Your data is yours and you decide who you share it with. The Geens platform starts from this premise and builds a platform “for good people” who don’t necessarily have anything to hide but respect their privacy. The approach also opens new doors for companies.

Ten years after Geens began developing, the platform is anything but dead. Founder Jaak Geens, after whom the platform is named, has made good use of the long silence. Working with partners like RSM, Geens.com has evolved into a solution with several unique benefits for businesses. The target of choice is organizations that need access to data from external companies or customers. Finally, Geens enables the secure and controlled exchange of data without ever having to hand over ownership.

It is not for nothing that the accounting specialist RSM was significantly involved in the further development of the platform. The company works with sensitive customer data and is responsible for it. RSM has the relevant experience and certificates, such as ISO26001. But how do you really prove to a customer that no one has gained unauthorized access to the data? Geens is trying to solve this problem.

European data vault

The Geens platform takes the form of a data vault where users can define detailed roles. Basically, you can compare the solution with another cloud service: As a user, you store your data on the platform, where it is hosted on external servers.

“We used European servers from the start,” says Geens. “All data is mirrored at three locations, with an additional backup somewhere in Switzerland.” Anyone who puts data on the platform via the app, for example, benefits from end-to-end encryption.

“Originally, Geens was actually an encrypted dropbox,” explains Geens. “But many features have been added since its launch.” User management, onboarding and collaboration features are currently the most important assets.

Detailed access rights

With RSM, a customer chooses what data they share on the platform. From there, RSM provides access to specific employees with defined roles. “Not every employee has the same task and needs to have access to the same data,” explains Mo Marrou from RSM. Access rights to data are easily limited to small teams or even exist at the level of individual employees.

Working with the Geens team, the platform received logging capabilities at RSM’s request. This allows organizations to not only provide targeted access to RSM, but also request detailed information about who viewed their data and when. “Access to the logs offers customers a lot of transparency,” says Marrou. “This is where the strength of the platform lies.”

Extensive user management drives the Geens platform and that, according to its founder, makes it unique. “You can never access other people’s data, but you can manage users in detail.”

Achilles heel

Users work with the data in the cloud platform via the browser. You can open files from there, but not all data will open on the platform itself. “Common formats open directly in the platform, but we will not create an Excel engine,” clarifies Geens. “You have to download a spreadsheet first and then upload it again if you want to change something.”

There is still a bit of an Achilles heel for us. Finally, the downloaded version is a copy that is no longer subject to the platform’s strictly controlled access policies. The owner of the data can of course see who downloaded the spreadsheet and when.

White label

Geens is ideal for organizations white labelSolution available. RSM has moved its core business there and is presenting customers with a platform under its own name. Each organization can then create so-called G-Nodes that contain specific data as desired.

You want to share some data with certain people and other data with others.

Jaak Geens, Geens.com

“People wear many hats,” explains Geens. “You want to share some data with certain people, other data with others. A personal safe allows you to store information you don’t want to share yet.”

Forms and automation

In the near future, Geens would like to expand the platform to include forms. “There are only a few large mold options on the market,” says Geens. “Among others, from Microsoft and Google. None of these solutions are end-to-end encrypted. We want to develop something European.”

The forms must be encrypted and available on the platform. This allows users to create professional forms where customers share sensitive data. Marrou: “Think about personal tax data, for example.”

In a next step, automation should also be possible. APIs for this are also being worked on. If an organization can collect important data via the Geens platform and forms, this can be partially processed automatically and securely in the next step.

enthusiasm

Marrou is very enthusiastic about the platform developed by Geens and his team. “The solution is very relevant for many customers. Companies in industries such as healthcare value the fact that they can exchange data in this way rather than having to do it via email, for example.”

The platform is now driving the digitalization of RSM. “For example, we already have a customized RPA bot for VAT returns,” Marrou continues. “His name is Ludo.”

Digital doodle

“The platform allows you to stand out as a company,” says Geens. “It is relevant in any context where you want to share data and trust is involved. It can solve many problems. And we are expanding the platform even further. We are currently working on a signature module with SmartID. This way you can not only share some documents, but also agree directly in the platform.”

Geens now wants to make the platform more public again. He believes his platform has unique advantages. The ability to share data granularly with detailed roles and profiles is rare in the market, especially in the context of a white label solution. Since data protection drives the project, it is also important that the entire platform is made in Europe. In this way, Geens can provide a counterweight to the predominantly American solutions.