Phiture secures Digitalprämie Berlin grant with the help of DataGuard

With an intelligent mix of technology and consultancy, Phiture and DataGuard are two companies succeeding in climbing the proverbial business ladders in their respective fields. The main difference? The core business of Phiture GmbH isn’t data privacy, but helping leading mobile apps to grow.

“Broadly speaking, we enable our international clients to grow the mobile side of their business and help them improve visibility and ranking in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Stores, increasing downloads and revenue in the process. To help us achieve this, we work with various third-party tools and build some of our own in-house. We also help our clients bolster their mobile CRM strategies to enrich interactions with their users, for example via push notifications, in order to draw attention to interesting content and enhance the user experience”, explains Nadja Nickl, Senior Office Manager at Phiture.

Data privacy is extremely important to Phiture, the Berlin-based consultancy founded in 2016.

“We regularly analyze entire app databases for our clients, which is why data privacy has been on our agenda right from the start. But in the early days shortly after the company was founded, there was nobody taking care of privacy as the main priority; nobody addressing the topic in a structured and strategic manner. As a result, in summer 2020, we decided to look for an external data protection partner.”

At the time, Phiture employed around 40 people. By the start of 2021, their team had doubled. Phiture’s app growth experts hail from over 30 countries, hardly any of whom speak German.

“As such, we were looking for a data privacy partner that was able to offer services entirely in English; a digitally-minded partner who thinks like us. Thanks to their hybrid approach using both a SaaS platform and in-person consulting, DataGuard met our requirements and stood out among the other prospective partners. Last, but not least, we were won over by DataGuard’s pricing model, whereby we receive clearly defined services at a monthly fixed rate with full transparency."

Above all, the DataGuard platform provides quantifiable, everyday advantages.

“Previously, all data privacy queries ended up on my desk,” says Nickl. “Now, the platform is the linchpin. Colleagues can find all their necessary to-dos, templates, documentation, and training courses easily and autonomously. And because we’ve decentralized, we can react to client queries and data privacy tasks much faster than before. It gives us a clear competitive edge.”

As a company that’s renowned for conducting audits for its clients, Phiture welcomed the opportunity to have its own internal security reviewed by external experts.

"When we started working together, DataGuard carried out a data privacy and IT security audit for us. We implemented the prioritized recommendations straight away to improve our IT security and secured ourselves the Digitalprämie Berlin grant. The city offers the grant to promote digital transformation within small and medium-sized enterprises. On the basis of the recommendations made by DataGuard, we applied for the award and implemented the suggested improvements, which led to the city-state of Berlin covering half the costs. Overall, it’s been a resounding success!"