may share personal data where necessary with the following categories of recipient:

• Employees, directors, contractors and consultants who need the information for legitimate business purposes and are subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations.
• Website-hosting, domain, email, customer relationship management, analytics, form-processing, communications, cloud-storage, security, accounting, payment-processing and IT-support providers.
• Professional advisers, including lawyers, accountants, insurers, auditors, banks and financial advisers.
• Clients, prospective clients or project stakeholders where sharing is necessary to provide services, manage a project or respond to an enquiry.
• Suppliers, subcontractors and delivery partners involved in providing agreed services.
• Government bodies, regulators, law-enforcement agencies, courts or other parties where disclosure is required or permitted by law.
• A purchaser, prospective purchaser, investor, lender or successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, restructuring, sale of assets or other corporate transaction, subject to appropriate confidentiality arrangements.

We require service providers and contractors to handle personal data appropriately and only use it for authorised purposes.

Some suppliers, platforms or service providers we use may process personal data outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal data is transferred outside the United Kingdom, we will take steps required by applicable data-protection law to ensure that an appropriate level of protection is in place. This may include relying on adequacy regulations, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses or another lawful transfer mechanism.

You may contact us using the details above if you would like further information about the safeguards used for a particular international transfer.

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including to meet legal, accounting, tax, reporting or contractual requirements.

The appropriate retention period depends on the nature of the information, the purpose of processing, the nature of the relationship and our legal obligations.

In general:

• Enquiry information may be retained for up to 24 months after our last meaningful contact, unless a longer period is necessary or appropriate.
• Client and project records may be retained for the duration of the relationship and for up to seven years after it ends, or longer where required for legal, tax, accounting, dispute-resolution or record-keeping purposes.
• Marketing suppression records may be retained as necessary to ensure we respect an opt-out request.
• Website analytics information will be retained in accordance with the settings and retention periods of the relevant analytics provider.
• Security and technical logs will be retained for a period appropriate to security, troubleshooting and legal requirements.

We may retain anonymised information indefinitely where it no longer identifies you.

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access.

These measures may include access controls, password protection, least-privilege access, secure communications, appropriate contractual safeguards, system maintenance, supplier assessment and secure storage practices.

No website, transmission method or system can be guaranteed completely secure. You should take reasonable care when submitting information online and avoid sending highly sensitive information unless we have agreed a secure method for doing so.

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies. Cookies are small text files placed on your device by websites and can be used for functions such as remembering preferences, enabling core website functionality, measuring usage and supporting security.

We use strictly necessary cookies where they are essential to operate the website or provide a service you request. Where required by law, we will ask for your consent before placing or accessing non-essential cookies, including certain analytics, advertising or personalisation cookies.

You can manage non-essential cookie preferences through our cookie banner or preference tool, where available. You can also use your browser settings to control cookies. Please note that disabling some cookies may affect website functionality.

For detailed information about the cookies and similar technologies actually used on this website, including their purpose, provider and duration, please read our Cookie Policy.

Subject to applicable law and certain exemptions, you may have rights in relation to your personal data. These may include the right to:

• Request access to the personal data we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
• Request deletion of personal data in certain circumstances.
• Request restriction of processing in certain circumstances.
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct-marketing purposes.
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or another organisation in certain circumstances.
• Withdraw consent where we rely on consent.
• Complain to a supervisory authority.

To exercise your rights, please contact us using the details above.

We may ask for proof of identity before responding. We will respond within the timescale required by applicable law, usually within one month, although this may be extended in certain circumstances where legally permitted.

Right to complain

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please contact us first so that we have the opportunity to address your concern.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK supervisory authority for data protection. Current details are available at https://ico.org.uk.

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, platforms or services. We do not control those third parties and are not responsible for their privacy practices. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of each website or service you visit.

This website and our services are not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe that a child has provided personal data to us, please contact us and we will take appropriate steps to remove it where required.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, technologies or services.

The most current version will be published on this website and will show the date it was last updated. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically.